HUYNH Cong Phap, PhD

hcphap@gmail.com, hcphap@dut.udn.vn

CS202: Programming Systems

Basic Object Oriented Concepts

Chapter 1

Session Objectives
Discuss the following:
The Object-Oriented approach Drawbacks of traditional programming Object-Oriented programming

Session Objectives (Contd.)

Methods Abstraction Inheritance Encapsulation Polymorphism

Discuss basic Object-Oriented concepts such as:

Objects Classes Properties

Compare Classes with Structures Describe Private and Public sections of Classes

Session Objectives (Contd.)

Define Member functions Use the Objects and Member functions of a Class
Define Objects Access Member Functions Pass and return Objects

The Object-Oriented approach

Can classify living beings as objects just as we classify things we use as objects of different types. Any application can be defined in terms of entities or objects so that the process replicates human thought process as closely as possible.

Discuss briefly the features of C++

Departments as objects in an organisation

Personnel Accounts

Traditional programming: Drawbacks

Unmanageable programs
Traditional programs: List of instructions written in a language that tells the computer to perform some actions. When programs become larger they become unmanageable.

Sales

People in each department control and operate on that department's data.

Functions/procedures/subroutines adopted to make programs more comprehensible. As programs grow larger and more complex, even use of functions can create problems.

Problems in modification of data

Data plays a crucial role in traditional programming techniques. Adding new data items means modifying all the tasks or functions that access the data.
As program size increases it is difficult to locate and to modify all functions which use the data

Difficulty in implementation
Focus of traditional programming approach: On implementation details. Focus of a persons thinking: In terms of things or entities, their properties and actions. OOP techniques help to correspond realworld entities and actions to functions and data at the programming level.

Restrict access to the data so that only a few critical functions act upon it.

Introduction to OOP
OOP allows for analysis and design of an application in terms of entities or objects. Process replicates the human thought process as closely as possible. Code and data are merged into a single indivisible thing -- an object. Close match between objects in the programming sense and objects in the real world.

Data and Functions of an Object

Data: Number of employees Salary statements Bills Vouchers Receipts Petty cash records Banking data Accounts Functions: Calculate salary Pay salary Pay bills Tally accounts Transact with banks

Objects
Represent an entity in the real world. A concept or thing with defined boundaries that is relevant to the problem we are dealing with. Objects serve two purposes:
They help to understand the real world They provide a practical basis for a computer application

Objects (Contd.)
Each object has its own properties or characteristics that describe what it is or does.
Vehicles in a traffic-monitoring application Menus The mouse and the keyboard A personnel file A table of marks relating to an examination Time Complex numbers

Different Objects
Name: Jack Age: 28 Weight: 65 kgs Actions: Walk Talk Sleep Model: Ferrari Colour: Red Year: 1995

Classes
Grouping of objects that have the same properties, common behaviour and common relationships. The term class is an abbreviation of class of objects.
Example, A class of persons, class of animals, class of processes.

Actions: Start Stop Accelerate

Each object is said to be an instance of its class.

Objects and Classes

Polygon objects Polygon class Properties: Vertices Border colour Fill colour Methods: Draw Erase Move

Property/Attribute
A characteristic required of an object or entity when represented in a class is called a property. A class is a prototype and not an actual specimen of the entity. Each instance of the class or object has its own value for each of its properties but it shares the property names or operations with other instances of the class.

Abstract into

Method
An action required of an object or entity when represented in a class is called a method.
In a polygon class "draw", "erase" and "move" are examples of the methods that are part of the class.

Method (Contd.)
Object is a "black box" which receives and sends messages.
What is the What is the salary of salary of Jack? Jack?

Sales

The black box actually contains code (sequences of computer instructions) and data (information which the instructions operates on). Information passed to and retrieved from each department either by inter-departmental memos or verbal instructions are the messages between objects. These messages can be translated to function calls in a program.

Jack's salary Jack's salary is $2000 is $2000

Accounts

Abstraction
Process of examining certain aspects of a problem. An abstract specification tells us what an object does independent of how it works.

Data Abstraction
Data Abstraction
Process of examining all the available information about an entity to identify information that is relevant to the application.

Used to identify properties and methods of each object as relevant to the application at hand. By grouping objects into classes, we are doing data abstraction of a problem. Common definitions are stored once per class rather than once per instance of the class. Methods can be written once for a class, so that all the objects in a class benefit from code reuse.

Inheritance
It is the property that allows the reuse of an existing class to build a new class. The superclass is the class from which another class inherits its behaviour. The class that inherits the properties and methods of another class is called the subclass.

Inheritance (Contd.)
Each subclass shares common properties with the class from which it is derived.
For example, all vehicles in a class may share similar properties of having wheels and a motor

Subclass may have its own particular characteristics.

For example, a bus may have seats for people, while trucks have space for carrying goods.

