Chapter 08 — Introduction to OOP

Level: beginner Estimated time: 6 h Prerequisites: Chapter 07 — Functions What you will be able to do by the end: write your own classes, create objects from those classes, read and modify their properties, call their methods, and make multiple objects interact with each other.

08.0 — Chapter Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

• explain why standalone variables and functions are no longer enough;
• define what a class is;
• define what an object is;
• explain the word "instance";
• declare a property (also called an attribute);
• declare a method;
• write your first class;
• instantiate an object;
• read the value of a property;
• modify the value of a property;
• call a method on an object;
• understand and use the this keyword;
• create multiple objects from the same class;
• store objects in a List;
• write a method that returns a value;
• write a method that accepts parameters;
• write a complete Player class;
• write a complete Enemy class;
• write a Product class outside the context of the game;
• make two objects interact;
• explain why a class is preferable to a Map.