Code Complete, 2nd Edition

Reasons to Create a Class

If you believe everything you read, you might get the idea that the only reason to create a class is to model real-world objects. In practice, classes get created for many more reasons than that. Here's a list of good reasons to create a class.

Cross-Reference

Reasons for creating classes and routines overlap. See Valid Reasons to Create a Routine.

Model real-world objects. Modeling real-world objects might not be the only reason to create a class, but it's still a good reason! Create a class for each real-world object type that your program models. Put the data needed for the object into the class, and then build service routines that model the behavior of the object. See the discussion of ADTs in Class Foundations: Abstract ...