Class Animals and its subclasses

Encapsulation
Providing access to an object only through its messages, while keeping the details private is called information hiding. An equivalent buzzword is encapsulation.

Animals

Insects

Mammals

Reptiles

Amphibians

All communication to an object is done via messages. Messages define the interface to the object.

Encapsulation is the process that allows selective hiding of properties and methods in a class

Encapsulation (Contd.)
The advantage: a class can have many properties and methods but only some of these need to be exposed to the user. Ex. Company A have many methods and properties that are classified as private.
When company B deal with Company A, it does not interfere with the way in which Company A functions. Any information that Company B needs has to be strictly routed through proper channels.

Reusability
Object-oriented development allows:
Information to be shared within an application Reuse of designs and code on future projects

Programs are broken down into reusable objects. These objects can then be grouped together in different ways to form new programs. Inheritance also promotes reuse.

Felines and Subclasses

Felines Actions: Make sounds Eat/drink Hunt prey

Polymorphism
Polymorphism means that the same functions may behave differently on different classes. The existing object stays the same, and any changes made are only additions to it.
Actions: Roar Eat flesh Hunt big game

Cats

Actions: Mew Drink milk Hunt mice

Lions

Polymorphism
Subclasses Class: Shape Methods: Draw Move Initialise

Classes and Structures

A structure contains one or more data items (called members) which are grouped together as a single unit. Class consists of not only data elements but also functions, which operate on the data elements. All the variables and the functions declared in a class, whether in the public or private section, are the members of the class. In a structure all elements are public by default.

Polymorphism promotes encapsulation. The Draw method is implemented for different cases but how it is to be implemented need not be visible to the user.

Public and Private

Class members can be declared in the public or the private sections of a class. To prevent data from unrestricted access, the data members of a class are normally declared in the private section. The public part constitutes the interface to objects of the class. The data members and functions declared in the public section, can be accessed by any function in the outside world (outside of the class).

Private and Public (Contd.)

Class Private

Private data is not available outside the class to any program Also, private data of other classes is hidden and not available within the functions of this class.

Not accessible from outside class

Data or functions

Public

Accessible from outside class

Data or functions

Member functions
In C++, a function declared as a member of a class is called a member function.
Member functions are usually put in the public part of the class because they have to be called outside the class either in a program or in a function.

Member functions (Contd.)

Member functions can be more complex as they can have local variable, parameters etc. Should not have the same name as a data member.

Declaration of a member function must define its return value as well as the list of its arguments.
For example, the member function void setdate(int, int, int) has no return value or a void return value, and has three integer arguments.

Using the class

begin program class exampleclass{ private: object_data is an integer; // class data public: member_function1(parameter1, parameter2) {assign value to object_data} member_function2(){display data} }; // specify a class

Using the class (Contd.)

main program{ //define the objects of class exampleclass exampleclass object1,object2; //call member fn to assign value 200 //to object_data object1.member_function1(200); //call member function to display data object1.member_function2(); object2.member_function1(350); object2.member_function2(); }

Defining Objects
exampleclass object1,object2; defines two objects, object1 and object2, of class exampleclass. The definition actually creates objects that can be used by the program. When we define an object, space is set aside for it in memory.

Calling member functions

We communicate with objects by calling their member functions.
object1.member_function1(200); object1.member_function2();

A member function is always called to act on a specific object, not on the class in general. Associated with a specific object with the dot operator ( the period).

Calling member functions

The general syntax for accessing a member function of a class is class_object.function_member() The dot operator is called the class member operator.

Two objects with different values

object_data object_data object_data 200 200 object1

Specifications for exampleclass objects object_data 350 exampleclass class specifier

Objects of the class exampleclass

object2

Passing Objects
Objects can be passed to a function and returned back just like normal variables. The compiler creates another object as a formal variable in the called function. It copies all the data members from the actual object.
int function1(exampleclass obj1) {return object_data;} Formal argument

Passing Objects (Contd.)

The above function can be invoked using a function call such as,
int variable = object1.function1(object2); actual argument

When a member function is called, it is given access to the object of which the function is a member.

Returning Objects
A return statement in a function is considered to initialise a variable of the returned type.
exampleclass object3 = object1.function1(object2);

Object-Oriented Languages
C++ , Smalltalk , Eiffel, CLOS, Java Vary in their support of object-oriented concepts. No single language that matches all styles and meets all needs.

Passing and returning of objects is not very efficient since it involves passing and returning a copy of the data members.

An introduction to C++
Developed by Bjarne Stroustrup at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Derived from the C language. It is compatible with C (it is actually a superset). Most important elements added to C to create C++ are concerned with classes, objects and object-oriented programming.

An introduction to C++ (Contd.)

C++ programs are fast and efficient but it sacrifices some flexibility in order to remain efficient. C++ has become so popular that most new C compilers are actually C/C++ compilers.