Microsoft® Visual Basic® 2010 Developer’s Handbook

Chapter 10. Class Inheritance and Polymorphism

In this chapter:
Reusing Classes Through Inheritance
Overriding Methods and Properties
Polymorphism
Abstract Classes and Virtual Procedures
Interfaces
The Built-In Members of the Object Type
Shadowing of Class Procedures
Special Form “Module” in Visual Basic
Singleton Classes and Self-Instantiating Classes

Reusing Classes Through Inheritance

Inheritance and reuse by extending classes is a central programming technique, one that the Microsoft .NET Framework itself uses frequently. You could go so far as to say that .NET wouldn’t make sense without class inheritance.

To be competitive as a developer and to be able to create applications that are reliable, maintainable, and have a long lifespan, it is ...