What is Object Code?

Object code is a type of code that computers can understand, but humans generally can’t read and understand easily. It’s the result of compiling or translating a program’s source code, which is written in a high-level programming language, into a form that a computer can execute.

Object code consists of a series of instructions that the computer can execute directly without needing to interpret them first. These instructions are usually represented as a series of binary numbers, which are just 1s and 0s, that the computer can understand.

Object code is often generated by a compiler, which is a program that takes a program’s source code as input and produces object code as output. The object code can then be linked with other object codes and libraries to create an executable program that can be run on a computer.

In our last guide, we discussed Source Code, which is the human-readable form of a program written in a programming language. 

Let’s say we have a simple source code program in the C programming language that calculates the sum of two numbers:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
   int num1 = 5;
   int num2 = 10;
   int sum = num1 + num2;
   printf("The sum of %d and %d is %d", num1, num2, sum);
   return 0;
}

This source code program is saved in a file with a .c extension. When we compile this program using a C compiler, it generates object code, which the computer can execute. 

The following is an example of the object code that might be generated for the above source code:

01010101 10001001 11100101 10000011 11101100 00001000 11000111 01000101 11111100 00000101 00000000 00000000 00000000 11000111 01000101 11111000 00001010 00000000 00000000 00000000 10001011 01000101 11111100 00000011 01000101 11111000 10011001 01000101 11110100 10111000 10110100 10100000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 11101000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 11101000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 10001011 01000101 11101100 10011001 01000101 11110000 10111000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 11101000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 11101000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 10001011 01000101 11101100 10011001 01000101 11100110 10111000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 11101000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 11101000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 10001011 01000101 11101100 10011001 01000101 11001001 11001001 11000011

As you can see, the binary representation of object code is not very human-readable, but computers can interpret it and execute the instructions.

What is The Difference Between Source Code and Object Code?

Source code and object code are two different types of code that are involved in the process of creating and running computer programs.

Source code is the human-readable form of a program that is written in a programming language. It’s the version of the program that can be easily read and understood by humans. Programmers write source code to create programs that can perform specific tasks.

Object code, on the other hand, is the machine-readable form of the program that computers can execute directly. It’s generated from the source code by a Language Processor (compiler or interpreter). Object code is not very human-readable, and it’s represented in a binary format consisting of 0s and 1s.

The main difference between source code and object code is that source code is written by humans and can be easily read and modified, while object code is generated from source code and can be executed directly by a computer.

When a programmer writes source code, they can use a text editor or an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to create and edit the code. Once the code is written, it needs to be compiled or translated into object code.