Advantages of OOP over procedural programming

Advantages of object oriented programming (OOP) over procedural programming:

1. Data security - Data is hidden inside objects using encapsulation and access specifiers. In procedural programs, global data can be changed by any function.
2. Reusability - Inheritance lets existing classes be reused and extended, so less new code is written. Procedural code is reused only through functions.
3. Closer to the real world - Programs are modelled as objects (student, account), so problems are easier to understand. Procedural programs follow a top-down function sequence.
4. Easy maintenance and modification - Changes inside a class do not affect other parts of the program, as long as the interface stays the same.
5. Modularity - A large program is split into independent classes that can be developed and tested separately by different programmers.
6. Extensibility - New features are added by creating new classes or objects without disturbing the old code.
7. Polymorphism - One interface can be used for different actions (overloading, virtual functions), which gives flexible and simple code.
8. Better management of large projects - Abstraction and bottom-up design help control complexity in big software.