Object Oriented Programming (OOP)

In this chapter we are going to learn how to use the Object-Oriented programming paradigm inside the Ring programming language.

We will learn about

• Classes and Objects
• Access Objects Using Braces
• Composition
• Setter and Getter
• Private Attributes and Methods
• Operator Overloading
• Inheritance
• Dynamic Attributes
• Packages
• Printing Objects
• Find() and List of Objects
• Sort() and List of Objects
• Using Self.Attribute and Self.Method()
• Using This.Attribute and This.Method()

Classes and Objects

We can define new classes using the next syntax

Syntax:

Class <Class Name> [From|<|: <Parent Class Name>]
        [Attributes]
        [Methods]
        [Private
          [Attributes]
          [Methods]
        ]

And we can create objects using the next syntax

Syntax:

New <Object Name> [ (init method parameters) ] |
                  [ { access object data and methods } ]   ---> Object

Example:

New point { x=10  y=20  z=30  print() }
Class Point x y z func print see x + nl + y + nl + z + nl

Note

We can use { } to access object data and methods.

Tip

we can declare the class attributes directly after the class name.

Output:

10
20
30

We can rewrite the same program in another style

New point                       # create new object using the point class
{                               # access the new object attributes and methods
        x = 10                  # set the x attribute to 10
        y = 20                  # set the y attribute to 20
        z = 30                  # set the z attribute to 30
        print()                 # call the print method
}                               # end of object access


Class Point                     # define the Point class
        x y z                   # the class contains three attributes x, y & z
        func print              # define the print method
                see x + nl +    # print the x attribute
                    y + nl +    # print the y attribute
                    z + nl      # print the z attribute

Also we can write the same program in another way

P1 = New Point
P1.x = 10
P1.y = 20
P1.z = 30
P1.Print()
Class Point x y z func print see x + nl + y + nl + z + nl

Note

we can use the dot operator after the object name to access object members.

Also we can write the same program in another way

new point { print() }
Class Point
        x = 10  y = 20  z = 30
        func print see x + nl + y + nl + z + nl

Note

we can set the default values for the class attributes when we declare them.

Also we can write the same program in another way

new point(10,20,30)
Class Point
        x y z
        func init p1,p2,p3 x=p1 y=p2 z=p3 print()
        func print see x + nl + y + nl + z + nl

Note

we can call the init method directly using () when we create new objects

Also we can write the same program in another way

new point( [ :x = 10 , :y = 20 , :z = 30 ] )
Class Point x y z
      func init aPara x = aPara[:x] y = aPara[:y] z = aPara[:z] print()
      func print see x + nl + y + nl + z + nl

Tip

using Hash for passing method parameters enable us to create optional parameters and change the order of parameters when adding them to the Hash.

Access Objects Using Braces

We can access the object at any time using braces { }

Inside the braces we can use the object attributes and methods directly

This can be done when we create the object using the New keyword or at any time using the next syntax

ObjectName { access object data and methods }

Example:

See "Creating the Object" + nl
o1 = new Point
See "Using the Object" + nl
o1 {
        x=5
        y=15
        z=25
        print()
}
Class Point x y z func print see x + nl + y + nl + z

We can use braces to access objects when we call functions or methods

Example:

o1 = new Point

print( o1 { x=10 y=20 z=30 } )

func print object
        see object.x + nl +
            object.y + nl +
            object.z

Class Point x y z

We can mix between using braces and the dot operator to access the object in the same expression.

Example:

o1 = new Point

O1 { x=10 y=20 z=30 }.print()

Class Point x y z
        func print see x + nl + y + nl + z

Composition

The object may contains other objects as attributes.

Using braces to access objects can be nested.

Example:

R1 = New Rectangle
{

        Name = "Rectangle 1"

        P1
        {
                X = 10
                Y = 20
        }

        P2
        {
                X = 200
                Y = 300
        }

        Color = "Blue"

}

see "Name : " + R1.Name + nl +
    "Color: " + R1.Color + nl +
    "P1   : (" + R1.P1.X + "," + R1.P1.Y + ")" + nl +
    "P2   : (" + R1.P2.X + "," + R1.P2.Y + ")"

Class Rectangle
        name  color
        p1 = new Point
        p2 = new Point

Class Point x y

Output:

Name : Rectangle 1
Color: Blue
P1   : (10,20)
P2   : (200,300)

Setter and Getter

We can define methods to be used when we set and get object attributes.

Syntax:

Class ClassName

        AttributeName
        ...

        Func SetAttributeName
                ...

        Func GetAttributeName
                ...

