In this chapter you’ll:

• Begin programming with the object-oriented concepts introduced in Section 1.6.

• Declare a class and use it to create an object.

• Implement a class’s attributes as instance variables and a class’s behaviors as methods.

• Call an object’s methods to make them perform their tasks.

• Understand what local variables of a method are and how they differ from instance variables of a class.

• Use validation to prevent bad data from being stored in an object.

• Understand the software engineering benefits of private instance variables and public access methods.

• Use properties to provide a friendlier notation for storing and retrieving data.

• Use a constructor to initialize an object’s data when the object is created.

• Use type decimal for precise monetary amounts and calculations.