What does 'object-oriented programming' emphasize?

Object-oriented programming (OOP) emphasizes the organization of code into reusable structures known as objects and classes. This approach allows developers to model real-world entities and relationships within the code, making it easier to manage complexity and enhance collaboration on large projects.

By defining classes, developers can create blueprints that encapsulate data (attributes) and behaviors (methods) related to those objects. This encapsulation fosters code reusability—once a class is created, it can be reused across different parts of the application or even in other applications. Additionally, OOP promotes inheritance, where a new class can inherit attributes and methods from an existing class, further enhancing code reusability and reducing redundancy.

The organization aspect comes into play as well; by grouping related data and functions together, code becomes more modular. This modularity makes it easier to maintain and modify code over time, as changes can be made to individual objects or classes without affecting the entire codebase.

This focus on reusability and organization through objects and classes is central to the principles of OOP, making it a powerful paradigm in software development.