Example:

o1 = new person

o1.name = "Mahmoud"  see o1.name + nl

o1 { name = "Ahmed"  see name }

Class Person

        name family = "Fayed"

        func setname value
                see "Message from SetName() Function!" + nl
                name = value + " " + family

        func getname
                see "Message from GetName() Function!" + nl
                return "Mr. " + name

Output:

Message from SetName() Function!
Message from GetName() Function!
Mr. Mahmoud Fayed
Message from SetName() Function!
Message from GetName() Function!
Mr. Ahmed Fayed

Private Attributes and Methods

We can define private attributes and methods after the keyword private inside the class body

Example:

o1 = new person {
        name = "Test"
        age = 20
        print()
        o1.printsalary()
}

try
        see o1.salary
catch
        see cCatchError + nl
done

try
        o1.increasesalary(1000)
catch
        see cCatchError + nl
done

Class Person

        name age

        func print
                see "Name   : " + name + nl +
                    "Age    : " + age + nl

        func printsalary
                see "Salary : " + salary + nl

        private

        salary = 15000

        func increasesalary x
                salary += x

Output:

Name   : Test
Age    : 20
Salary : 15000
Error (R27) : Using private attribute from outside the class : salary
Error (R26) : Calling private method from outside the class : increasesalary

Operator Overloading

We can add the operator method to our class to enable using operators with the class objects.

Syntax:

Class ClassName

        ...

        Func operator cOperator,Para

                ...

The function operator takes two paramters, the first represent the operator and the second represent the second parameter after the operator.

Example:

o1 = new point { x = 10 y = 10 print("P1    : ") }
o2 = new point { x = 20 y = 40 print("P2    : ") }

o3 = o1 + o2
o3.print("P1+P2 : ")

class point x y

        func operator cOperator,Para
                result = new point
                switch cOperator
                on "+"
                        result.x = x + Para.x
                        result.y = y + Para.y
                on "-"
                        result.x = x - Para.x
                        result.y = y - Para.y
                off
                return result

        func print cPoint
                see cPoint + "X : " + x + " Y : " + y + nl

Output:

P1    : X : 10 Y : 10
P2    : X : 20 Y : 40
P1+P2 : X : 30 Y : 50

Inheritance

We can create class from another class in the class definition using the keyword from.

Syntax:

Class <Class Name> [From <Parent Class Name>]

We can call a method in the parent class from the child class using the super object.

Syntax:

func methodname
        ...
        super.methodname()
        ...

Example:

Func main
        e1 = new Employee {
                Name = "test"
                age = 20
                job = "programmer"
                salary = 20000000
                print()
        }


Class Human
        Name Age
        func print
                see "Name : " + name + nl + "Age  : " + age + nl

Class Employee from Human
        Job Salary
        func print
                super.print()
                see "Job  : " + job + nl + "Salary : " + salary + nl

Output:

Name : test
Age  : 20
Job  : programmer
Salary : 20000000

Dynamic Attributes

We can write instructions after the class name to be executed when we create new objects

Example:

o1 = new dynamicClass
see o1.var5 + nl        # output 5

Class DynamicClass
        for x = 1 to 10
                cStr = "var" + x + " = " + x
                eval(cStr)
        next

Tip

in the previous example var1, var2, ..., var10 will be defined as attributes.

Tip

The problem with the previous example is that x and cStr will be defined as attributes too!

Note

we can write class definitions inside a string then using eval() we can execute the string to define the classes

Packages

We can create a package (a group of classes under a common name) using the next syntax

package PackageName
        Class Class1
                ...
        Class Class2
                ...
        Class Class3
                ...
        ...

Example

o1 = new System.output.console
o1.print("Hello World")

Package System.Output
        Class Console
                Func Print cText
                        see cText + nl

Note

we can use the dot operator as part of the package name

Instead of typing the long name PackageName.ClassName we can use the import command

When we import a package, we can use any class inside this package directly.

Example

import system.output
o1 = new console {
        print("Hello World")
}
Package System.Output
        Class Console
                Func Print cText
                        see cText + nl

Printing Objects

We can print the object state (attributes and values) using the see command.

Example:

see new point { x=10 y=20 z=30 }
class point x y z

Output:

x: 10.000000
y: 20.000000
z: 30.000000

Find() and List of Objects

We can use the find() function to search inside a list of objects.

