Introduction to Object Oriented

Programming: The Basics

Definition(s)
• A method of programming based on a hierarchy of classes with well-
defined and cooperating objects.
• A language model organized around objects.
• A schematic paradigm for programming in which the linear
concepts of procedures and tasks are replaced by the concepts of
objects and message passing.

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Basic OOP Concepts and Terminology

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Object I
• An object is an executable copy of a class.
• It could also be referred to as an instance.
• Real-world objects share two characteristics:
• State
• Behavior

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Examples of Objects?
Example of real-world objects:
• Dog:
• State (name, color, breed, hungry)
• Behavior (barking, fetching, wagging tail)
• Any other examples of real-world objects with their states and
behaviours?
• Pen (State? Behaviour?)
• Car (State? Behaviour?)
• Oxygen (State? Behaviour?)

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Objects II
• Software objects are conceptually like real-world objects by too
consisting of state and related behavior.
• An object stores its state in fields and exposes its behavior
through methods.
• Methods operate on an object's internal state and serve as the
primary mechanism for object-to-object communication.

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Class
• A class is the blueprint from which individual objects are created.
• A class is a structure that defines the data and the methods to work
on that data.
class ClassName{
//state
//behaviours
}

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Package
• A package is a namespace that organizes a set of related classes and
interfaces.
• It is like different folders on our personal computer.
• Packages are important for organization; placing related classes and
interfaces into packages.
• The Java Platform API Specification contains the complete listing for
all packages, interfaces, classes, fields, and methods supplied by the
Java SE platform.

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Interface
• An interface is a group of related methods with empty bodies.
• Objects define their interaction with the outside world through the
methods that they expose.
• Methods form the object's interface with the outside world; e.g
remote buttons, computer keyboards, e.t.c.

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Fundamentals(Characteristics) of OOP
1. Encapsulation
2. Inheritance
3. Abstraction
4. Polymorphism
5. Message passing
6. Garbage collection
7. …

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Encapsulation
• This is a concept that enables the hiding unnecessary details in
classes and only providing a clear and simple interface for working
with them.
• It is also called information hiding.
• An object must provide its users only with the essential information
for manipulation, without the internal details.

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Inheritance
• Inheritance is a concept in OOP that enables new objects to take on
the properties of existing objects.
• A class that is used as the basis for inheritance is called a superclass
or base class.
• A class that inherits from a superclass is called a subclass or derived
class.
• Object-oriented programming allows classes to inherit commonly
used state and behavior from other classes.
• In Java, each class is allowed to have one direct superclass, and each
superclass has the potential for an unlimited number of subclasses
• Examples?
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Abstraction
• Abstraction is the process of extracting common features from
specific examples
• Abstraction is a process of defining the essential concepts while
ignoring the inessential details
• There are different types of abstraction:
• Data Abstraction
• Functional Abstraction
• Object Abstraction

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Polymorphism
• This is the ability to present the same interface for differing
underlying forms.
• There are two common types of polymorphism in OOP:
• Method overloading
• Method overriding

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Garbage Collection
• This is a form of automatic memory management whereby the
garbage collector attempts to reclaim garbage, or memory occupied
by objects that are no longer in use by the program.

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Variables
• A variable is a container that holds values that are used in a Java
program.
• To be able to use a variable it needs to be declared.
• The Java programming language defines the following kinds of
variables:
• Instance variables (non-static fields)
• Class variables (static fields)
• Local variables
• Parameters

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Instance Variables (Non-Static Fields)
• Objects store their individual states in "non-static fields", or fields
declared without the static keyword.
• Non-static fields are also known as instance variables because their
values are unique to each instance of a class (object)
• E.g., the different ages of new objects in a Registration system.

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Class Variables (Static Fields)
• A class variable is any field declared with the static modifier.
• There is exactly one copy of this variable in existence in a class
regardless of how many times the class has been instantiated.
• The key word static is usually used to indicate static variables.
• Examples?

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Local Variables
• These are variables that store temporary states.
• There is no special keyword designating a variable as local.
• Local variables are only visible to the methods in which they are
declared; they are not accessible from the rest of the class.

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Parameters
• These are variables found within the parenthesis of different structs
within a program.
• Examples of the structs where parameters are found include:
• Methods
• Constructors
•…

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 Java Variable Naming Rules
1. Variable names are case-sensitive.
2. A variable's name can be any legal identifier — an unlimited-length sequence of
Unicode letters and digits, beginning with a letter, the dollar sign "$", or the
underscore character "_".
3. Subsequent characters for a variable may be letters, digits, dollar signs, or
underscore characters.
4. When choosing a name for your variables, use full words instead of cryptic
abbreviations. Doing so will make your code easier to read and understand (self-
documentation)
5. Variable names consisting of more than one word should be named, e.g. carSpeed
or car_speed

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Primitive Data Types
• A variable's data type determines the values it may contain, plus the operations
that may be performed on it.
• A primitive type is predefined by the language and is named by a reserved
keyword
• The eight primitive data types supported by the Java programming language are:
• Byte
• Short
• Integer
• Long
• Float
• Double
• Boolean
• Character

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The editor…..NetBeans

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