What are the advantages and disadvantages of inheritance in C++?

Here are the pros and cons of inheritance in C++.

Advantages:

1. Code reuse: Inheritance allows a class to inherit the properties and methods of another class, enabling code reuse by extending existing classes.
2. Inheritance Hierarchy: Inheritance allows for the organization and maintenance of code by creating a hierarchy of classes, making the code more structured and easier to maintain.
3. Polymorphism: Inheritance allows overriding methods of the base class in derived classes, enabling polymorphism, which enables calling the correct method based on the actual type of the object.

Disadvantages:

1. Tightly coupled: Inheriting can result in a tightly coupled relationship between the base class and the derived class. If there are any modifications to the base class, it may affect all derived classes, increasing the coupling of the code.
2. Inheritance limitations: In C++, only single inheritance is supported, with a class only able to inherit from one base class, which restricts the flexibility of the code.
3. Complexity of multiple inheritance: Having multiple layers of inheritance can result in inheritance depths that make the code complex, difficult to understand, and maintain.
4. Potential security issue: Inheritance may allow derived classes to access private members of the base class, potentially compromising encapsulation and security.