What is the Difference Between Class, Klass, and Clazz?
If you have worked with Object Oriented Programming (OOP) code, you have probably encountered some weird spellings of the word class. Class is a familiar term in OOP that refers to a reusable template of an object that may possess variables and methods. An instance of this method is an object with assigned variables that can be invoked to access its methods. While this definition and usage are clear, why do we see different spellings of the variable class like Klass and clazz?
Why Can I Not Use the Variable Class?
The different spellings of the variable class come into use whenever we create a variable that is supposed to represent the given class’s name. The name class is a reserved keyword, specifically used to define a new class. Because it is reserved, Ruby expects certain behaviors to occur when it parses this word, but these behaviors are not the same as those expected from a simple variable.
The klass variable is nothing special as it does not have extra methods beyond the string class methods that come with a string type. We use klass because it has been accepted as the conventional way to represent a class’s name in Ruby.
Where does Clazz Come in?
It is important to remember that each programming language has its specific syntax and approaches to solving programming problems. While klass is a variable substitute in Ruby for passing a class’s name, it is arbitrary and could be hoof or foo.
Clazz is a Java type, which allows it to have properties, operations, and instance factories. Java takes this class name variable a few steps further than Ruby because clazz is more than a coding convention; clazz is an acknowledged type for representing a class abstractly.
Final Thoughts
The difference between class and klass and clazz comes down to developers needing to represent referencing a variable’s name without using a reserved keyword. While Java offers a more powerful clazz type to accomplish this, Ruby’s klass can achieve the same goal of storing a name. Next time you learn a new programming language and see a variable spelling of a class, check the docs and Stack Overflow to see if the variable represents a class’s name, and what other methods you may have available.
