class definition - ExpertGlossary

Article I, section 3 of the Constitution requires the Senate to be divided into three classes for purposes of elections. Senators are elected to six-year terms, and every two years the members of one class—approximately one-third of the Senators—face election or reelection. Terms for Senators in Class I expire in 2013, Class II in 2009, and Class III in 2011.
United States Senate - Cite This Source - This Definition
Browse Related Terms: advice and consent, committee jurisdiction, confirmation, executive business, Executive Calendar, Journal, morning business, nomination, parliamentarian, senator

A class, in general, is a representation of a concept. It is an abstract representation of some specific classification of things (hence the name class). The name used to identify a class is the perceptual symbol or word used to denote a concept. In an ontology, a class is more specifically a formal definition of a type of information object that may possess a given set of attributes or properties and specific types of relations to other things. The ontology class is the template for an instance or individual of that type. In other words, the class is the schema or model for information of a given type while an instance of the class is considered to be the actual data.

Cody Burleson - Cite This Source - This Definition
Browse Related Terms: functional property, individual, Individuals, inverse functional property, inverse property, ObjectTypeProperty, property, symmetric property, transitive property

A programming language concept that allows data and methods to be grouped together. The class concept is fundamental to the notion of an object-oriented programming language. The methods of a class define the set of permitted operations on the class's data (its attributes). This close tie between data and operations means that an instance of a class - an object - is responsible for responding to messages received via its defining class's methods.
David J. Barnes - Cite This Source - This Definition
In the Java programming language, a type that defines the implementation of a particular kind of object. A class definition defines instance and class variables and methods, as well as specifying the interfaces the class implements and the immediate superclass of the class. If the superclass is not explicitly specified, the superclass will implicitly be Object.
Sun Microsystems - Cite This Source - This Definition
Browse Related Terms: classpath, encapsulation, functional programming, global variable, imperative programming, lexicographic ordering, locale, method

class
Class action
class body
class constant
class d address
class header
Class I Areas
class inheritance
class method
class of emission
class of office
class of service
class-of-service mark
Class (pipe and fittings)
class scope