Object (computer science)

In computer science, an object can be a variable, a data structure, or a function or a method, and as such, is a location in memory having a value and possibly referenced by an identifier.

In the class-based object-oriented programming paradigm, "object" refers to a particular instance of a class where the object can be a combination of variables, functions, and data structures.

In relational database management, an object can be a table or column, or an association between data and a database entity (such as relating a person's age to a specific person).

An important distinction in programming languages is the difference between an object-oriented language and an object-based language. A language is usually considered object-based if it includes the basic capabilities for an object: identity, properties, and attributes. A language is considered object-oriented if it is object-based and also has the capability of polymorphism and inheritance. Polymorphism refers to the ability to overload the name of a function with multiple behaviors based on which object(s) are passed to it. Conventional message passing discriminates only on the first object and considers that to be "sending a message" to that object. However, some OOP languages such as Flavors and the Common Lisp Object System (CLOS) enable discriminating on more than the first parameter of the function. Inheritance is the ability to subclass an object class, to create a new class that is a subclass of an existing one and inherits all the data constraints and behaviors of its parents but also adds new and/or changes one or more of them.

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