duck typing
nounEtymology From the so-called duck test: “if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”
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Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Programming, Sciences A style of dynamic typing in which an object's current set of methods and properties determines the valid semantics, rather than its inheritance from a particular class or implementation of a specific interface.
- Ruby proponents call this duck typing::^([sic]) if the variable responds to a message that asks it to quack like a duck and it quacks, it must be a duck. This is clearly different from the way that Java (and other strongly typed languages) work, […]2006, Neal Ford, Scott Davis, No Fluff, Just Stuff Anthology: The 2006 Edition, page 16:
- Related terms
- typology
- Hypernyms
- dynamic typing, typing