Primitive data types are singular pieces of information: an integer, a float, a character, etc. Declaring a variable that holds onto an object is quite similar. The diff erence is that here the type is the class name, something we will make up, in this case "Car." Objects, incidentally, are not primitives and are considered complex data types. (This is because they store multiple pieces of information: data and functionality. Primitives only store data.)

In addition, although not primitive, classes are data types just like integers and floats. And since classes are made up of data, an object can therefore contain other objects! For example, let's assume you had just finished programming a <em>Fork</em> and <em>Spoon</em> class. Moving on to a <em>PlaceSetting</em> class, you would likely include variables for both a <em>Fork</em> object and a <em>Spoon</em> object inside that class itself. Th is is perfectly reasonable and quite common in object-oriented programming.