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In software development, an object is an entity that has state, behavior, and identity.[1]:78 An object can model some part of reality or can be an invention of the design process whose collaborations with other such objects serve as the mechanisms that provide some higher-level behavior. Put another way, an object represents an individual, identifiable item, unit, or entity, either real or abstract, with a well-defined role in the problem domain.[1]:76

A programming language can be classified based on its support for objects. A language that provides an encapsulation construct for state, behavior, and identity is classified as object-based. If the language also provides polymorphism and inheritance it is classified as object-oriented. A language that supports creating an object from a class is classified as class-based. A language that supports object creation via a template object is classified as prototype-based.

The concept of object is used in many different software contexts, including:

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See also

  • Actor model – Model of concurrent computation
  • Business object – Entity within a multi-tiered software application
  • Object lifetime – Time period between the creation and destruction of an object-oriented programming instance
  • Object copying – Technique in object-oriented programming
  • Semantic Web – Extension of the Web to facilitate data exchange

References

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