Syntax:

Find(List,ItemValue,nColumn,cAttribute) ---> Item Index

Example:

myList1 = [new Company {position=3 name="Mahmoud" symbol="MHD"},
           new Company {position=2 name="Bert" symbol="BRT"},
           new Company {position=1 name="Ring" symbol="RNG"}
          ]

see find(mylist1,"Bert",1,"name") + nl
see find(mylist1,"Ring",1,"name") + nl
see find(mylist1,"Mahmoud",1,"name") + nl
see find(mylist1,"RNG",1,"symbol") + nl
see find(mylist1,"MHD",1,"symbol") + nl
see find(mylist1,"BRT",1,"symbol") + nl
see find(mylist1,3,1,"position") + nl
see find(mylist1,1,1,"position") + nl
see "Other" + nl
see find(mylist1,"test",1,"name") + nl
see find(mylist1,"test",0,"name") + nl
see find(mylist1,"test",5,"name") + nl

class company position name symbol

Output:

2
3
1
3
1
2
1
3
Other
0
0
0

Sort() and list of objects

We can sort a list of objects based on an object attribute using the Sort() function.

Syntax:

Sort(List,nColumn,cAttribute) ---> Sorted List based on Object Attribute

Example:

myList1 = [
                new Company {position=3 name="Mahmoud" symbol="MHD"},
                new Company {position=2 name="Bert" symbol="BRT"},
                new Company {position=8 name="Charlie" symbol="CHR"},
                new Company {position=6 name="Easy" symbol="FEAS"},
                new Company {position=7 name="Fox" symbol="EFOX"},
                new Company {position=5 name="Dog" symbol="GDOG"},
                new Company {position=4 name="George" symbol="DGRG"},
                new Company {position=1 name="Ring" symbol="RNG"}
          ]

see sort(mylist1,1,"name")
see copy("*",70) + nl
see sort(mylist1,1,"symbol")
see copy("*",70) + nl
see sort(mylist1,1,"position")

class company position name symbol

Output:

position: 2.000000
name: Bert
symbol: BRT
position: 8.000000
name: Charlie
symbol: CHR
position: 5.000000
name: Dog
symbol: GDOG
position: 6.000000
name: Easy
symbol: FEAS
position: 7.000000
name: Fox
symbol: EFOX
position: 4.000000
name: George
symbol: DGRG
position: 3.000000
name: Mahmoud
symbol: MHD
position: 1.000000
name: Ring
symbol: RNG
**********************************************************************
position: 2.000000
name: Bert
symbol: BRT
position: 8.000000
name: Charlie
symbol: CHR
position: 4.000000
name: George
symbol: DGRG
position: 7.000000
name: Fox
symbol: EFOX
position: 6.000000
name: Easy
symbol: FEAS
position: 5.000000
name: Dog
symbol: GDOG
position: 3.000000
name: Mahmoud
symbol: MHD
position: 1.000000
name: Ring
symbol: RNG
**********************************************************************
position: 1.000000
name: Ring
symbol: RNG
position: 2.000000
name: Bert
symbol: BRT
position: 3.000000
name: Mahmoud
symbol: MHD
position: 4.000000
name: George
symbol: DGRG
position: 5.000000
name: Dog
symbol: GDOG
position: 6.000000
name: Easy
symbol: FEAS
position: 7.000000
name: Fox
symbol: EFOX
position: 8.000000
name: Charlie
symbol: CHR

Using Self.Attribute and Self.Method()

Inside the class region (After the class name and before any method) and the class methods we can use self.attribute and self.method()

Class Point
        self.x = 10
        self.y = 20
        self.z = 30
        func print
                see self.x + nl + self.y + nl + self.z + nl

Note

using self.attribute in the class region to define the class attribute protect the class attributes from conflict with global variables.

Tip

if you typed the class attributes with self.attribute and there are a global variable with the same name it will be used and the attribute will not be defined.

Check the “Scope Rules” chapter to know about the conflict between the global variable name and the attribute name

Whay this may happens?

Because

• Because in the class region we can access global variables.
• Before defining any variable, Ring try to find the variable and use it if it’s found.

Note

Try to avoid the global variables, use the main function and start their names with $

Tip

In large programs protect your classes and define their members using self.attribute

Using This.Attribute and This.Method()

Inside class methods we have access to the object scope directly. we don’t need to use Self.attribute or Self.method to read/write attribute and call methods.

But we can use braces {} while we are inside methods to access another object, In this case the current object scope will be changed while we are inside the brace.

How we can get access to our class attributes and methods while we are inside braces?

This can be done using This.Attribute and This.Method()

Example:

new point

class point
        x=10 y=20 z=30
        print()
        func print
                new UI {
                        display(this.x,this.y,this.z)
                }

Class UI
        func display x,y,z
                see x + nl + y + nl + z + nl