Chapter – 1 Principles of Object- Oriented Programming July 23, 2010

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Chapter 1- Principles of OOP

1.1 A Look at Procedure Oriented Programming.
Conventional programming, using high level languages such as
COBOL,FORTRAN and C,is commonly known as procedure oriented
programming (POP). In the POP approach, the problem is viewed as a
sequence of things to be done such as reading,calculating and printing. A
number of functions are written to accomplish these tasks. The primary focus
is on functions. A typical structure for procedural programming is shown in
the fig 1.1. The technique of hierarchical decomposition has been used to
specify the tasks to be completed for solving a problem.

Main program

Function – 1 Function -2 Function – 3

Function - 4 Function -5

Function – 6

Function – 7 Function – 8

Fig – 1.1 Typical structure of procedure oriented programs

Procedure Oriented programming basically consists of writing a list of

instructions (or actions) for the computer to follow, and organizing these
instructions into groups known as functions. While concentrating on the
development of functions, very little attention is given to the data that are
being used by various functions. What happens to the data? How are they
affected by the functions that work on them?

DRAWBACKS:
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 In a multi-function program, many important data items are placed as

global so that they may be accessed by all the functions. Each
function may have its own local data. Global data are more vulnerable
to an inadvertent change by a function. In a large program it is very
difficult to identify what data is to be used by which function. In case
we need to revise an external data structure, we also need to revise all
functions that access the data. This provides an opportunity for bugs to
creep in.

 Another serious drawback is that it does not model real world problems
very well. This is because functions are action oriented and do not
really correspond to elements of the problem.

Some characteristics exhibited by procedure-oriented

programming are:

1) Emphasis is on doing things (algorithms).

2) Large programs are divided into smaller programs known as

functions.

3) Most of the functions share global data.

4) Data move openly around system from function to function.

5) Functions transform data from one form to another.

6) Employs top-down approach in program design.

1.2 Object - Oriented Programming Paradigm

The major motivating factor in the invention of object- oriented approach is
to remove some of the flaws encountered in the procedural approach. OOP
treats data as a critical element in the program development and does not
allow it to flow freely around the system. It ties data more closely to the
functions that operate on it, and protects it from accidental modification
from outside functions. OOP allows decomposition of a problem into a
number of entities called objects and then builds data and functions around
these objects. The data of an object can only be accessed by the functions
associated with that object. However functions of one object can access the
functions of other objects.

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Object A Object
B

Data Data

Object C
Function

Data
Functions

Communication Functio

Fig 1.2 The organization of data and functions in object – oriented programs

Some of the striking features of object – oriented programming are:

 Emphasis is on data rather than procedure.

 Programs are divided into what are known as objects.

 Data structures are designed such that they characterize the objects.

 Functions that operate on the data of an object are tied together in the
data structure.

 Data is hidden and cannot be accessed by functions.

 Objects may communicate with each other through functions.

 New data and functions can be easily added whenever necessary.

 Follows bottom-up approach in program design.

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Object oriented programming as an approach that provides a way of

modularizing programs by creating partitioned memory area for both data
and functions that can be used as templates for creating copies of such
modules on demand.

Thus an object is considered to be a partitioned area of computer memory

that stores data and set of operations that can access that data. Since
memory partitions are independent, the objects can be used in a variety of
different programs without modifications.

1.3 Basic Concepts of Object – Oriented

Programming
It is necessary to understand some of the concepts used extensively in
object – oriented programming. These include:

 Objects

 Classes

 Data abstraction and encapsulation

 Inheritance

 Polymorphism

 Dynamic binding

 Message passing

We shall discuss these concepts in some detail in the next section.

1.3.1 Objects
Objects are the basic run time entities in an object – oriented system. They
may represent a person, a place , a bank account, a table of data or any item
that the program has to handle. They may also represent user – defined data
such as vectors, time and lists. Programming problem is analyzed in terms of
objects and the nature of communication between them. Program objects
should be chosen such that they match closely with the real – world objects.
Objects take up space in the memory and have an associated address like a
record in Pascal or a structure in C.

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When a program is executed, the objects interact by sending messages to

each other. For example, If “customer” and “account” are two objects in a
program, then the customer object may send a message to account object
requesting for the bank balance. Each object contains data and code to
manipulate the data. Objects can interact without having to know each
others data or code. It is sufficient to know the type of messages accepted,
and the type of response returned by the objects.

Fig 1.3 Representation of an object

1.3.2 Classes
We just mentioned that objects can contain data, and code to manipulate
that data. The entire set of data and code of an object can be made a user –
defined data type with the help of a class. Infact objects are variables of the
type class. Once a class has been defined, we can create any number of
objects belonging to that class. Each object is associated with the data of
type class with which they are created. A class is thus a collection of objects
similar type. For example mango,apple, and orange are members of the
class fruit. Classes are user defined data types and behave like the built in
types of a programming language. The syntax used is no different than the
syntax used to create an integer object in C. If fruit has been defined as a
class, then the statement

fruit mango;

will create an object mango belonging to the class fruit.

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This is similar to the statement used in C:

int a;

1.3.4 Data Abstraction and Encapsulation

The wrapping up of data and functions into a single unit (called class) is
known as encapsulation.

