Object Oriented Programming in Python

Introduction to OOP in Python

Yes, Python is an object-oriented programming language. It is an interpreted and high-level programming language for general programming requirements. It was designed and developed by Guido van Rossum and was first released in 1991. It has a dynamic type of discipline and is also strong. Its’ filename extensions are of different types such as .py, .pyc, .pyd, .pyo, .pyw, .pyz. It is object-oriented, functional, procedural, reflective, and imperative. It is being maintained and developed by Python Software Foundation. It was mainly influenced by the languages such as Coffee script, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Swift, and Groovy. It is also a multi-paradigm programming language. Its’ functional programming features were inspired by Lisp programming language. It also supports aspect-oriented programming.

Concepts of Object Oriented Programming in Python

The object-oriented programming model works by interacting and invoking the properties of different objects. It has concepts such as Classes, Objects, Polymorphic, Encapsulation, Inheritance, and Abstraction. The different features of Object Oriented Programming are as below:

1) Class

This blueprint of the object defines the fields or attributes and methods under which the real functionality lies within. These attributes and methods are called members, and these members can be accessed based on the defined access modifiers during the declaration of members.

2) Object

An object is called an instance of the Class, which can be declared and instantiated by calling the Class’s Constructor. An object will have a state, and the state will contain data that the class’s attributes will hold.

3) Inheritance

This is the third step in which the data will be visualized, cleaned, transformed, and exposed by reducing useless information and transforming it into important sets of information to obtain some valuable information from the existing data.

4) Polymorphism

Polymorphism is the process of performing a single task in different possible ways. Polymorphism can be achieved in two ways called method overloading and method overriding. Method overloading is also called Compile Time Polymorphism, whereas Method Overriding is also called Run Time Polymorphism.

5) Encapsulation

This is the process of encapsulating which means hiding or binding, or wrapping the code into a single unit or module, defined as Class. The encapsulation feature of object-oriented programming can be achieved by using class. An Object is said to be encapsulated as the members of the class are private (access modifier), which can be accessed only by using getters and setters methods in the class.

6) Abstraction

The object-oriented feature abstraction can be defined as the process of hiding the implementation of the functionalities by exposing only the required interfaces or accessing methods to invoke the ways of the Implementation class. The abstraction can be achieved in a programming language by defining an Interface or Abstract Class.

Comparison with other object oriented programming languages

The different other object-oriented programming languages include such as C++, Java, Objective C, Ruby, Smalltalk, Visual Basic.NET, Simula, JavaScript, etc., In Python, self is equivalent to this reference in Java programming language, which is used to refer to the object whereas this reference will be used in JavaScript programming language also. In Python, a class is used to define the Class, similar to the remaining object-oriented languages, too, such as JavaScript, to define a class as per ES6 (EcmaScript – A standard for JavaScript programming Language). The initial method which will be called while instantiating the object is __init__ whereas a default or declared Constructor will be called in the case of Java, whereas in the case of JavaScript, it is a prototype-based mechanism where the root or parent class object mechanism will be called or implemented as it has prototypal inheritance mechanism. Inheritance mechanism exists in Python, similar to other languages such as C++, Java, etc. Python usually takes more time than Java, which results in slower execution of the Python programs. It is easier to write programs in Python compared to other Object Oriented Programming Languages as the syntax is a bit easier and shorter to use in the programs. Python can also be integrated with other Object Oriented Programming Languages such as Java to develop applications in both languages that will benefit the functionalities. Both programs can be called within each other to execute the application.

Difference between Object Oriented and Non-Object Oriented Programming Languages

• The Object Oriented languages have powerful features to develop real-world scenario applications, whereas Non-Object Oriented languages, such as Procedural languages, have limited features to relate to real-time applications. Object Oriented Programming follows a bottom-up approach, whereas the Non-Object Oriented Programming model follows a top-down approach.
• Programming features will be divided into methods or objects where as Non-Object Oriented Programming defines functions as the piece of code to perform operations.
• Data hiding can be done in Object Oriented Programming whereas Data hiding is not possible in Non-Object Oriented Programming.
• Inheritance and Abstraction are the powerful features present in Object Oriented Programming, whereas these do not exist in Non-Object Oriented Programming.
• Operator Overloading is allowed in Object Oriented Programming, whereas not in Non-Object Oriented Programming. Examples of Non-Object Oriented Programming are Pascal, FORTRAN, etc.

Conclusion

The Object Oriented features of a programming language give a rich set of features for developing larger and more complex applications to enable and run the larger businesses in the current digital world with increasing data and customers. Python can be used to develop a web application by using a framework called Django which will provide most of the implementations to ease web development. Several other frameworks can be used along with Python to develop different applications for the additional scenario-based requirements. Python also has other features, such as Functional, procedural, reflective, imperative, etc., other than Object Oriented. Besides OOP, Python provides other functionalities such as Networking, Web frameworks, Graphical User Interfaces, Databases, Automation, etc.

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