CMP 6221

Computing for AI
Lecture – 8

(Based on Gaddis, T., Starting out with Python, Pearson Education)

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Object-Oriented Programming

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Procedural Programming

 Procedural programming: writing programs made of functions

that perform specific tasks

– Procedures typically operate on data items that are separate from the
procedures

– Data items commonly passed from one procedure to another

– Focus: to create procedures that operate on the program’s data

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Object-Oriented Programming

 Object-oriented programming: focused on creating objects

 Object:

– In reality: a tangible thing that we may touch, feel and manipulate

– In software development: a model of a tangible thing that contains

- data: to represent different characteristics of the tangible thing

- associate behaviors (methods): to manipulate the data of the tangible thing.

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Object-Oriented Programming? Why?

 Data Types in Python :

– Float, String, Integer
Good when used for procedural operation e.g.
– Value = 3.2 * 5

But how can a variable hold all data needed to represent a Customer,
Student or Bank Account.
– Using variables ?? E.g.

Customer = “email address = [email protected], address, city, Gender,

Credit card number, bank details, shopping basket, purchased items, ……etc.”

Student = [first name, last name, modules, degree, address, bank details, etc.]

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Procedural vs Object-Oriented Programming

 Find the area and perimeter of a thin rectangular plate

Passing data when

procedures are called

No need to pass data when

procedures are called on objects

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Object Oriented Programming – No restriction

 In OOP, everything is object.

 Objects are anything that you can give a noun too.
– Eg. TV, Lamp and glass of water.

 In reality objects are designed with the clear purpose, but

they are not limited in the way they can interact with one
another.
 For example,
– The lamp is used to provide sufficient light for reading a
book
– Use the glass of water to drink
– Dump the water on the book

 Interactions between the world’s objects are limited with

our imagination rather than the object limitations.

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Object Oriented Programming

 Object-oriented programming is
centered on creating objects rather Object
than procedures.
Attributes (data)

 Objects are a melding of data and

functions that manipulate that
data.

 Data in an object are known as

attributes.

 Functions in an object are known

as methods. Methods
(behaviors / procedures)

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Object Oriented Programming

 Object-oriented programming
combines data and behavior
via encapsulation. Object
 Data hiding is the ability of an Programming Attributes (data)
Interface typically private to this object
object to hide data from other
objects in the program.
 Only an objects methods
should be able to directly
manipulate its attributes.
 Other objects are allowed
manipulate an object’s Other
attributes via the object’s objects
methods.
 This indirect access is known
as a programming interface.
Methods
(behaviors / procedures)

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Object-Oriented Programming

 Data attributes: define the state of an object

– Example: clock object would have second, minute, and hour data
attributes
– Attributes are normally designed as private.
- In Python, prefix the attribute name with " " when implementing
the code: second, minute, hours

 Public methods: allow external code to manipulate the object

– Example: set_time, set_alarm_time

 Private methods: used for object’s inner operations

– Example: clock_internal_operation
– Same as private attribute, private function name starts with " "
CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.
Classes

 Class: code that specifies the data attributes and methods of a

particular type of object
– Similar to a blueprint/template of a house or a cookie cutter

 Instance: an object created according to a class definition

– Similar to a specific house built according to the blueprint or a specific
cookie
– There can be many instances of one class

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

OOP: Class Design

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Object Oriented Design and Programming

 Object Oriented Design

– Is a systematic process to think about how software systems are
composed of interacting objects
- identify the objects
- Identify attributes and methods of each object
- How the objects are connected to each other
– Output of object oriented design is an implementation specification

 Object Oriented Programming

– Is the process of converting the implementation specification into a working
program

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Object Oriented Design Specification

 Unified Modelling Language (UML) is a very popular language that is used

to specify object oriented design.
– It offers different types of diagrams to specify OOD.
– Classes (i.e. objects) of a software system and the relationships among the classes can
be described using UML class diagram
Q: What are the two diagrams have we learned in week 1 &2?
 In UML classes are represented as a box with three sections
– Top section displays the name of the class

– Middle section lists the data attributes

– Bottom section lists the methods of the class

– A minus (-) sign in front of an attribute (or method) signifies private attribute (or method)
– A plus (+) sign in front of an attribute (or method) signifies a public attribute (or method)
– Note. In UML diagram, no " " prefix should be used for private members.

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Object Oriented Design Specification

 When developing object oriented program, first goal is to identify

classes
– Typically involves identifying the real-world objects that are in the
problem
– Technique for identifying classes:
- Get written description of the problem domain
- Identify all nouns in the description, each of which is a potential class
- Refine the list to include only classes that are relevant to the problem

 To find out a class’s responsibilities look at the problem domain. A

classes responsibilities are:
– The things the class is responsible for knowing
- Identifying these helps identify the class’s data attributes
– The actions the class is responsible for doing
- Identifying these helps identify the class’s methods 

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Object Oriented Design Specification

Acustomer uses a bank ATM to check balance

of his/her bank account,
deposit funds, withdraw cash and/or transfer funds

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Object Oriented Design Specification (Example)

 Consider a Banking System.

– The most obvious objects would be i) Bank Account and ii) Customer
– Each customer should be connected to a bank account
– Identify attributes and methods for each object

– Use "void" to indicate the method has no return type.

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Class Definitions in Python

 Class definition: set of statements that define a class’s methods and data
attributes
– Format: begin with class ClassName:
- Convention: Start each word with a capital letter.

– Method definition like any other python function definition

- self parameter: required in every method in the class
- references the specific object that the method is working on
- Convention: Use a lowercase and separate words with underscores

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Class Definitions in Python

 Initialise method: automatically executed when an instance of the class is

created
– Format: def init (self):
- self parameter is required for every method
– Attributes are declared and initialised within the init method

– Note. Private attributes are prefixed with " "

 Class methods can have multiple parameters in addition to self
– Since both attributes are essential to a bank account, a common practice is to pass in
their values via the initialise method:

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Class definition in Python

 Check the implementation of the

below class diagram:

– The initialise method has been

added into the UML.
– It's known as constructor and
represented by the class name.
– In Python, it's implemented via
method init .

Let's save this class into L7_library.py

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.
Class Instance

 Classes can be stored in modules

– Filename for module must end in .py
– Module can be imported to programs that use the class

 To create a new instance of a class call the initialiser method

– Format: My_instance = Class_Name()

 To call any of the class methods using the created instance,

use dot notation
– Format: My_instance.method()
- Reference to self is passed automatically – different to a normal
function call

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Class Instance (Example)

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Class Instance (Example 2)

 We can also import the class like this:

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

 8.1 Exercise: Re-implement the calculator in a class
(15 minutes)
In-class
 The original task in Lab 4: Exercise

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

 Exercise 8.1: Identify the class, its attributes and
methods
In-class
 Our original solution: Exercise
– call: run_calculator() to start the application

Attributes
• None

Methods
• public
• add, subtract, multiply,
divide
• run_calculator
• display_menu
• get_input

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

 Exercise 8.2: Create a customer class
for the bank system In-class
Exercise
A customer uses a bank ATM to check balance
of his/her bank account,
deposit funds, withdraw cash and/or transfer funds.

 What attributes and methods?

– For init (), it should ask for both name and address and initialise the
private parameters.
– Let's save this class into L8_library.py

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

Essential information

 OOP design
– Object, attributes, methods

 Class diagram
– Annotation of attributes, methods, and datatypes
– Annotation of public and private

 How to create a class

– init method
– self parameter

 How to create an instance

– Import class from another module

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.

 Thank you!

CMP6221, School of CDT, Birmingham City University.