A user class is a set of developer-defined attributes (characteristics) and methods (behaviors) that you can use to refer to multiple data items as a single entity. You create user classes are classes that you create in the visual development environment as part of an application. A user class is a convenient way to manipulate related data elements as a single object.

When you create a user class, you specify attributes that describe the class and methods that define its behaviors. You can specify another user class as the superclass for a user class, as all classes in OpenROAD are organized into an inheritance hierarchy. The user class then inherits all the attributes and methods of the superclass.

After you create a user class, you can use it when you declare reference or array variables. You also can create a set of simple fields or a composite field that corresponds to the attributes of the user class. If you modify a user class definition, any objects of that class are modified accordingly.

There are two ways you can create a user class in OpenROAD Workbench:

For more information about creating a user class using the Class Editor, see How You Can Create User Classes. For more information about the user classes that are generated from the predefined templates, see the "Generated User Classes" appendix in the Language Reference Guide.