A superclass is sometimes referred to as a parent class or a generalization of its subclasses. Saint Bernard and Dalmatian are subclasses of Dog. A subclass inherits all attributes and methods of its superclasses. For convenience, the terms superclass and subclass are used in type definitions even if the type is not a class. Thus, in the PrimaryColor example described under Enumeration, PrimaryColor is a subclass of Enumeration, and Enumeration is the superclass of PrimaryColor.
Similar relationships hold with the primitive types as well.
The class is either from the SAIF standard schema or from a user defined schema. Objects may be considered as fundamental modelling primitives. The term object is used in SAIF to refer specifically to instances of AbstractObject. Any object may have an object identifier. Other terms for object identifier are oid and objectIdentifier.