Object graph

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In computer science, in an object-oriented program, groups of objects form a network through their relationships with each other, either through a direct reference to another object or through a chain of intermediate references. These groups of objects are referred to as object graphs, after the mathematical objects called graphs studied in graph theory.

An object graph is a view of an object system at a particular point in time. Unlike a normal data model such as a Unified Modeling Language (UML) class diagram, which details the relationships between classes, the object graph relates their instances. Object diagrams are subsets of the overall object graph.

Object-oriented applications contain complex webs of interrelated objects. Objects are linked to each other by one object either owning or containing another object or holding a reference to another object. This web of objects is called an object graph and it is the more abstract structure that can be used in discussing an application's state.