What is the difference between Aggregation and Composition?

Aggregation and composition are types of association. The main difference between aggregation and composition is that aggregation implicit a relationship where the child exists autonomously of the parent. On the other hand, composition implies a relationship in which the child cannot exist independent of the parent. The function of aggregation is the loss of assembly, which does not disturb its separate parts.

The purpose of composition if the owning class object is deleted, it could conceivably affect it contains class. Aggregation is also utilized to specify the multiplicity of objects such as one to one or many to many. An example of aggregation is a car and its wheels. An example of composition is a leaf which is a part of a tree.

Aggregation and composition are known to be two types of association that can be used to describe relationships. Aggregation implies that a child will be able to live independently without the need to have a parent. This means that the child has a parent but it does not mean that the child has to be with the parent all the time in order to survive.

Composition means that the child cannot live independently without a parent. The child is a part of the parents’ life and the parents are parts of the child’s life. The association signifies that there is a weak relationship between parent and child while in composition, there is a strong relationship between the parent and the child.

In child psychology, there are terms used to describe the ways in which children can function independently. Some can function without the need of their parent, whereas others seem to cling to their parent in order to follow their directions. They have not broken free and learned to make decisions for themselves. Aggregation and composition describe these two types.

Aggregation is where the child can function free from their parents. The composition is where the child can’t function free from their parents. The composition is a strong association, and aggregation is a weak association. These terms can also be used to apply to other comparisons between a smaller category of something bigger or with more authority. There are symbols used to represent these two words.