Introduction to the Object-oriented Approach

The fundamental idea behind an object-oriented language is to combine both data and the functions that operate on the data into a single unit. Such a unit is called an object.

Data members of an object can be accessed only by using the functions of the object. Therefore, the data is hidden and is safe from accidental alteration. Data and functions are stored into a single entity.

The functions of an object are called the member functions. These member functions are called method in other object-oriented languages like Small Talk.

Introduction to the Object-oriented Approach

Figure 10.1 shows the components of an object in C++.