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Object Oriented Programming » History » Revision 19

Revision 18 (Amber Herold, 08/02/2011 01:56 PM) → Revision 19/21 (Amber Herold, 08/02/2011 04:43 PM)

h1. Object Oriented Programming 

 This page provides details of the major features of object oriented programming and definitions of terminology. 

 h2. Objects 

 * An _object_ often models a real-world thing - person, animal, shape, car  
 * Collection of _attributes_ and _behaviors_ 
 * Defined as a _class_ with _member variables_ and _methods_ 
 * An _instance_ of a class is an occurance of an object that has been created using the class _constructor_  
 * A class _constructor_ method is called automatically when a new instance of a class is created.  
 * A _destructor_ method is called automatically when an instance of a class is destroyed. 

 h2. Encapsulation 

 * Bundle data (attributes) with the methods that operate on the data 
 * Restrict access to the data using _access modifiers_ like _private_ (only accessable within self) and _protected_ (available to subclasses as well) 
 * Best Practices  
 ** Keep member variables private 
 ** Provide accessor functions to attributes when needed 
 ** Public methods provide an interface to the rest of the world, everthing else should be private 
 * Benefit: reduce complexity, increases robustness, by limiting the interdependencies between components. 

 h2. Inheritance 

 * Reuse code by basing an object on another object 
 * Terminology 
 ** Superclass, base class, parent class  
 ** Subclass, derived class, child class 
 * Examples 
 ** parent: Animal, children: Person, Cat, Fish 
 ** parent: MotorVehicle, children: Car, Truck, Bus, Tractor 
 ** parent: Shape, children: Ellipse, Rectangle, Triangle, Cone 
 * _Child classes_ inherit attributes and behaviors from _parent classes_ 
 * Child classes may _override_ behaviors inherited from parent classes by providing it's own implementation of a method. 
 * An _abstract method_ in a parent class does not have an implementation. Child classes MUST provide an implementation to be instantiated.  
 * An _abstract class_ has at least one abstract method and cannot be instantiated. 
 * A _virtual method_ in a parent class provides a default implementation that MAY be overriden by the child classes. 
 

 h2. Polymorphism Polymorhism 

 * Objects of different types (or classes) can be defined with the same interface and respond to method calls with the appropriate type-specific behavior. 
 * The exact type of the object is determined at run-time, so the program does not need to determine type in advance. 
 * Examples  
 ** Draw every shape in a collection of shapes. The collection has Rectangles and Triangles, both based on the Shape class, which has an abstract method called Draw(). 
 ** Make a collection of different animals talk. Code example shown below. 

 h2. PHP example 

 <pre> 
 interface IAnimal { 
     function getName(); 
     function talk(); 
 } 
 
 abstract class AnimalBase implements IAnimal { 
     protected $name; 
 
     public function __construct($name) { 
         $this->name = $name; 
     } 
 
     public function getName() { 
         return $this->name; 
     } 
 } 
 
 class Cat extends AnimalBase { 
     public function talk() { 
         return 'Meowww!'; 
     } 
 } 
 
 class Dog extends AnimalBase { 
     public function talk() { 
         return 'Woof! Woof!'; 
     } 
 } 
 
 $animals = array( 
     new Cat('Missy'), 
     new Cat('Mr. Mistoffelees'), 
     new Dog('Lassie') 
 ); 
 
 foreach ($animals as $animal) { 
     echo $animal->getName() . ': ' . $animal->talk(); 
 } 
 </pre> 

 h2. Python Example 

 <pre> 
 class Animal: 
     def __init__(self, name):      # Constructor of the class 
         self.name = name 
     def talk(self):                # Abstract method, defined by convention only 
         raise NotImplementedError("Subclass must implement abstract method") 
 
 class Cat(Animal): 
     def talk(self): 
         return 'Meow!' 
 
 class Dog(Animal): 
     def talk(self): 
         return 'Woof! Woof!' 
 
 animals = [Cat('Missy'), 
            Cat('Mr. Mistoffelees'), 
            Dog('Lassie')] 
 
 for animal in animals: 
     print animal.name + ': ' + animal.talk() 
 
 # prints the following: 
 # 
 # Missy: Meow! 
 # Mr. Mistoffelees: Meow! 
 # Lassie: Woof! Woof! 
 </pre>