OO Concepts: Objects and Classes

Atul Gupta

Real World Objects

Real World Objects

Have identity and are distinguishable

Share two characteristics

State
Behavior

Real World Objects

Vary in complexity

Brush
Desktop lamp
Desktop radio
Space shuttle

Real World Objects

Real World Objects

Some Object contains other Objects

Software Objects

Conceptually similar to real-world objects:

they too consist of state and related behavior

Software Object: Cycle

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class Bicycle {
int cadence = 0;
int speed = 0;
int gear = 1;
void changeCadence(int newValue) {
cadence = newValue;
}
void changeGear(int newValue) {
gear = newValue;
}
void speedUp(int increment) {
speed = speed + increment;
}
void applyBrakes(int decrement) {
speed = speed - decrement;
}
void printStates() {
System.out.println("cadence:"+cadence+" speed:"+speed+" gear:"+gear);
}
}

Software Objects

Advantages

Abstraction
Encapsulation (Modularity)
Information-hiding
Code re-use
Pluggability and debugging ease

Essence of an Object

OO technology stresses what an object is, rather then

how it is used
Use of an object

Depends of the application

Changes during development

Objects evolve and gradually stabilize than the way they

are used, and hence software system built on them are
more stable in the long run

Object-Oriented Concepts

Objects
Classes
Interfaces
Inheritance
Attributes
Methods
Encapsulation
Information Hiding, or
Visibility

Instances
Delegation
Polymorphism
Dynamic Binding
Aggregation
Association
Message Passing, or
interactions
Genericity

Class Modeling

Objects

The most fundamental entity in an OO Program

Defined by class data type
Consists of

Identifier
values
Behavior

Classes

A class is a pattern, a blue print, or a template for a

category of structurally identical entities
Created entities are called objects or instances

Class is like instance factory

Static entity

A class has three components

Name
Attributes (also termed as variables, fields, or properties)
Methods (also termed as operations, features, behavior,
functions)

Class

Class and Objects

b1:BankAccount
0001011
$11500

BankAccount
accountNumber
balance

b2:BankAccount
0000012
$2000

getBalance()
b3:BankAccount
0000202
$25000

Object Relationships

Association

Aggregation
Composition

Inheritance
Dependency

Next Lecture - Association

Summary

Object is the most fundamental entity in an OO System

A class is a factory of creating objects
A class is a non primitive data type
Objects may have relationships (among the same type or
different types)