Unit-5
Class Modeling:
Objects
– The purpose of class modeling is to describe
objects.
– An object is a concept, abstraction or thing that has
meaning for a domain/application.
– Some objects have real world counterparts while
others are conceptual entities.
– The choice of objects depends on judgment and the
nature of problem.
– ِAll objects have identity and are distinguishable.
Classes
– An object is an instance – occurrence – of a
class
– ِ A class describes a group of objects with the same properties
(attributes), behavior (operations), kinds of relationships, and
semantics.
– The objects in a class share a common semantic purpose, above
and beyond the requirement of common attributes and behavior.
– By grouping objects onto classes we abstract a problem.
UML representation of
classes/objects:
• UML: Unified Modeling Language (OMG Standard):
O.O Visual Modeling language
• Class/object representation
Values and attributes
• Value : piece of data.
• Attribute: a named property of a class that describes
a value held by each object of the class.
– Attributes may be discovered by looking for adjectives or by
abstracting typical values.
– Don’t confuse values with objects:
• An attribute should describe values, not objects.
• Unlike objects, values lac identity
UML representation
Object identifiers
• Objects identifiers are implicit.
• Objects belonging to the same and having the same
attributes values may be different individual objects.
Operations and Methods
• An operation is a function or procedure that may be applied to
or by objects in a class.
• Each operation has a target object as an implicit parameter.
• All objects in a class share the same operations.
• The behavior of the operation depends on the class of its
target.
• The same operation may apply to many different classes. Such
an operation is POLYMORPHIC.
Operations and Methods
• A method is the implementation of an operation for
a class.
• A different piece of code may implement each
method.
• An operation may have arguments in addition to its
target object. These arguments may be placeholders
for values and/or for objects.
• When an operation has methods on several classes
these methods must have the same SIGNATURE:
number and types of arguments, type of result value.
UML representation
Links and Association concepts
• A link is a physical or conceptual connection among
objects.
• Most links relate two objects, but some links relate three
or more objects.
• A link is defined as a tuple, that is a list of objects.
• A link is an instance of an association.
• An association is a description of a group of links with
common structure and semantics.
• Association is denoted by a line. Its name is optional if
the model is unambigious.
Examples
• Associations are inherently bi-directional.
• The association name is usually read in a particular
direction but the binary association may be traversed in
either direction.
ِ A reference is an attribute in one object that refers to
another object.
Multiplicity
• It specifies the number of instances of one class that
may relate to a single instance of the associated class.
• UML diagrams explicitly list multiplicity at the end of
association lines.
• Intervals are used to express multiplicity:
– 1 (exactly one)
– 0..1 (zero or one)
– 1..* (one or more)
– 0..* (zero or more)
– 3..5 (three to five inclusive)
Association: ordering, bag, sequence
• On a ‘many” association end, sometimes, it is required
that objects have an explicit order.
• In this case the ordering is an inherent part of the
association
• Example:
Association class
• UML offers the ability to describe links of association with attributes
like any class.
• An association class is an association that is also a class.
Association class
• Examples:
Generalization/Inheritance
• Generalization is the relationship between a class (superclass)
and one or more variations of the class (subclasses).
• Generalization organizes classes by their similarities and their
differences, structuring the descriptions of objects.
• A superclass holds common attributes, attributes and
associations.
• The subclasses adds specific attributes, operations, and
associations. They inherit the features of their superclass.
• Often Generalization is called a “IS A” relationship
• Simple generalization organizes classes into a hierarchy.
• A subclass may override a superclass feature (attribute default
values, operation) by redefining a feature with the same
name.
• Never override the signature of methods.
Use of generalization
• Used for three purposes:
– Support of polymorphism:
• polymorphism increases the flexibility of software.
• Adding a new subclass and automatically inheriting superclass behavior.
– Structuring the description of objects:
• Forming a taxonomy (classification), organizing objects according to their
similarities. It is much more profound than modeling each class
individually and in isolation of other similar classes.
– Enabling code reuse:
• Reuse is more productive than repeatedly writing code from scratch.
