Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Composition over inheritance (or composite reuse principle) in object-oriented programming (OOP) is the principle that classes should favor polymorphic behavior and code reuse by their composition (by containing instances of other classes that implement the desired functionality) over inheritance from a base or parent class. [2]
Like Smalltalk, in Objective-C, the instance variables and methods are defined by an object's class. A class is an object, hence it is an instance of a metaclass. Like Smalltalk, in Objective-C, class methods are simply methods called on the class object, hence a class's class methods must be defined as instance methods in its metaclass.
The class A serves as a base class for the derived class B, which in turn serves as a base class for the derived class C. The class B is known as intermediate base class because it provides a link for the inheritance between A and C. The chain ABC is known as inheritance path. A derived class with multilevel inheritance is declared as follows:
UML notation for classes. A class contains data field descriptions (or properties, fields, data members, or attributes). These are usually field types and names that will be associated with state variables at program run time; these state variables either belong to the class or specific instances of the class.
The child inherits methods and attributes of the parent, allowing for shared functionality. For example, one might create a variable class Mammal with features such as eating, reproducing, etc.; then define a child class Cat that inherits those features without having to explicitly program them, while adding new features like chasing mice.
In class-based programming, inheritance is done by defining new classes as extensions of existing classes: the existing class is the parent class and the new class is the child class. If a child class has only one parent class, this is known as single inheritance , while if a child class can have more than one parent class, this is known as ...
Like a mixin, a trait provides additional behavior for the implementing class. In case of a naming collision between methods provided by different traits, the programmer must explicitly disambiguate which one of those methods will be used in the class; thus manually solving the diamond problem of multiple inheritance .
Class methods – belong to the class as a whole and have access to only class variables and inputs from the procedure call; Instance methods – belong to individual objects, and have access to instance variables for the specific object they are called on, inputs, and class variables