Final answer:
Procedural programming is a paradigm that follows a linear, top-down approach and focuses on routines and subroutines. Object-oriented programming, on the other hand, organizes code into reusable objects with encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism, offering a modular, bottom-up approach.
Step-by-step explanation:
The main differences between procedural programming and object-oriented programming (OOP) can be explained by how they structure and organize code.
Procedural programming is a paradigm that follows a set of routines, tasks, or subroutines that you call in order to achieve a task or solve a problem. Procedural code is typically written as a list of instructions to be executed by the computer, and it can often be best understood in terms of the flow of execution through the code.
In contrast, OOP organizes code into objects that contain both data and methods that operate on that data. This encapsulation makes it easier to manage larger and more complex programs by creating reusable code blocks. An object can be thought of as a self-contained unit with a clear interface for interacting with other parts of the program.
- Encapsulation: In OOP, data and functions are bundled into objects, whereas in procedural programming, they are separate.
- Inheritance: OOP allows for classes to inherit features from other classes, making code reusable and the hierarchy logical.
- Polymorphism: OOP can process objects differently depending on their data type or class, which is not a focus in procedural programming.
Procedural programming often results in a top-down approach, while OOP offers a bottom-up approach with objects as the foundation.