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articles/snippets/javascript-classical-vs-prototypal-inheritance.md

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+---
+title: How does JavaScript's prototypal inheritance differ from classical inheritance?
+shortTitle: Prototypal vs classical inheritance
+type: question
+tags: [javascript,object,class]
+author: chalarangelo
+cover: last-light
+excerpt: Understanding the difference between these two object-oriented programming paradigms is key to taking your skills to the next level.
+dateModified: 2021-11-21T05:00:00-04:00
+---
+
+### Object-oriented programming
+
+Both classical and prototypal inheritance are **object-oriented programming paradigms**. Objects in object-oriented programming are abstractions that encapsulate the properties of an entity. This is known as abstraction.
+
+When dealing with multiple levels of abstraction, each level is more general or more specific. The more general abstraction of a more specific abstraction is called a generalization.
+
+As mentioned previously, objects are abstraction of entities. We use either classes (classical inheritance) or prototypes (prototypal inheritance) to create generalizations of these objects. Generalizations are created by inheritance.
+
+Consider an example:
+
+- We have two objects representing two pets: Max the dog and Claire the cat. Let's call them `max` and `claire` respectively.
+- All dogs have common characteristics. Therefore we can create an abstraction, `Dog`, which encapsulates their common characteristics. We can use inheritance to pass characteristics from `Dog` to `max`.
+- The same applies for cats, allowing us to create an abstraction, `Cat`. Similarly, `claire` will inherit characteristics from `Cat`.
+- Cats and dogs share some common characteristics. We can create a generalization, `Animal`, to encapsulate those characteristics. `Dog` and `Cat` inherit these common characteristics from `Animal`.
+
+### Classical inheritance
+
+In classical object-oriented programming, there are two types of abstractions: objects and classes. An object is an abstractions of an entity, while a class is either an abstraction of an object or another class.
+
+If we were to model the previous example using classical inheritance, it would look something like this:
+
+```js
+class Animal { }
+
+class Dog extends Animal { }
+class Cat extends Animal { }
+
+const max = new Dog();
+max.name = 'Max';
+
+const claire = new Cat();
+claire.name = 'Claire';
+```
+
+### Prototypal inheritance
+
+In prototypal object-oriented programming, there's only one type of abstraction: objects. Objects are either abstractions of entities or other objects, in which case they're called prototypes. Hence a prototype is a generalization.
+
+Objects can be created out of nothing or from another object, which in turn becomes the prototype of the newly created object.
+
+If we were to model the previous example using prototypal inheritance, it would look something like this:
+
+```js
+const animal = {};
+
+const dog = Object.create(animal);
+const cat = Object.create(animal);
+
+const max = Object.create(dog);
+max.name = 'Max';
+
+const claire = Object.create(cat);
+claire.name = 'Claire';
+```