Class (computer programming)

In object-oriented programming, a class is an extensible program-code-template for creating objects.

(TO DO: expand, organize, illustrate, cross-reference.)

Description

Classes provide:

• Initial values for state (member variables)
• Implementations of behavior (member functions).

In many languages, the class name is used as the name for the class (the template itself), the name for the default constructor of the class (subroutine that creates objects), and as the type of objects generated by the type, and these distinct concepts are easily conflated.

Instance

When an object is created by a constructor of the class, the resulting object is called an instance of the class, and the member variables specific to the object are called instance variables, to contrast with the class variables shared across the class.

Compile-time versus runtime

With respect to compile-time versus runtime, classes differ by language.

• In some languages, classes are only a compile-time feature (new classes cannot be declared at runtime)
• In other languages classes are first-class citizens, and are generally themselves objects (typically of type Class or similar).
  • In these languages, a class that creates classes is called a metaclass.

See also

• Compile-time
• Computer program
• Computer programming
• Computer science
• Constructor
• Default constructor
• First-class citizen
• Object (computer science)
• Object-oriented programming
• Programming paradigm
• Runtime
• Structured programming
• Subroutine

External links

• Class (computer programming) @ Wikipedia