Object-oriented programming

Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that enforces object-oriented design principles to solve software problems. As of LabVIEW 8.20, LabVIEW is an object-oriented programming language. In object-oriented programming, a class defines data with restricted access, and methods to work with that data. A client then creates an object - a specific instance of a class - to perform actions using methods that are exposed by the class. The implementation details are hidden from the client.

Because implementation details are hidden from the client, methods and data of a class can change without affecting any of the client's code. This can even happen at runtime by replacing one class with another of the same kind. Classes can inherit methods and data from a parent class to override methods of the parent class. The client can then use the child class as if it was the parent class, without changing any of the existing code. Methods called by the client will seamlessly execute the methods defined by the child class. If the child class doesn't override a method, the parent's method is called. This behavior is called dynamic dispatching in LabVIEW.

A parent class can change the access scope of a method to limit access to child classes (protected), friends (community) or nobody (private). Public methods are accessible by anyone.

See also

• LVClass
• G-sharp Framework
• GOOP
• Stephen Loftus-Mercer ACLA Summit 2019 Presentation on G Interfaces

External links

• Object-oriented design (Wikipedia)
• SOLID (Wikipedia)
• NI FAQ on Object Oriented Programming
• Introduction to Object Oriented Programming by Elijah Kerry
• Creating Classes
• When should you use classes