What is the function of the 'super' keyword in a derived class?

The 'super' keyword in a derived class serves the specific purpose of allowing the derived class to access methods and properties from its parent class. This is particularly useful in scenarios where the derived class needs to extend or customize the behavior of the inherited methods. By using 'super', developers can call a method defined in the parent class instead of defining a completely new method in the derived class. This mechanism fosters code reusability and promotes the efficient use of inheritance in object-oriented programming.

For example, if a derived class has its own implementation of a method but still needs to utilize some functionality from the parent class, 'super' can be employed to call the parent class's method. This is essential for maintaining the behavior introduced in the parent class while also adding or modifying functionalities in the derived class.

This use of 'super' improves the clarity of the code, ensuring that the developer and future maintainers understand that the behavior is tying back to the parent class effectively.