instantiation (programming) Producing a more defined version of some object by replacing variables with values (or other variables).
1. In object-oriented programming, producing a particular object from its class template. This involves allocation of a structure with the types specified by the template, and initialisation of instance variables with either default values or those provided by the class's constructor function. 2. In logic programming, when unification binds a logic variable to some value. 3. In type checking, when type inference binds a type variable to some type. 4. (multimedia) A specific representation of an object or artifact. Examples of instantiations would be different images of an object, text translated into English and French or a video and a still image of a museum piece. Last updated: 2015-02-08
