Instantiatie

Instantiatie, often translated as instantiation, is the act of creating a concrete instance from an abstract template, model, or rule. It marks the point at which a general concept becomes a usable object, example, or case in a specific context.

In programming, instantiation usually means creating an object from a class or type. The class defines behavior and state, while the instance is a distinct, executable object. Typically this involves invoking a constructor or initializer and allocating memory for the new object; a class and its instances are distinct.

In logic and mathematics, instantiation refers to substituting a variable with a specific term to obtain a particular instance of a formula. For example, from a universal statement ∀x P(x), one may instantiate to P(a) for a chosen constant a. This operation underlies many automated reasoning techniques.

In languages with generics or templates, instantiation produces a concrete version of a generic type or function by supplying specific type parameters. Compile-time instantiation yields concrete code and type-checked structures, while some languages support dynamic instantiation at run time, with implications for performance and code size.

In linguistics and knowledge representation, instantiation can mean grounding an abstract schema, frame, or script with real participants or events, turning a template into a concrete utterance or data record.

Origin and related terms: the term derives from Latin roots and is used across computer science, logic, and related disciplines to describe the concrete realization of a general idea.