The Final Keyword

The final keyword plays a crucial role in defining classes and controlling inheritance hierarchies. It provides developers with a powerful mechanism to restrict certain aspects of class design.

The usage of final keyword

When a class is declared as final, it indicates that the class cannot be subclassed further. In other words, it serves as the end point of the inheritance hierarchy, disallowing from deriving it.

Example


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class Example final {
    // Class members and methods
};

//  cannot derive from final base Example
class ExtendedExample: public Example {
    // Class members and methods
};

int main() {}

This feature is especially valuable when you aim to restrict the modification or extension of a specific class, or when you prefer utilizing your class using composition rather than inheritance. There is also other benefits to using it.

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Section 4. Chapter 6

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Course Content

C++ OOP

1. Fundamentals of OOP in C++

2. Constructors and Destructors

3. Encapsulation Overview

Introduction to Encapsulation Access Modifiers Keywords Access Modifiers Practice Accessor and Mutator Methods Access and Mutator Practice Segmentation and Aggregation The Friend Keyword

4. Inheritance Overview

Introduction to Inheritance Access Modifiers in Inheritance Mulptiple Inheritance Constructor and Destructor in Inheritance Diamond Inheritance The Final Keyword

5. Polymorphism Overview

Introduction to Polymorphism Virtual and Override Keywords Pure Virtual Method Operator Overloading Summary and Overview