In programming, what is an object?

Object is a named collection of properties (data and state) & methods (instructions, behaviour). Objects are key to understanding object-oriented technology. See around right now and you'll search several examples of real-world objects: your desk, your dog, your television set, your bicycle.

Real-world objects share two features: They all have state and behavior. Dogs have state (name, color, breed, hungry) and behavior (barking, fetching, wagging tail). Bicycles also have state (current gear, current pedal cadence, current speed) and behavior (changing gear, changing pedal cadence, applying brakes). Identifying the state and behavior for real-world objects is a great way to start thinking in terms of object-oriented programming.