The 'is a' relationship is used with inheritance and 'has a' relationship is used with composition. Both composition and inheritance allow you to perform sub-objects inside your new class. Two of the main techniques for code reuse are object composition and class inheritance.

Inheritance is single-directional. For example man is a human. But human is not a man. Inheritance needs extends key word. Composition: is used when Man has an eye. It is incorrect to say man is an eye. Composition simply defines using instance variables that refer to other objects. The class man will have an instance variable, which refers to an eye object.

 Which one to favor, inheritance or composition? The guide is that inheritance could be only used when subclass 'is a' superclass.

1. Don't use inheritance just to get programming code reuse. If there is no 'is a' relationship then require composition for code reuse. Overuse of implementation inheritance will divide all the subclasses, if the superclass is changed.

2. Do not add inheritance just to get polymorphism. If there is no 'is a' relationship and all you need is polymorphism then use interface inheritance with composition, which provides you code reuse.