Definition
An object is first-class when it
- can be stored in variables and data structures
- can be passed as a parameter to a subroutine
- can be returned as the result of a subroutine
- can be constructed at run-time
- has intrinsic identity (independent of any given name)
The term "object" is used loosely here, not necessarily referring to objects in object-oriented programming. The simplest scalar data types, such as integer and floating-point numbers, are nearly always first-class.
Read more about this topic: First-class Citizen
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“Was man made stupid to see his own stupidity?
Is God by definition indifferent, beyond us all?
Is the eternal truth man’s fighting soul
Wherein the Beast ravens in its own avidity?”
—Richard Eberhart (b. 1904)
“According to our social pyramid, all men who feel displaced racially, culturally, and/or because of economic hardships will turn on those whom they feel they can order and humiliate, usually women, children, and animals—just as they have been ordered and humiliated by those privileged few who are in power. However, this definition does not explain why there are privileged men who behave this way toward women.”
—Ana Castillo (b. 1953)
“The man who knows governments most completely is he who troubles himself least about a definition which shall give their essence. Enjoying an intimate acquaintance with all their particularities in turn, he would naturally regard an abstract conception in which these were unified as a thing more misleading than enlightening.”
—William James (1842–1910)