This article will teach you about UML structural diagrams, used to help you keep track of the structure of your models. It was excerpted from chapter three of Fast Track UML 2.0, written by Kendall Scott (Apress, 2004; ISBN: 1590593200).
An object diagram shows a set of objects, and the relationships among them, at a particular point in time during the execution of the system. Figure 3-6 shows an example of an object diagram.
Figure 3-6. Object diagram
Most people use object diagrams sparingly, if at all. They’re mostly good for capturing snapshots of particular situations during program execution when it’s important to see the relationships of a set of object attributes.
Looking Ahead
In the next chapter, you start exploring how to use the UML to model the dynamic side of systems—in other words, user and system behavior.
1 Stephen J. Mellor, Kendall Scott, Axel Uhl, and Dirk Weise, MDA Distilled: Principles of Model-Driven Architecture (Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2004).
2 Doug Rosenberg with Kendall Scott, Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML (Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1999).
3 Yun-Tung Lau, The Art of Objects: Object-Oriented Design and Architecture (Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2001).