Data encapsulation is the most striking feature of a class. The data is not
accessible to the outside world, and only those functions which are wrapped
in the class can access it. These functions provide the interface between the
object’s data and the program. This insulation of the data from direct access
by the program is called data hiding or information hiding.

Abstraction refers to the act of representing essential features without

including the background details or explanations. Classes use the concept of
abstraction and are defined as a list of abstract attributes such as size,
weight and cost, and functions to operate on these attributes. They
encapsulate all the essential properties of the objects that are to be created.
The attributes are sometimes called data members because they hold
information. The functions that operate on these data are sometimes called
methods or member functions.

Since the classes use the concept of data abstraction, they are known as
Abstract Data types (ADT).

1.3.5 Inheritance
Inheritance is the process by which objects of one class acquire the
properties of objects of another class. It supports the concept of hierarchial
classification. For example, the bird ‘robin’ is a part of the class ‘flying bird’
which is again a part of the class ‘bird’. The principle behind this sort of
division is that each derived class shares common characteristics with the
class from which it is derived as illustrated in fig 1.4.

In OOP, the concept of inheritance provides the idea of reusability. This

means that we can add additional features to an existing class without
modifying it. This is possible by deriving a new class from the existing one.

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The new class will have the combined features of both the classes. The real
appeal and power of the inheritance mechanism is that it allows the
programmer to reuse a class that is almost, but not exactly, what he wants,
and to tailor the class in such a way that it does not introduce any
undesirable side-effects into the rest of the classes.

Note that each sub-class defines only those features that are unique to it.
Without the use of classification, each class would explicitly include all its
features.

Fig 1.4 Property of Inheritance

1.3.6 Polymorphism
Polymorphism is another important OOP concept. Polymorphism, a greek
term means ability to take more than one form. An operation may exhibit
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different behaviors in different instances. The behavior depends upon the

types of data used in the operation. For example, consider the operation of
addition. For two numbers the operation will generate a sum. If the operands
are strings,then the operation would produce a third string by concatenation.
The process of making an operator to exhibit different behaviors in different
instances is known a operator overloading.

Fig 1.5 illustrates that a single function name can be used to handle different
number and different types of arguments. This is something similar to a
particular word having several different meanings depending on the context.
Using a single function name to perform different types of tasks is known as
function overloading.

Polymorphism plays an important role in allowing objects having different

internal structures to share the same external interface. This means that a
general class of operations may be accessed in the same manner even
though specific actions associated with each operation may differ.
Polymorphism is extensively used in implementing inheritance.

Shape

Draw ()

Circle object Box object Triangle object

Draw (circle) Fig 1.5 Draw

Polymorphism
(box) Draw (triangle)

1.3.7 Dynamic Binding

Binding refers to the linking of a procedure call to the code to be executed in
response to the call. Dynamic binding (also known as late binding) means
that the code associated with a given procedure call is not known until the
time of the call at rub-time. It is associated with polymorphism and

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inheritance. A function call associated with a polymorphic reference depends

on the dynamic type of that reference.

Consider the procedure “draw” in fig 1.5. By inheritance, every object will
have this procedure. Its algorithm is, however, unique to each object and so
the draw procedure will be redefined in each class that defines the object. At
run-time, the code matching the object under current reference will be
called.

1.3.8 Message passing

An object- oriented program consists of a set of objects that communicate
with each other. The process of programming in an object-oriented
language,therefore involves the following basic steps:

1. Creating classes that define objects and their behavior,

2. Creating objects from class definitions, and

3. Establishing communication among objects.

Objects communicate with one another by sending and receiving information

much the same way as people pass messages to one another. The concept
of message passing makes it easier to talk about building systems that
directly model or simulate their real-world counterparts.

A message for an object is a request for execution of a procedure, and

therefore will invoke a function (procedure) in the receiving object that
generates the desired result. Message passing involves specifying the name
of the function (message) and the information to be sent.

Example:

Employee.salary(name)

Object Information

Message

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1.4 Benefits of OOPs

 Through inheritance, we can eliminate redundant code and
extend the use of exiting classes.

 We can build programs from the standard working modules

that communicate with one another,rather than having to
start writing the code from scratch. This leads to saving of
development time and higher productivity.

 The principle of data hiding helps the programmer to build

secure programs that cannot be invaded by code in other
parts of the program.

 It is possible to have multiple instances of an object to co-

exist without any interference.

 It is possible to map objects in the problem domain to those

in the program.

 It is easy to partition the work in a project based on objects.

 It is easy to partition the work in a project based on objects.

 The data-centered design approach enables us to capture

more details of a model on implementable form.

 Object oriented systems can be easily upgraded from small to

large systems.

 Message passing techniques for communication between

objects makes the interface descriptions with external
systems much simpler.

 Software complexity can be easily managed.

1.5 Applications
The promising areas for application of OOP include:

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 Real-time systems

 Simulation and modeling

 Object oriented databases

 Hypertext, hypermedia and expertext

 AI and expert systems

 Neural networks and parallel programming

 Decision support and office automation systems

 CIM/CAM/CAD systems.

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