Understanding Classes Within Object Oriented Programming
To fully understand object oriented programming, you will want to be familiar with classes. When you look at the world around you, it will become obvious that many objects are the same type. For example, the car you drive is just one of the millions of cars that exist in the world.
In the OOP terminology, the car you drive is an instance of the class cars. Each car will have a state, and it will have behavior as well. However, the state and behavior of one car is not dependent on the state and behavior of other cars. An example of a behavior a car will have is braking, while the state of the car could be having four wheels.
In the object oriented programming, it is possible to have a large number of objects of the same type that have a number of identical attributes. An example of these objects could be video clips or rectangles. The advantage of processing objects which are the same type is that you can generate a diagram for them. This diagram is called a "class." So, the class is a diagram that contains the methods and variables which are related to a specific group of objects. For example, the class of a car would provide the variables that would allow all cars to have a state. In addition to this, the class would also provide information that is related to the methods that will allow changes to take place in the car.
Once the car class has been created, it will be possible for you to create a large number of car objects from this class. Once the instance of the car class has been created, it is the responsibility of the system to generate enough memory for the object and its variables. Every instance will be given a copy of the variables that have been created in the class. For example, MyCar and YourCar would be separate instances, but both would be part of the same class, which is cars. They will have values for the variables which will differ from each other. Not only can instance variables be created, but instances can be created for the class itself.
The class variable will hold information that will be held by every instance of a class. As an example, imagine if all cars have the same brake systems. In this situation, creating an instance variable to contain the brake systems is not effective. Every instance would need to have a separate copy of the variable, even though the value will be equal. In this situation, you will want to create a class variable that will hold the same brake system, and every instance will have this variable. When a single object alters the variable, this change will become evident in all the other objects. It is also possible for a class to define class methods.
Class method can be generated from a class, but you will need to generate an instance method on a specific instance. Objects have powerful advantages because they have modularity and the ability to hide information. Classes are powerful because they can be reused. Just a car companies use the same diagram to build cars multiple times, computer programmers will use an identical class multiple times to create a large number of objects. If you have read about objects, you may notice the similarities between them and classes. Many people who study object oriented programming become confused when dealing with classes and objects.
In the real world, the difference between classes and objects is obvious. For example, you can tell the difference between a car diagram and an actual car. However, when you are dealing with software, the differences aren’t always easy to spot.
One reason for this is because objects which exist in software are the electronic versions of objects that exist in the real world. In addition to this, the word "object" is often used to talk about a class or an instance. An object can be categorized under a large number of classes. While some of these classes may be specific, others could be more generalized. For example, a Bloodhound would be a specific dog class. However, it could be processed in a larger class such as scenthound, or a larger superclass like Canidae.
