My name is Nataliya Revutska, and I am an IT Academy mentor at SoftServe. The IT Academy is dedicated to training new specialists for our company, retraining existing employees, and providing intensive IT courses for those who want to start their careers in IT.
One of the topic I help students with is object-oriented programming (OOP), which is one of the essential development methodologies that future specialists should be familiar with. Understanding how these main OOP principles and concepts work will enable developers to create more efficient, structured, scalable, and robust programs.
WHAT ARE OBJECT ORIENTED PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
Object-oriented programming languages are a powerful tool that allows developers to create applications modeled on real-world objects. Using objects, classes, and data structures, developers can create robust, efficient, practical applications. Developers can create reusable and customizable programs by using best object oriented programming language such as Java, C++, and Python. By using these languages, developers can create more responsive and interactive applications, allowing users to have a more enjoyable and productive experience. Other popular OOP languages are Ruby, C#, and PHP.
BENEFITS OF OBJECT ORIENTED PROGRAMMING
Object Oriented Programming (OOP) has revolutionized the way we write software. From large-scale enterprise applications to small hobby projects, OOP provides a powerful and flexible approach to software development. It enables developers to think in terms of objects, classes, and methods, making code more intuitive and easier to maintain. OOP benefits developers to create efficient and reusable code, reducing development time and cost. Furthermore, OOP allows developers to add new features and functionality to existing code, making it an ideal choice for agile development. With its powerful features and flexibility, OOP has become an essential tool for modern software development.
FOUR PILLARS OF OOP
In the world of object-oriented programming (OOP), almost everything is considered an object. So what is an object in OOP? Objects contain data, referred to as attributes or properties, and methods. OOP allows objects to interact with each other using four basic principles: encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, and abstraction. These four OOP principles enable objects to communicate and collaborate to create powerful applications.
Encapsulation in object oriented programming
Encapsulation is a principle that seeks to hide the implementation details of objects from the outside world. It states that all important information is contained within the object; only selected data is available externally. Each object's inner workings and state are stored privately within the specified class, whereas other objects do not have access to it or the ability to make changes. Instead, they can only interact with a few public functions or methods. This form of data hiding provides program security and control over object state changes, reduces the risk of errors, and makes the program more understandable.
Inheritance in object oriented programming
Inheritance is a principle that enables developers to create new classes based on existing (parent) classes, with the option of overriding or augmenting their properties and methods. This is especially useful in programs containing thousands of lines of code, as it simplifies maintenance and prevents code duplication. By using the logic of the parent class in the child class, developers can create objects that share code or logic yet are different. This reduces the complexity of the code and eliminates the need to create a new object for each object used in the program.
Polymorphism in object oriented programming
Polymorphism is a principle that complements inheritance by allowing objects of different classes to perform actions with the same name using different code. For instance, the "show information" method can be used to display varied data about objects of the "car", "plane", or "ship" type. Furthermore, polymorphism helps to create more flexible and modular programs. Generally, it simplifies the development process as it allows for the creation of common methods and functions to be used for multiple types of objects.
Abstraction in object oriented programming
Abstraction helps you focus on a system's essential elements and ignore the less important details that have no effect on its key features. It allows you to construct more understandable programs. Abstraction can be thought of as an expansion of encapsulation. Take programs that contain thousands of lines of code as an example. Through the principle of abstraction, each object only reveals a specific mechanism for usage. Therefore, the code inside becomes largely independent of other objects. For instance, in a program that stores information about movies, you can create a class "Movie" that provides access to only the most essential details, such as title, release year, and genre, while hiding the less important information, like shots or technical aspects.
SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL USAGE OF OOP
To successfully develop programs using Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), it is important to adhere to the following recommendations:
- Aim for simplicity and efficiency when designing object-oriented code.
- Adhere to the SOLID principles to prevent problems and keep code flexible, maintainable, and easy to modify.
- Identify the classes needed and their relationships to ensure the program functions efficiently.
- Avoid over-utilizing imitation and understand when to apply it and when to opt for object composition instead.
- Employ abstraction to simplify understanding.
- Abide by programming standards and conventions to ensure code clarity and maintainability.
In summary, object-oriented programming is a powerful tool for solving complex programming problems. It enables developers to create lightweight, efficient, and robust solutions by breaking down problems into objects and manipulating them to achieve the desired outcome. As programming languages and technologies continue to evolve, the principles of object-oriented programming will remain an integral part of the development process.