Meetodklass

Meetodklass is a term used in Estonian programming discourse to describe a class whose primary purpose is to group together methods that implement behavior, rather than primarily to hold data. In this sense, a meetodklass emphasizes actions and operations and may contain instance methods that operate on an object's state, static (class) methods that provide utilities, or a blend of both. The concept is closely related to terms such as utility class, service class, or helper class, which are used in various languages to denote collections of related functions.

Key characteristics include encapsulation of related behavior, a well-defined interface, and clear access control for its methods. Meetodklasses are commonly used to organize code that does not fit neatly into a single data model, or to expose a cohesive API for a specific domain, such as mathematical operations, string manipulation, or file handling. They can enable reuse and modular design by separating behavior from the data structures that may be manipulated by that behavior.

Design considerations emphasize the single responsibility principle and avoiding bloated classes that mix unrelated methods. In languages with strong object-oriented paradigms, a meetodklass should not overreach beyond its intended scope; when appropriate, behavior that does not pertain to a specific object’s data can be placed in a dedicated service or utility class, or in a module or namespace in languages where modules provide functional grouping.

Examples include a Java utility class with static methods for common operations, or a Python module containing related helper functions. See also utility class, service class, static methods, and object-oriented programming.