What are the main features of object-oriented programming (OOP)?

The main features of object-oriented programming (OOP) are encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, and abstraction.

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that uses objects and classes as its core elements. It's a way of organising and structuring code that allows developers to create more flexible and efficient programs. The four main features of OOP are encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, and abstraction.

Encapsulation is the bundling of data, and the methods that operate on that data, into a single unit called an object. This feature of OOP allows for data hiding, as the data (attributes) of the object is hidden from the outside world, and can only be accessed through the methods of the object. This helps to prevent accidental modification of data and enhances security.

Inheritance is a feature that allows one class (the child class) to inherit the properties and methods of another class (the parent class). This promotes code reusability, as the child class can reuse the code of the parent class, and also add its own unique features. It also allows for hierarchical classification, which is a natural way of organising most things in the real world.

Polymorphism is a feature that allows one interface to be used for a general class of actions. This means that the exact method that gets called is determined at runtime, not at compile time. This provides flexibility, as it allows objects of different classes to be treated as objects of a common superclass.

Abstraction is a feature that allows complex real world problems to be simplified by modelling them in a way that captures only the relevant details. This is achieved by creating abstract classes and interfaces. An abstract class is a class that cannot be instantiated, but can be subclassed, and an interface is a collection of abstract methods (methods without a body).

These four features of OOP work together to provide a way of structuring code that is easy to understand, modify, and maintain. They also provide a way of modelling complex real world problems in a way that is closer to how humans naturally perceive them.

A-Level Computer Science Tutor Summary: In object-oriented programming (OOP), the big ideas are encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, and abstraction. Think of it like a toolkit for organising your code: encapsulation keeps data safe, inheritance lets you reuse and extend code, polymorphism makes your code more flexible by allowing different objects to respond to the same command, and abstraction simplifies complex ideas by focusing on the important bits.