OOP Tutorial (graphical notation)

If you have come from the OOP Concepts section, you will know how to make a list of potential objects and the methods employed to refine them.

If you do not know how to do this then please refer to OOP Concepts and look under objects, then class.

To draw a class diagram in Graphical Notation lets start of by looking at a class diagram, The first diagram is off PERSON Class. (The example from objects)

For those who have not viewed Objects, the private data structure called Person has the following attributes.

1. First name
2. Last name
3. Age
4. Weight

with the following methods or operations for The Person object:-

1. set_first_name
2. get_first_name
3. set_last_name
4. get_middle_name etc..

To draw this in Graphical Notation, look at the diagram below.

An upside down rectangle is drawn, on the top a box is drawn, this is where the class name goes.

All private data members of a class are placed inside the box but on the far left side.

On the right side of the diagram, operations are drawn inside boxes with parameters pointing either in or out, depending on what the operation is doing.

Click here to try Grapichal Notation Test

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RECOMMENDED BOOKS
For those wishing to learn more ways of representing class diagrams, take a look at the books mentioned below.

1. Object Oriented Analysis (1991) 2nd edition by Coad, P and Yourdon, E published by Prentice Hall.

2. Object Oriented Modelling and design (1991) by Rumbaugh, J and Blaha, M and Premerlani, W and Eddy, R and Lorensen, W. Publised by Prentice Hall

Author: Deniz Zubair Choudhury
Last Update: May 1999