Back To Basics

Key Object Concepts

Objects are essentially a collection of structured data stored in memory. An object is based on a class that defines how to create an object.

In this section, I will describe the following concepts.

  • Classes
  • Class members
    • Properties and Fields
    • Methods
    • Events
  • Instances
  • Static Types
  • Interfaces
  • Message Passing

Because all these terms are interrelated, it is difficult to discuss one without mentioning the others. So be patient if I mention a term before I define it – I will get to the definition shortly.

Classes

A class is a definition for an object. It describes the attributes, such as properties, fields and methods (more on this later) of an object. It may also set default values and implementations for these attributes. Think of a class as a blueprint we can use to help us build an object. Generally, we work with classes only at design-time, defining the attributes appropriate for that class. In most cases, we do not work directly with classes while a program is running.

In C#, a class is defined with the following code

public class {} 

So to create a class named MyClass, we use the declaration:

public class MyClass{} 

Public Members

A class (and an object) exposes a finite set of publicly-exposed members. Members are methods, properties and fields (defined below). This public interface is how you interact with an object. An object may be capable of far more than what it exposes by its public interface, but these other capabilities are not seen directly by the outside world. Keeping object interfaces simple is one way that an object can help simplify a complex system.

Properties and Fields

Properties and fields describe static data associated with a class. In C#, fields are implemented with the following syntax:

public   = ,VALUE; 

as in the sample code below:

public string Color = “White”; 

You can access this property with syntax like the following

obj.Color = “Black”; 
string thisColor = obj.Color; 

A property is similar to a field, but a property provides a “Getter” and “Setter” – methods that run when you attempt access the value of a property. This allows a developer to add code that will automatically run whenever a field’s value is retrieved or assigned. This code might perform validation or calculate a value on the fly. The C# syntax for fields looks like the following

private string _color; 
public string Color 
  { 
  get 
    { 
    return _color: 
    } 
  set 
    { 
    _color = value; 
    } 
  }

 Beginning with C# 3.0, this syntax can be shortened to

public string Color{get; set; }

The syntax for working with a property is identical to that for working with a field.

Methods

A method is a discrete section of code that is associated with a class and therefore with an object. Some methods return a value; others just run code and return nothing. In C#, sample syntax for a method that returns nothing is shown below.

public void WriteSomething(string messageToWrite) 
{ 
Console.WriteLine (messageToWrite); 
}

To return a value, in place of “void” in the method declaration, we specify the data type returned. Below is an example. 

public Int32 AddNumber(Int32 num1, Int32 num2) 
{ 
Int32 sumOfNumbers = num1 + num2; 
return sumOfNumbers; 
}

We can call a method of an object with syntax like the following

obj1.WriteSomething(“Hello World”); 
Int32 sum = obj1.AddNumbers(2,2);

Instances

So far, we’ve been talking about objects without defining what an object is. An object is an instance of a class – it represents a specific set of data.

We said before that a class is like a blueprint. Think of an object as the house, machine or other device built from that blueprint. Methods, properties and fields defined in a class become methods, properties and fields in any object based on that class.

It is possible to produce more than one house from the same blueprint. Similarly, it is possible to create multiple objects from the same class.

To instantiate an object in C#, we use the following syntax

  = new ();

In the Methods sample above, assume the methods were defined in a class named MyMathClass. Before calling the object's methods, we would first instantiate the object like this:

MyMathClass obj1 = new MyMathClass();

Static Types

It is possible to instantiate a class without explicitly creating an instance of that class. You can do this if the class is defined as “static”, as in the following example.

It is possible to instantiate a class without explicitly creating an instance of that class. You can do this if the class is defined as “static”, as in the following example.

public static class Math
{
  public static Int32 MultiplyNumbers(Int32 num1, Int32 num2)
  {
    return num1 * num2;
  }
}

Call this method with the following syntax

Int32 product = Math.MultiplyNumbers(2, 4);

Notice that we did not need to explicitly instantiate an object of type Math.  For static classes, the .Net framework takes care of this for us.

Constructors

A constructor is a special type of method that runs when an object is first created. This is a good place to put initialization code for your object. In C#, a constructor is written by creating a method with the same name as the class.

public class MyClass 
{
   public MyClass()
   {
   // Initialization code goes here
   }
}

You may create constructors that accept parameters, such as in the following C# code

public class MyClass 
{
   public MyClass(string x, string y)
   {
      // Initialization code goes here
   }
}

Events

An event is a notification by an object that something has happened. This something might be user input, such as a mouse-click on a form or it can be something less tangible, such as a customer exceeding his credit limit. Other objects may or may not respond to these events. Generally the object raising an event does not know how it will be consumed.

Interfaces

An interface looks like a class in that it can have properties, fields and methods. The difference is that the properties and methods contain no implementation code. Interfaces are used only to define the public members of a class. A class implementing an interface inherits all the public members of that interface and it is up to the class to provide implementation.

Below is sample syntax for creating an interface

interace IPerson 
{ 
  string FirstName {get; set;} 
  string LastName {get; set;} 
  Order GetAllOrders(); 
}

Use code like the following to create a class that implements an interface

class Customer: IPerson 
{ 
  public string FirstName {get; set;} 
  public string LastName {get; set;} 
  public Order GetAllOrders() 
  { 
    Order ord = new Order(); 
    // Code omitted for brevity 
    return ord; 
  } 
} 

Message Passing

Objects communicate by passing messages. These messages can be primitive data types, such as strings and integers; they can be XML; or they can be other objects.  Generally speaking objects expose public members to accept these messages. This helps to simplify the communication between objects.

In this section, we learned the basics of objects, their definitions, their members and how to work with them. In the next section, we’ll introduce Object Oriented Programming constructs and how these concepts are implemented using objects.


Thanks to Chris Woodruff, who contributed to this article.