Object association This article or section does not cite its references or sources . You can help Wikipedia by introducing appropriate citations . There are very few or no other articles that link to this one . Please help introduce links in articles on related topics . After links have been created , remove this message . This article has been tagged since July 2006 . In object-oriented programming , there are two kinds of object association , aggregation and composition . Both intend to do the same thing , build `` large '' objects from `` smaller '' ones . They differ only conceptually , from an object system perspective . In the object-oriented programming paradigm , the word association means union . In object association , one object is formed from the union of two or more other objects . See also Implementation inheritance Inheritance semantics Virtual inheritance Categories : Articles lacking sources | Orphaned articles from July 2006 July 2006 