Editing Class (computer programming) (section)

== Runtime representation ==
{{Citations needed|Runtime representation|date=May 2024}}
As a data type, a class is usually considered as a compile time construct.<ref>{{cite web |title=C++ International standard |url=http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2017/n4713.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171209100334/http://www.open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/WG21/docs/papers/2017/n4713.pdf |archive-date=2017-12-09 |url-status=live |website=Working Draft, Standard for Programming Language C++ |publisher=ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22 WG21 |access-date=5 January 2020}}</ref> A language or library may also support [[Prototype-based programming|prototype]] or [[Factory method pattern|factory]] [[metaobject]]s that represent runtime information about classes, or even represent metadata that provides access to [[reflective programming]] (reflection) facilities and ability to manipulate data structure formats at runtime. Many languages distinguish this kind of [[run-time type information]] about classes from a class on the basis that the information is not needed at runtime. Some dynamic languages do not make strict distinctions between runtime and compile time constructs, and therefore may not distinguish between metaobjects and classes.

For example, if Human is a [[metaobject]] representing the class Person, then instances of class Person can be created by using the facilities of the Human [[metaobject]].