In computer science, the object lifetime (or life cycle) of an object in object-oriented programming is the time between an object's creation (also known as instantiation or construction) till the object is no longer used, and is destructed or freed.
In object-oriented programming (OOP), the meaning of creating objects is far more subtle than simple allocating of spaces for variables. First, this is because, in the OOP paradigm, the lifetime of each object tends to vary more widely than in the case in conventional programming. There are many subtle questions, including whether the object be considered alive in the process of creation, and concerning the order of calling initializing code. In some sense, the creation can happen before the beginning of the program when objects are placed in a global scope.
Read more about Object Lifetime: Creating Objects, Destroying Objects
Famous quotes containing the words object and/or lifetime:
“Let’s call something a rigid designator if in every possible world it designates the same object, a non-rigid or accidental designator if that is not the case. Of course we don’t require that the objects exist in all possible worlds.... When we think of a property as essential to an object we usually mean that it is true of that object in any case where it would have existed. A rigid designator of a necessary existent can be called strongly rigid.”
—Saul Kripke (b. 1940)
“Natural law is only whatever happens in your lifetime within fifty miles of you.”
—“Marcy.” As quoted in The Girl I Left Behind, Introduction, by Jane O’Reilly (1980)