OOP glossary: Apprentice level
20 OOP terms at the Apprentice level, each with a short definition and a link to its full page.
Updated
- Abstract
- A class or function that must be overridden.
- Access Modifier
- A keyword that defines what other code is allowed to see or execute this code.
- Base Class
- The class that other classes inherit from; it holds what they share.
- Child Class
- Another name for a derived class: a class that inherits from a parent class.
- Derived Class
- A class that inherits from another class and can add to it.
- Encapsulation
- Keeping an object's data private so it can only change through the object's own methods.
- Getter
- A method or property part that reads a value from an object.
- Inheritance
- Letting a class reuse and extend the data and methods of another class.
- Instance Member
- Data or a method that belongs to each individual object.
- Method Overloading
- Several methods with the same name but different parameters.
- Method Overriding
- A child class replacing an inherited method with its own version.
- Object Identity
- Every object is its own separate thing, even if its data matches another object.
- Parent Class
- Another name for a base class: the class a child class inherits from.
- Polymorphism
- Different objects responding to the same method call in their own way.
- Private
- An access level that hides the member from all code outside its own class.
- Protected
- An access level visible to the class itself and its child classes only.
- Public
- An access level that lets any code use the member.
- Setter
- A method or property part that changes a value, often checking it first.
- Static Member
- Data or a method that belongs to the class itself, shared by all objects.
- this / self
- The keyword a method uses to refer to the object it was called on.