Object Composition - Composite Types in C

Composite Types in C

This is an example of composition in C.

typedef struct { int age; char *name; enum { male, female } sex; } Person;

In this example, the primitive types int, char *, and enum {male, female} are combined to form the composite type of Person. Each object of type Person then "has an" age, name, and sex.

If a Person type were instead created by subtyping, it might be a subtype of Organism, and it could inherit some attributes from Organism (every organism has an age), while extending the definition of Organism with new attributes (not every organism has a gender, but every person does).

Read more about this topic:  Object Composition

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