Copyright 2005 Department of Computer & Information Science

Object Oriented Concepts

Copyright 2005 Department of Computer & Information Science
Goals
Understand objects, their attributes
and their methods.
Understand the pillars of object-
oriented programming as
encapsulation, inheritance &
polymorphism.

Copyright 2005 Department of Computer & Information Science
OOP Concepts
Objects
Attributes
Methods
Events
Abstraction & Classes
Constructors

Copyright 2005 Department of Computer & Information Science
What is an object?
An object is a unique programming
entity that has attributes to describe
it (like adjectives in grammar) and
methods to retrieve/set attribute
values (like verbs in grammar).

Copyright 2005 Department of Computer & Information Science
Attributes
Programmers store an objects data in
attributes, also called properties.
Attributes provide us a way to
describe an object, similar to
adjectives in grammar.
We can read property values or
change properties, assigning values.

Copyright 2005 Department of Computer & Information Science
Methods
Whereas attributes describe an
object, methods allow us to access
object data. Methods are like verbs in
grammar.
We can manipulate object data,
stored in attributes, using methods.

Copyright 2005 Department of Computer & Information Science
Events
Object-oriented programming is
inherently tied to user interaction.
Programs record interaction in the
form of events.
Events are changes in an objects
environment to which it can react.

Copyright 2005 Department of Computer & Information Science
Abstraction
One of the chief advantages of
object-oriented programming is the
idea that programmers can essentially
focus on the big picture and ignore
specific details regarding the inner-
workings of an object. This concept is
called abstraction.

Copyright 2005 Department of Computer & Information Science
Classes
How do programmers get by
implementing abstraction? They use a
programming structure called a class.
A class presents a blueprint of an
object, its properties and its methods.

Copyright 2005 Department of Computer & Information Science
Instantiation
To create an object based on a class,
we create an instance of that class.
This process is called instantiation.
In Java, JavaScript and other
languages, we use a special method
called a constructor method to create
an instance of an object.

Copyright 2005 Department of Computer & Information Science
Encapsulation
Abstraction in OOP is closely related
to a concept called encapsulation.
Data and the ways to get at that data
are wrapped in a single package, a
class. The only way to access such
data is through that package. This
idea translates to information hiding.

Copyright 2005 Department of Computer & Information Science
Inheritance
Another of the main tenets of OOP is
inheritance. Inheritance allows
programmers to create new classes
from existing ones.
A child class inherits its properties
and attributes from its parents, which
programmers can change.

Copyright 2005 Department of Computer & Information Science
Polymorphism
Polymorphism describes how
programmers write methods to do
some general purpose function.
Different objects might perform
polymorphic methods differently.

Copyright 2005 Department of Computer & Information Science
Summary
Programming objects are comprised
of attributes and methods.
Classes provide programmers with
blueprints of objects.
To create an object from a class, we
use constructor methods to create a
class instance.