16.1. Object Orientation in C#: Object Orientation Concept

Object Orientation in C#: Concept of Object Orientation

Object orientation is a programming technique that involves creating custom data types, called classes, that are used to model real-world objects. Classes define the properties and behaviors that an object type can have, and objects are instances of these classes. Object orientation is a fundamental concept in C#, which is an object-oriented programming language.

Classes and Objects

A class is a definition of a type of object. It defines what properties and methods an object of this type can have. For example, you might have a class called "Car", which has properties like "Make", "Model", "Year" and methods like "On", "Off", "Accelerate" and "Brake".

An object is an instance of a class. For example, you can create an object of the "Car" class and assign specific values ​​to its properties, such as "Brand = Ford", "Model = Mustang", "Year = 2020". You can also call its methods to perform actions, such as "Power on", "Speed ​​up", etc.

Inheritance

Inheritance is a key concept in object orientation that allows one class to inherit properties and methods from another class. The class that is inherited is called the base class, and the class that inherits is called the derived class. Inheritance allows you to create classes that are specializations of other classes.

For example, you might have a base class "Animal" with properties like "Name", "Age" and methods like "Eat", "Sleep". Then, you can create derived classes like "Dog" and "Cat" that inherit these properties and methods and add their own specific properties and methods.

Encapsulation

Encapsulation is another key object-oriented concept that involves hiding the internal details of a class and exposing only what is necessary. This is done through the use of access modifiers, which determine which parts of a class can be accessed from outside the class.

Access modifiers in C# include "public", "private", "protected" and "internal". For example, you might have an "Age" property in a "Person" class that is private, meaning it can only be accessed within the "Person" class. To allow other code to get or set age, you can provide public methods "GetAge" and "SetAge".

Polymorphism

Polymorphism is a concept that allows an object to be treated as an instance of its base class, its derived class, or any class in its inheritance hierarchy. This allows you to write code that can work with objects of many different types, as long as they are derived from the same base class.

For example, if you have a base class "Animal" and derived classes "Dog" and "Cat", you can write a method that accepts a parameter of type "Animal" and that can work with objects of type "Dog ", "Cat" or any other type that is derived from "Animal".

Conclusion

Object orientation is a fundamental concept in C# and many other programming languages. It allows you to model real-world objects, inherit behaviors and properties, encapsulate internal details, and write code that can work with many different types of objects. Learning and understanding object orientation is essential to becoming an effective C# programmer.

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