Identity

Computer programming

In object-oriented programming, object identity is a mechanism for distinguishing different objects from each other. This is based on the philosophical concept of identity, but applied to data structures.

Related Topics:
Object-oriented programming - Object identity

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In programs, one frequently may have several variables (or pointers) which refer to the same underlying data structure. An identity predicate allows one to ask whether two variables refer to the same thing. In many languages, identity can be determined more efficiently than equality since the former involves simply a pointer comparison while the latter must traverse data structures.

Related Topics:
Variable - Pointer - Predicate - Equality

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