An object-oriented data model specification

This paper presents a formal specification of an object-oriented data model using the Z specification language. The model supports all the essential features found in existing object-oriented data models. More importantly it simultaneously supports multiple inheritance, method overloading together with static type-checking. Formal specification not only helps to overcome the ambiguity problems found in less formal approaches it also allows one to reason about the properties of the model. This specification demonstrates the use of Z as a formal technique in an area where such a definition is greatly needed