Understanding Classes in JavaScript

Classes are blueprints for creating objects (a type of data structure), providing initial values for state (using a constructor), and implementations of behavior (member functions or methods). They support inheritance and polymorphism, which are fundamental concepts in object-oriented programming.

JavaScript classes were introduced in ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) and are a way to define a constructor function and a set of methods all at once. The class syntax is a shorthand for defining constructor functions and their prototypes.

Example:

 1class Person {
 2  constructor(name) {
 3    this.name = name;
 4  }
 5  sayHello() {
 6    console.log(`Hello, my name is ` + this.name);
 7  }
 8}
 9
10let person1 = new Person("John");
11person1.sayHello(); // Output: "Hello, my name is John"

Here, "Person" is a class, person1 is an object created from the class, and sayHello() is a method of the class.