Object-Oriented Class Design Flashcards
Keywords in object-oriented languages that set the accessibility of classes, methods, and other members. The two most common are private and public, where private limits access only to members of the class, and public grants open access.
Access Modifier
Method in Java that allows and controls access to private data of objects.
Accessor Method
A process in class definition that acts on the data that belongs to that class.
Class Method
A variable that belongs to the class, and is not specific to any particular object, indicated by the word “static,” of which only a single copy exists, regardless of how many instances of the class exist.
Class Variable
The process of instantiating (bringing into existence) an object based on a class definition.
Construct
A method in a class definition whose sole responsibility is to construct a new object. Classes have many versions of these, a key feature of polymorphism.
Constructor
For variables in a class, this is a value that is automatically assigned, like zero for numeric variables, null for objects, false for Boolean.
Default
This is the constructor either supplied by the compiler where all instance variables received default values, or one defined explicitly in the class that receives no parameters and assigns beginning values for each instance variable.
Default Constructor
In a programming project, this is the class that contains the method where program execution begins, such as the main method in Java.
Driver Class
A member of its enclosing class. Non-state inner classes have access to other members of the enclosing class, even if they are declared private.
Nested Class
The Java reserved word that instantiates an object.
New
The name of the Java class that is the “mother” of all objects. All other Java class automatically inherit this class at the top-level parent class in the hierarchy. This class provides basic methods such as the toString, hasCode, and equals methods.
Object Class
This is the super class in a class hierarchy inheritance system. In Java, the Object class is the ultimate version of this class.
Parent Class
Methods that belong to the String class that act on the string, such as length(), substring(), indexOf(), charAt(), etc.
String Methods
An object in programming that references a String.
String Object