Question

Suppose a class has a field named description. The field’s data type is String. How would you indicate the field’s data type in a UML diagram?

Short answer

Answer: To represent a class with a field named 'description' and a data type String in a UML class diagram, draw a rectangle with three compartments. In the top compartment, write the class name (e.g., "ExampleClass"). In the middle compartment, write the field 'description' with its data type, formatted as "description : String". The final UML diagram will look like: ``` +----------------+ | ExampleClass | +----------------+ | description : String | +----------------+ | +----------------+ ```

Step-by-step solution

Understand a UML diagram for a class

A UML class diagram is a type of diagram that represents a class's structure, including its attributes and methods. In this exercise, we only need to focus on representing a class with a single field.

Represent the class with a field

To represent a class with a field, we first draw a rectangle with three compartments. The top compartment represents the class's name, the middle compartment stores the attributes (fields), and the bottom compartment represents the methods (we don't need to worry about methods in our case).

Add the class name and field attribute

In the top compartment, add the class name (e.g., "ExampleClass"). In the middle compartment, we need to include the field attribute "description" with its data type, which is String.

Indicate the field's data type

In a UML class diagram, the format for representing an attribute (field) is: attributeName : dataType. So, in our case, the field description has a data type of String, we write it as: "description : String". The final UML diagram will have the following structure: ``` +----------------+ | ExampleClass | +----------------+ | description : String | +----------------+ | +----------------+ ```