What is the difference between class and prototype inheritance in JavaScript?

What is the difference between class and prototype inheritance in JavaScript?

Class inheritance is a syntactical sugar over prototype inheritance. In class inheritance, you define a class and create instances from it, while prototype inheritance allows objects to inherit directly from other objects.

Can you give me an example of each?

Sure! For class inheritance, you might have a class Animal and a subclass Dog. For prototype inheritance, you could create an object animal and then create dog that inherits from animal using Object.create(animal).

Which one is better to use?

It depends on the use case. Class inheritance is often easier to understand and use, especially for those coming from other OOP languages. Prototype inheritance offers more flexibility and is more powerful in certain scenarios.

Are there any performance differences?

Generally, there are no significant performance differences for most applications. However, prototype inheritance can be slightly faster in some cases due to its direct object linkage.