All object-based languages must contend with three core principals of object-oriented programming, often called the "pillars of object-oriented programming (OOP)":
• Encapsulation: How does this language hide an object’s internal implementation details and preserve data integrity?
• Inheritance: How does this language promote code reuse?
• Polymorphism: How does this language let you treat related objects in a similar way?
The Role of Encapsulation
The first pillar of OOP is called encapsulation. This trait boils down to the language’s ability to hide unnecessary implementation details from the object user.
For example, assume you are using a class named DatabaseReader, which has two primary methods: Open() and Close():
// This type encapsulates the details of opening and closing a database.
DatabaseReader dbReader = new DatabaseReader();
dbReader.Open(@"C:\MyCars.mdf");
// Do something with data file and close the file.
dbReader.Close();
The fictitious DatabaseReader class encapsulates the inner details of locating, loading, manipulating, and closing the data file. Object users love encapsulation, as this pillar of OOP keeps programming tasks simpler. There is no need to worry about the numerous lines of code that are working behind the scenes to carry out the work of the DatabaseReader class. All you do is create an instance and send the appropriate messages
Closely related to the notion of encapsulating programming logic is the idea of data hiding. Ideally, an object’s state data should be specified using the private (or possibly protected) keyword. In this way, the outside world must ask politely in order to change or obtain the underlying value. This is a good thing, as publicly declared data points can easily become corrupted (hopefully by accident rather than intent!). You will formally examine this aspect of encapsulation in just a bit.
The Role of Inheritance
The next pillar of OOP, inheritance, boils down to the language’s ability to allow you to build new class definitions based on existing class definitions.
In essence, inheritance allows you to extend the behavior of a base (or parent) class by inheriting core functionality into the derived subclass (also called a child class).
Figure below shows a simple example. You can read the diagram in Figure as "A Hexagon is-a Shape that is-an Object."
When you have classes related by this form of inheritance, you establish "is-a" relationships between types. The "is-a" relationship is termed classical inheritance.
Here, you can assume that Shape defines some number of members that are common to all
descendents. Given that the Hexagon class extends Shape, it inherits the core functionality defined by Shape and Object, as well as defines additional hexagon-related details of its own (whatever those may be).
There is another form of code reuse in the world of OOP: the containment/delegation model
(also known as the “has-a” relationship or aggregation). This form of reuse is not used to establish parent/child relationships. Rather, the “has-a” relationship allows one class to define a member variable of another class and expose its functionality (if required) to the object user indirectly.
For example, assume you are again modeling an automobile. You might want to express the
idea that a car “has-a” radio. It would be illogical to attempt to derive the Car class from a Radio, or vice versa (a Car “is-a” Radio? I think not!). Rather, you have two independent classes working together, where the Car class creates and exposes the Radio’s functionality:
class Radio
{
public void Power(bool turnOn)
{
Console.WriteLine("Radio on: {0}", turnOn);
}
}
class Car
{
// Car 'has-a' Radio
private Radio myRadio = new Radio();
public void TurnOnRadio(bool onOff)
{
// Delegate call to inner object.
myRadio.Power(onOff);
}
}
Notice that the object user has no clue that the Car class is making use of an inner Radio object.
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Call is forwarded to Radio internally.
Car viper = new Car();
viper.TurnOnRadio(false);
}
Difference Between Inherating a class and instantiating a class
When you inherit a class, you get the superclass attributes and methods that you can use without instantiating a superclass object. You can only use those which are public or protected.
If you instantiate them, you make an object and upon that object you call methods defined in the object's class.
When you inherit a class, base class from which a class is derived does not have state, behaviour or identity where as if you create an instance of a class, the base class sets it's identity, state, behaviour.
When you create an instance of an object, you can access the method of the class by using dot operator (.) but if you inherit a class, you can not access base class method by using dot operator.
Use Inheritance when you are sure that you need to extend few methods of the base class or need to add some more methods to it otherwise just create the instance of the class.
The Role of Polymorphism
The final pillar of OOP is polymorphism. This trait captures a language’s ability to treat related objects in a similar manner. Specifically, this tenant of an object-oriented language allows a base class to define a set of members (formally termed the polymorphic interface) that are available to all descendents. A class’s polymorphic interface is constructed using any number of virtual or abstract members.
In a nutshell, a virtual member is a member in a base class that defines a default implementation that may be changed (or more formally speaking, overridden) by a derived class. In contrast, an abstract method is a member in a base class that does not provide a default implementation, but does provide a signature. When a class derives from a base class defining an abstract method, it must be overridden by a derived type. In either case, when derived types override the members defined by a base class, they are essentially redefining how they respond to the same request.
To preview polymorphism, let’s provide some details behind the shapes hierarchy shown in
Figure. Assume that the Shape class has defined a virtual method named Draw() that takes no parameters. Given the fact that every shape needs to render itself in a unique manner, subclasses (such as Hexagon and Circle) are free to override this method to their own liking.
Once a polymorphic interface has been designed, you can begin to make various assumptions
in your code. For example, given that Hexagon and Circle derive from a common parent (Shape), an array of Shape types could contain anything deriving from this base class. Furthermore, given that Shape defines a polymorphic interface to all derived types (the Draw() method in this example), we can assume each member in the array has this functionality. Consider the following Main() method, which instructs an array of Shape-derived types to render themselves using the Draw() method:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Shape[] myShapes = new Shape[3];
myShapes[0] = new Hexagon();
myShapes[1] = new Circle();
myShapes[2] = new Hexagon();
foreach (Shape s in myShapes)
{
s.Draw();
}Console.ReadLine();
}
}
This wraps up our brisk overview of the pillars of OOP. Now that you have the theory in your mind, the remainder of this chapter explores further details of how encapsulation is handled under C#. The next chapter will tackle the details of inheritance and polymorphism.
