What is the difference between classical inheritance and prototypal inheritance?

What is the difference between classical inheritance and prototypal inheritance?

Classical inheritance is based on classes and objects, while prototypal inheritance is based on prototypes. In classical inheritance, a class defines the structure and behavior of objects, and instances are created from this class. In contrast, prototypal inheritance allows objects to inherit directly from other objects.

Can you give me an example of each?

Sure! In classical inheritance, you might have a Vehicle class and a Car class that extends it. In prototypal inheritance, you could create a car object and then create another object myCar that inherits from car using Object.create(car).

Which one is better to use?

It depends on the use case. Classical inheritance can be more intuitive for those familiar with OOP, while prototypal inheritance offers more flexibility and is often simpler in JavaScript.

Are there any performance differences?

Yes, prototypal inheritance can be more efficient in terms of memory usage since it allows for shared properties and methods across instances without creating multiple copies.