Object Oriented Programming

Introduction

The aim of this paper is to help the reader get familiar with the concepts of object oriented programming , syntax for demonstrations will be in Python.

Basic Concepts

Polymorphism: This concept can be broken down into two different categories, Run time polymorphism and Compile time polymorphism, However, The basic gist of the concept is that a function can behave differently given different circumstances, Python does not support compile time polymorphism. so we'll just look at some examples for run time polymorphism.

class Parent():
    def __init__(self):
        pass
    def show(self):
        print("This is parent class")

class Child(Parent):
    def __init__(self):
        pass
    def show(self):
        super().show()
        print("This is child class")


child=Child()
parent=Parent()
child.show()

• In the example above, The show method in the child class overrides the show method derived from the parent class. However, if you still wish to use the parent method, you can use the super() method as shown in the example. It instead invokes the overriden function.

Encapsulation: This is the idea of wrapping data and the methods that work on data within one unit. When you look at the definitions of Encapsulation and Data Hiding online, you might find a lot of redundancies for the explanations of these two concepts. We'll just talk about encapsulation here.

class getArea():
    def __init__(self):
        self.length=0
        self.breadth=0

    def set_sides(self,l,b):
        self.length=l
        self.breadth=b

    def get_area(self):
        return self.length*self.breadth

• The above snippet is a good example of encapsulation, bundling up all variables and functions inside a single unit.

Data Hiding: We talked about Encapsulation before, the gist of this concept is similar. This concept deals with the security of the software. Let me demonstrate with an example.

class User():
    def __init__(self):
        self.username="Utsav"
        self.password="xwru3"

• The example above demonstrates the dangers of not hiding data that needs to stay secret, since the username and password in the above snippet are public variables anyone can change them. Let me demonstrate a better way of doing this:

class User():
    def __init__(self):
        self.__username="Utsav"
        self.__password="xwru3"
    def change_password(self,new_password,old_password):
        if old_password!=self.__password:
            print("The password you entered is incorrect")
            return
        self.__password=new_password
        print("Password changed successfully")

• The code above demonstrates how you can increase security using private methods when needed. Now you can only change the password if you know your old password.

Abstraction: This is the concept of only displaying the essential details to the user.

from abc import ABC, abstractmethod   
class Car(ABC):   
    def mileage(self):   
        pass  

class Tesla(Car):   
    def mileage(self):   
        print("The mileage is 30kmph")   
class Suzuki(Car):   
    def mileage(self):   
        print("The mileage is 25kmph ")   
class Duster(Car):   
    def mileage(self):   
          print("The mileage is 24kmph ")   
class Renault(Car):   
    def mileage(self):   
        print("The mileage is 27kmph ")   

• The class Car above is a generic class with no implementation of its functions, its essentially a skeleton class that gives out the structure of the class.

Inheritance

Now lets talk about one of the most important concepts in OOP, inheriting different classes functionalities into your own class. There are a lot of different kinds of functionalities

Simple Inheritance: Simply inheriting a single class into your own.
Example:

class parent():
    def show():
        print("parent")
class child(parent):
    def showchild():
        print("child")

• This is a pretty straight forward example of inheritance, one class inheriting another class.

Multilevel Inheritance: You can layer inheritance as well, let me demonstrate:

class GrandParent():
    def show():
        print("This is the grandparent)
class Parent(GrandParent):
    def show():
        print("This is the parent")
class Child(Parent):
    def show():
        print("This is the child")

• See? you can chain inheritance as much as you want.

Hierarchical Inheritance: You can inherit a class multiple times:

class Dad():
    def show():
        print("this is dad")
class Son(Dad):
    def show():
        print("this is son")
class daughter(Dad):
    def show():
        print("this is daughter")

• Multiple children can inherit the same parent.

Multiple Inheritance: Kind of the opposite of Hierarchical Inheritance. Let me demonstrate:

class Dad():
    def show():
        print("this is dad")
class Mom():
    def show():
        print("This is mom")
class Child(Dad,Mom):
    def show():
        super().show()
        print("This is child")

• A child can inherit two classes, However you should be familiar with the Method Resolution order when you're working with this. The order is how you inherit the classes, here class X(Y,Z), Y will take precedence over Z in the order.

Static Variables

Python doesn't have a static keyword, but that doesn't mean we can't have static variables, the trick is to define the variable outside of any function, without using the self attribute, self is used to define instance variables.

class X():
    static_var=0
    def __init__(self):
        self.not_static_var=0

• Here, The static_var variable will behave just like a static variable in any other language.
• Static variables are the same for all objects, They belong to the class, if you change this variable in an object, the change will be reflected for all other objects.