Object Oriented Programming

Lab Manual 2

Introduction
After a week of rigorous coding, Welcome back!

You have learned all about the C# in the previous lab manuals.
Let's move on to the next, new, and interesting concepts.

Students, Object-Oriented Programming is different from Procedural programming as it

is about creating objects that combines data in a single unit.

Learning Objectives:
1. Package the related data as single unit (Class)
2. Create variables (Object) to use the data.
3. Explain Role of the Constructors (Default, Parameterized and Copy Constructors)
and Memory Representation of the objects.

Let's do some coding.

Suppose, we want to store the following data of different students.

1. name
2. matricMarks
3. fscMarks
4. ecatMarks
5. aggregate

Previously, we had used parallel arrays to store unlimited number of records like this.

int array_size = 5;
string [] sname = new string[array_size];
float [] matricMarks = new float[array_size];
float [] fscMarks = new float[array_size];
float [] ecatMarks = new float[array_size];
float[] aggregate = new float[array_size];

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 Object Oriented Programming
Lab Manual 2

This issue with this approach is that the data of the student is highly correlated but it is
stored in different disjoint arrays and linked with the index number.

To understand it more clearly, lets look at the example of 3 siblings who have 3 cabinets
to store their belongings (shoes, clothes and books). Siblings were not mature yet
therefore they dedicated 1 cabinet for shoes, another for clothes and another for books.
1st rack of each cabinet was for oldest sibling, 2nd for middle sibling and 3rd for
youngest sibling.
As the children grew older (became more mature) they understood a better solution
which was to take 1 cabinet for every sibling. This solution was more efficient in terms of
management and privacy.

Same goes for our Solution. Now, we have become more mature and now, instead of
parallel arrays we will see the solution with the Class.

Class:
A class is a way to structure and organize code in a single unit such that it mirrors the
real-world entities and actions you are modeling in your program.

Class Declaration:
Syntax:
class Student
{
public string sname;
public float matricMarks;
public float fscMarks;
public float ecatMarks;
public float aggregate;
}

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Lab Manual 2

Following Figure shows a detailed explanation.

Variables/Objects of the Class:

The Class acts as a user-defined data type, therefore, we can create its variables.

Student s1 = new Student();

Following figure shows a detailed explanation.

This variable of the class is also called the instance or object of the class.

Assigning Values to the Objects of the Class:

Student s1 = new Student();
s1.sname = “ABC”;

Task: Write a program that creates a new class of Student.

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Solution:
Student.cs Program.cs Solution Explorer

The code will generate a new class of Student where each student would have the
following properties.
● string type Name
● float type matricMarks
● float type fscMarks
● float type ecatMarks
● float type aggregate

Now, in order to create a “new object” of class Student, we have declared a class type
object in the main function.
Student s1 = new Student();

This line will “create a new object of class Student” having the above-defined
properties. We have also assigned the sname property of the Student class by writing the
following code.
s1.sname = “ABC”;

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Lab Manual 2

We access the variables by using the (dot .) operator in front of the class object name. For
example, to print the name of the s1 student on the console, we will use the following
code.

Console.WriteLine(“Name: {0}”, s1.sname);

Taking input from the User in Class Object and Storing in the Objects
Array:
Taking input in class object variables is the same as taking input in any other variables in
C#.
Look at the following code snippet to have a clear understanding of this concept.

Task: Write the Function to create a class object and take the Student data from the user
and store them in the class object and return this object. Store those objects in the objects
array and then create a function that takes the objects array and then prints all the students
data.
Solution
Write the following code on your computer and execute the program by clicking on the
start button.

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Object Oriented Programming
Lab Manual 2

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 Object Oriented Programming
Lab Manual 2

Constructor of the Class:

Default Constructor:
Whenever we create an object with class name and parenthesis, a function is
automatically called.

Task: Write a program that creates a class of Student and try printing the values of
attributes without assigning them any values.
Solution:

Code:

Output:

Observing the output, it reflects that the compiler has automatically assigned “zero”
value to these data members of the class. However, if we want to change these default
values, we can implement a default constructor in the class definition to override this
functionality.

Creating a Default Constructor

We learned that when we don't explicitly define a constructor in a class, the compiler will
provide a default constructor automatically. However, we can also write our own

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 Object Oriented Programming
Lab Manual 2

constructor for the class. We have two options for writing our own constructor: we can
either write a default constructor with no parameters, or we can write a parameterized
constructor that takes one or more parameters.

