So far, you have worked mainly with object instances:
player1 : Player
team1 : Team
Those objects need a definition that tells the program what kind of information a Player or Team can contain.
That definition is a class.
At this stage, think of a class as the blueprint that describes a kind of object.
Suppose the program has a Player class.
The program can create several Player objects:
Player player1 = new Player();
Player player2 = new Player();
Player player3 = new Player();
All three are Player objects.
They can hold different state because they are different instances.
The class describes the common structure.
This relationship can be summarized as:
Player class
↓
creates/describes Player objects
↓
player1, player2, player3
The class is not Jordan, Casey, or Morgan.
Those are possible object states.
The class describes what a Player object can be like in the software.
A conceptual Player class might define fields such as:
name
jerseyNumber
isAvailable
Every Player object created from that class can have its own values for those fields.
For example:
player1.name = "Jordan"
player2.name = "Casey"
The field definition is shared by the type.
The field values belong to the individual objects.
The class definition exists in source code.
An object created with:
new Player()
exists while the program runs.
This distinction is useful:
Class
Defines structure.
Object
A particular runtime instance with current state.
An object diagram might show:
player1 : Player
-------------------------
name = "Jordan"
A class diagram can describe the Player type itself.
You will build that class-diagram notation in the next batch.
For now, focus on the conceptual difference:
A class describes the kind of object; an object is one specific instance.
Classes can eventually contain much more than fields.
Later activities introduce:
Those ideas are not required to understand the first class concept.
Start with the simplest useful mental model:
class → defines what kind of object can exist
object → one instance created from that class