Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that revolves around the concept of "objects," which are instances of classes. The five fundamental concepts of OOP are:
Encapsulation:
Encapsulation involves bundling the data (attributes) and the methods (functions) that operate on the data into a single unit known as a class. It helps in hiding the internal details of an object and exposing only what is necessary.
Inheritance:
Inheritance is a mechanism that allows a new class (subclass or derived class) to inherit properties and behaviors from an existing class (base class or superclass). This promotes code reuse and the creation of a hierarchy of classes.
Polymorphism:
Polymorphism allows objects of different classes to be treated as objects of a common base class. It enables a single interface to represent different types and allows methods to be implemented differently in derived classes. There are two types of polymorphism: compile-time (method overloading) and runtime (method overriding).
Abstraction:
Abstraction involves simplifying complex systems by modeling classes based on the essential properties and behaviors relevant to the problem at hand. It allows programmers to focus on the relevant features of an object while ignoring unnecessary details.
Association:
Association represents the relationships between classes. Objects from different classes can interact with each other, and association defines how these interactions occur. It can be a one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many relationship.