The Four Principles of Object-Oriented Programming

It has been several days since we last met (or e-met) and I couldn’t wait to write another article. This is Jordan from SnapStack Solutions and this week I’ll talk about object-oriented programming, a much broader topic.

Quick reminder, last time we talked, we covered Apache’s technologies Spark, Hive, and Hadoop. I guess you already read it, but in case you didn’t, here’s a link to check it out.

Also, yesterday we posted an interview with our colleague Tomas. It’s a quick read and very interesting. Get to know him by following this link. He has some very fun stories to share, so make sure you don\’t miss them. 🙂

Anyways, as I mentioned previously, today I would like to bring OOP closer to you. At first, when you learn it, it seems pretty confusing, but once you get your hands on it, it becomes easy-peasy! Before I confuse you any further, let\’s jump into the basics.

So what exactly is Object-oriented Programming (OOP)?

Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm that uses the concept of classes and objects. Its main goal is to transform the structure of the software program into simple and reusable parts of code – classes used to create individual instances of objects.

Many popular programming languages are using this programming paradigm, those include JavaScript, Python, C#, Java, PHP, and many more.

To make it easier for understanding, let’s break it down this way. Simply, classes are abstract blueprints and they are the ones that create these particular objects. For example, classes can be these bigger unions like animals or bikes, and these define what attribute every object would have, like ‘rim size’ or ‘color’, but not the actual value of the particular objects.

Apart from that, you can also write functions inside the classes, also known as methods, that can be used only for those specific objects of that type. For instance, the class ‘bikes’ can have a method declared as ‘changeColor’ that will change the color of the bike. Of course, this is only applicable to this class, so that’s why the method is declared only here.

Just like any other topic I talk about, I’d like to be as objective as possible and bring you the main advantages of whatever I am writing about. The same goes with OOP.

Here are the advantages of Object-oriented programming:

– OOP transforms complex things into being reproducible
– OOP objects are reusable, hence, they can be used throughout different programs
– Uses class-specific behavior via polymorphism
– It’s not complex for debugging, as the classes have the entire needed information
– OOP is secure, as it helps in the protection of the information via encapsulation

I would try to explain how OOP can be used with a real-life example. Imagine running a bike shop and you need a program to keep track of all your bikes. As they are pretty similar to one another, and they have almost the same attributes, it would be a complete mess if we would write code for every single product.

This is where object-oriented programming comes in handy. Namely, it groups the related information together in order to make a class structure that shortens the code and makes it easier to maintain.

This is a quick guide of how we would organize the bike shop:

1. First, we need to create a parent class for all of our bikes that would pose as a blueprint of data and methods that all bikes would have, regardless of their type (road bike, mountain bike, full-suspension, etc.)
2. Next, we would create child classes that would contain all of the types I just mentioned, under the parent class.
3. To make a distinction between every child, we would add specific attributes and methods so we can point out the attributes that make them different from the others.
4 Finally, we would create objects from this child class that would contain all of those bikes that fit the subgroup.

To sum it up, look at it this way. OOP can be represented as building blocks, and the following ones are the most important:

– Classes,
– Objects,
– Methods,
– Attributes.

Also, I cannot finish this article before going through the four principles of object-oriented programming. These include inheritance, encapsulation, abstraction, and polymorphism.

Inheritance is all about reusability, or simply, when the child classes takes the data and methods from the parent class. In other words, the advantage of inheritance is that you define a more generic class, and then you go with as many sub-classes as you need.

Encapsulation means that we are keeping the information within the class, but only reveal the selected information. This principle needs some fields to be defined as private or public. To better understand this, imagine that with the private fields, behaviors can be accessed from other methods of the same class, and with the public fields, these methods are accessible from the outside of the class also.

Abstraction makes it easier for the user to work with only the selected behaviors, using simplified and high-level tools. It only allows the information to be shown through classes and modified by methods.

Polymorphism works in a way that by using the first principle, objects can override mutual parent methods. This principle gives us the opportunity to execute different methods in two ways: method overriding and method overloading.

In conclusion, object-oriented programming is very helpful when planning the entire project, as it makes you think about the entire scope and structure, in which way you will help yourself in further building your application.

The fact the uses reusable classes, helps in terms of far less written code and what is more important, reduces the complexity. In different words, implementing OOP will help you with the reusability, which will save you time in the long run.

I said it previously, OOP is used in many languages, and there isn\’t an industry that wouldn\’t benefit from it. In our team, we have many developers who are experts in their field, especially when it comes to these popular languages. They are ready for a new challenge, so if you are in a need of a specialist, that you know you can rely on, please let us know and we will be more than happy to help!

Until next time

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