Fundamentals of object-oriented programming

Fundamentals of object-oriented programming

1. Class

   • Defines the abstract characteristics of a thing (object), including the thing's characteristics (its attributes, fields or properties) and the thing's behaviors (the "things it can do", or methods, operations or features). One might say that a class is a blueprint or factory that describes the nature of something.

2. Object

   • A particular instance of a class. The class of Dog defines all possible dogs by listing the characteristics and behaviors they can have; the object Lassie is one particular dog, with particular versions of the characteristics.

3. Method

   • An object's abilities. Lassie, being a Dog, has the ability to bark. So bark() is one of Lassie's methods. She may have other methods as well, for example sit() or eat() or walk().

4. Inheritance

   • ‘Subclasses’ are more specialized versions of a class, which inherit attributes and behaviors from their parent classes, and can introduce their own.

5. Encapsulation

   • Encapsulation conceals the functional details of a class from objects that send messages to it.

6. Polymorphism

   • Polymorphism allows you to treat derived class members just like their parent class' members. More precisely, Polymorphism in object-oriented programming is the ability of objects belonging to different data types to respond to method calls of methods of the same name, each one according to an appropriate type-specific behavior.

7. Attributes

   • Attributes are individual things that differentiate one class of objects from others and determine the appearance, state, and other qualities of the class.