Classes, Inheritance and Methods
Brief explanation of concepts of classes, inheritance and methods in object oriented programming
Classes
Classes are used to describe objects. They are the overarching description of an object. For example, cat is a class that is used to describe an actual cat. If you have an actual cat named Garfield then it is an object. In the object oriented programming paradigm, it is important that you understand the difference between a class and an object. As you go on doing programming tasks, you need to understand these concepts in order to make your programming easier and much more effective.
Inheritance
Some classes will have subclasses. For example, if you mention the class cat then there can be a subclass lion, tiger, or cheetah. Subclasses are said to inherit the traits of its mother class. In the VB .NET programming language, objects inherit the properties of its mother objects.
Methods
Now that you are familiar with the essence of objects in object oriented programming, you should now familiarize yourself with what objects can do. The ability of an object to do something or perform a task is said to be its method or methods. If the object Garfield is of class dog and subclass house cat then it may have methods such as eating and meowing. An object in the VB .NET programming language may have one or more methods that you can take advantage of while developing your applications.
You will eventually learn how to use the several tools at your disposal in the later chapters. Once you are familiar with the core concepts of the VB .NET programming language, it will be easier for you to take advantage of the limitless possibilities before you. You will be using a lot of objects later on so make sure that you know what they are.
