What are the differences between classical and prototypal inheritance?

What are the main differences between classical and prototypal inheritance?

Classical inheritance is based on classes and objects, while prototypal inheritance is based on prototypes. In classical inheritance, you create a class and instantiate objects from it. In prototypal inheritance, objects can inherit directly from other objects.

Can you give me an example of each?

Sure! In classical inheritance, you might have a Car class and create Sedan and SUV classes that inherit from it. In prototypal inheritance, you could create a car object and then create sedan and suv objects that inherit from car.

Which one is more commonly used in JavaScript?

Prototypal inheritance is more commonly used in JavaScript, especially with the introduction of ES6 classes, which are syntactic sugar over prototypal inheritance.

Are there any performance differences between the two?

Yes, prototypal inheritance can be more memory efficient since objects can share methods and properties directly from their prototypes, while classical inheritance may create multiple instances of the same methods.