What is Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)?

The acronym OOP stands for object-oriented programming. OOP is a programming paradigm, meaning it’s another approach for how you architect and build code. OOP is programming that is oriented to (focused on) objects. It seeks to emulate the real world.

What does that mean? Let’s relate this concept to the objects you know.

Look around your office. Grab an ink pen. Now, look at it. An ink pen is mass-produced from a blueprint. Millions of ink pens were made just like yours. Each pen has characteristics, such as the color of the ink, cap or click, body color, and size. It has behavior. You click on it and the tip extends out. You write with it and the ink is dispensed out onto the paper or medium.

How about your car. It’s an object too. Cars are mass-produced by car manufacturers from a blueprint. They have behavior, such as they start, move forward, move backward, stop, etc. They have characteristics, such as body color, interior type, the number of doors, and more.

Do I need to write code in OOP?

No. You can write code in procedural, functional, or OOP. The choice is yours. WordPress is built on procedural. There are some OOP implementations. Some plugins are built in static function wrappers while others are in OOP.

You don’t need to write OOP. However, it can be very helpful in your career to learn it.

Why learn OOP

If you want to grow in this profession, learning OOP will help. Outside of WordPress, OOP is popular. If you want to build in Laravel, Symfony, Zend, RoR, Drupal, and others, then you’ll need a solid mastery of OOP.

Learning OOP will help you to read and adapt more code. You’ll be able to go to other repositories and see how others are solving problems. You can bring those techniques and solutions back to your projects, adapt them, and make your sites better.