a class is like a blueprint. it tells you what's IN the thing, and what the thing can DO.
an object is one of the (possibly) many things you build from that blueprint. they'll be very similar, but one may have blue paint, and another red, but both have an outside_color.
in C terms, a class is like your struct definition - you list each element and type. but you also declare methods on that struct, that make sense to that struct.
so, if i made a person struct, it might have (i'm not trying to get the exact right syntax here):
struct person {
string first_name;
string last_name;
date birthdate;
}
in Java, you can add methods to the thing (still not going for correct syntax):
class person {
string first_name;
string last_name;
date birthdate;
/*this method will return the first and last name concatenated as*/
*a single string */
public string get_name();
/* this method will use the person's birthdate and the current */
/* system date to calculate the person's age, and return that */
public int get_age();
}
