Reification (computer science)

Reification, in the context of object-oriented programming, describes the act of making a data model for a previously abstract concept. Reification allows a computer to process an abstraction as if it were any other data.

Reification is a useful technique in object-oriented languages, as encapsulating an abstract behaviour in an object makes it easier to isolate that behaviour to do unit tests.

The term has also sometimes used by some in the context of formal methods to mean Refinement.