IS-A and HAS-A

Perfect, this one's very common in interviews πŸ‘‡


πŸ”— IS-A Relationship

  • Means inheritance

  • One class is a type of another class

Example:

class Animal:
    pass

class Dog(Animal):
    pass
  • Dog is-a Animal βœ…

  • Relationship: Subclass β†’ Superclass


πŸ“¦ HAS-A Relationship

  • Means composition or containment

  • One class has an instance of another class

Example:

class Engine:
    pass

class Car:
    def __init__(self):
        self.engine = Engine()
  • Car has-a Engine βœ…

  • Used to build complex systems by combining classes


🎯 Summary

Type

Meaning

Keyword

Example

IS-A

Inheritance

class B(A)

Dog is-a Animal

HAS-A

Composition

self.obj =

Car has-a Engine

Beautiful question Maham 🌷
This connects directly to what you've just learned!


🧾 "is-a" vs "has-a"

  • is-a πŸ‘‰ comes from Inheritance

  • has-a πŸ‘‰ comes from Association, Aggregation, or Composition


🏦 Bank Style Example:

1. is-a Relationship

Means β†’ one class is a type of another class

class BankAccount:
    pass

class SavingsAccount(BankAccount):
    pass
  • Here: SavingsAccount is-a BankAccount

  • Because it inherits from BankAccount

πŸ‘‰ Used to reuse logic and apply OOP principles


2. has-a Relationship

Means β†’ one class owns or uses another class
(but doesn’t inherit from it)

class Account:
    pass

class Customer:
    def __init__(self, account):  # or create inside (composition)
        self.account = account
  • Here: Customer has-a Account

Now, depending how you pass or create the object:

Style

Meaning

Belongs to

Association

uses temporarily (in method)

has-a

Aggregation

owns but separate lifecycle

has-a

Composition

owns + tightly connected

has-a


🎯 Summary

Concept

Relation Type

Keyword

Inheritance

is-a

extends

Association

has-a

uses

Aggregation

has-a

owns

Composition

has-a

owns (strongly)

Let me know if you want this in a cute diagram-style later 🧠✨

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