

For clarity, attributes should more correctly be considered metadata. An attribute is frequently and generally a property of a property.

However, in actual usage, the term attribute can and is often treated as equivalent to a property depending on the technology being discussed.


  • Each named attribute has an associated set of rules called operations: one doesn't sum characters or manipulate and process an integer array as an image object— one doesn't process text as type floating point (decimal numbers).
  • It follows that an object definition can be extended by imposing data typing: a representation format, a default value, and legal operations (rules) and restrictions ("Division by zero is not to be tolerated!") are all potentially involved in defining an attribute, or conversely, may be spoken of as attributes of that object's type. A JPEG file is not decoded by the same operations (however similar they may be—these are all graphics data formats) as a PNG or BMP file, nor is a floating point typed number operated upon by the rules applied to typed long integers.


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