Method

What Does Method Mean?

A method, in the context of object-oriented programming, is a procedure or function associated with a class. As part of a class, a method defines a particular behavior of a class instance. A class can have more than one method.

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Techopedia Explains Method

The idea of methods appears in all object-oriented programming languages. Methods are similar to functions or procedures in other programming languages such as C, SQL and Delphi.

An object method can only have access to the data known by that object. This maintains the integrity of data between sets of objects in a program. A method can be reused in many objects.

As a simple example, let’s say that a module has a VideoClip object that handles functions related to movie clips. The VideoClip object would probably have some of the following methods:

  • Play: Begin playing the movie clip.
  • Pause: Pause the movie clip.
  • Stop: Stop playing the movie clip.
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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…