Part of the Programming glossary:

In object-oriented programming , a class is a template definition of the method s and variable s in a particular kind of object . Thus, an object is a specific instance of a class; it contains real values instead of variables.

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The class is one of the defining ideas of object-oriented programming. Among the important ideas about classes are:

  • A class can have subclasses that can inherit all or some of the characteristics of the class. In relation to each subclass, the class becomes the superclass.
  • Subclasses can also define their own methods and variables that are not part of their superclass.
  • The structure of a class and its subclasses is called the class hierarchy.

This was last updated in August 2005
Posted by: Margaret Rouse

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