Java’s single inheritance limitation is usually not a problem in the normal course of development. In fact, the need to use multiple inheritance could be a sign of a bad design.

Java doesn’t support multiple inheritance through class extension, however. When viewing an inheritance hierarchy, you can easily detect multiple inheritance by the presence of a diamond pattern.

To quote Bjarne Stroustrup, "Multiple inheritance is like a parachute. Most of the time you don't need it, but when you do need it, you really need it." In the early days of C++, before templates ...

A method might accept a specific type and its subclasses, but you want to restrict usage to a select few implementations of your own design. Java's open inheritance model can feel like an open ...