In order to create a default constructor, you have to consider the following

● To create a default constructor, we use the same name as the class, followed by
parentheses ()
● The constructor has the same name as the class, it is always public, and it does
not have any return type.

Task: Write the code to create a default constructor that prints “Default Constructor
Called”.
Solution:

Code:

Output:

Hint: Never forget to write public before the constructor’s name.

Congratulations !!!! You have just learned how to create a default

constructor.

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 Object Oriented Programming
Lab Manual 2

Setting Attribute values through Default Constructor

Now, we will use the definition of default constructor to assign our desired “default”
values for the class objects to be created.

Task: Write the code to create a default constructor that assigns a default value to one of
the attributes.
Solution:
Write the following code into the main function of the code and execute the program by
clicking on the start button.

Code:

Output:

Now, all the newly created objects of class “Student” shall be assigned the value of “Jill”
for the “sname” attribute of the class.

Self Assessment Task 1(a): Create a default constructor that assigns values to all the
attributes of the class.
You may use the Student class from the above-mentioned example of the code snippet.

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Self Assessment Task 1(b): Create multiple objects of the class and check if all the
attributes in multiple objects have been assigned the default values.

Parameterized Constructor
Moving onwards, there is another type of constructor that is known as “Parameterized
Constructor”. As the name reflects, this constructor receives parameters from the user
which means that the user can define the values of the attributes at the time of object
creation.

Look at the following code snippet to have a clear understanding of this concept.

Task: Write the code to create a class object and take the input name from the user first
and then create the object with take name using parameterized constructor.
Solution

Code:

Output:

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Observe that this time, the “Student constructor” requires a single parameter from the
user and assigns that value to the respective attribute of the class.

Similarly, you can create a parameterized constructor that will require a value for all the
attributes of that class. In this way, however, the user would need to provide all the values
that have been listed in the parameter list of the constructor function.

NOTE: You can not create an object without providing the list of parameters once you
have defined a parameterized constructor. Attempting to do so would generate an error.

Self Assessment Task 1(a): Create a Parameterized constructor that assigns values to all
the attributes of the class.
You may use the Student class from the above-mentioned example of the code snippet.

Self Assessment Task 1(b): Create multiple objects of the class and check if all the
attributes in multiple objects have been assigned the unique values.

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Lab Manual 2

Copy Constructor
Right now, we are initializing the attributes of an object using the Constructor (Default or
Parameterized). There is another Constructor called Copy Constructor that creates a
new object (separate memory on the heap) by copying variables from another object.

Note: The copy constructor requires a complete object as an argument.

Code:

Now, as you can see it will assign all the values from the received parameter to the
class attributes.

Code: Constructor Call

As you can see now, the copy constructor receives an object as parameter and inside the
constructor function implementation, it is assigning the values of each attribute of the
received object to each corresponding attribute of newly object to be created.

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NOTE: Every time you create an object using a copy constructor, it creates new memory
in HEAP. UNLESS and UNTIL it is important, you are advised to not make extra copies
of the class objects using this method.

Congratulations !!!! You have just learned how to create different

types of constructors for creating class objects.

You may take a two minutes break, as there is much more code to
come.

Challenge # 1:
Student Management System with Class
Task: Write a Menu deriven program that shows the following four menu options
1. Add Student.
2. Show Students.
3. Calculate Aggregate
4. Top Students.

● Add Student allows users to add a Student’s information that includes Student
Name, matric marks, fsc marks, ecat marks.
○ Hint: Take input from the user in simple variables and then Use the
parameterized constructor to create the object.
● Show Students displays all the added students on the screen.
● Calculate Aggregate will calculate the aggregate of all the available students.
● Top Students lists the information of the top 3 students.

Note: Remember to make single responsibility functions for each functionality.

Remember that you have seen how to pass the object as parameter to a function and
how to return an object from a function. You have also seen how to create an array
of objects. (Use it well)

Challenge # 2:
Products Management System with Class
Task: Write a program that shows three menu options

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1. Add Products.
2. Show Products.
3. Total Store Worth.

● Add Product allows the user to add product information that includes ID, Name,
price, Category, BrandName, Country.
● Show Product displays all the added products on the screen.
● Total Store Worth calculates the sum of the price of all the products.

Challenge # 3:
Task Covert the signUp/signIn application that you developed in the previous lab by
using the class concepts.
Make a class named MUser with 3 attributes namely
● Username
● Password
● Role
The data should be loaded from the file and loaded into the attributes of the class.

Good Luck and Best Wishes !!

Happy Coding ahead :)

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