Class vs Object in OOP: Understanding the Core Difference

In object-oriented programming (OOP), a class and an object are two fundamental but distinct concepts. A class acts as a blueprint, defining attributes (data) and methods (behaviors) without occupying memory on its own. An object, by contrast, is a concrete instance created from that blueprint, and memory is allocated in RAM only when an object is instantiated with real values. One class can serve as the template for multiple independent objects, each holding its own data. While a class provides all available attributes and methods, an object only utilizes what it actually needs at runtime.