What is abstraction in programming?

Abstraction in programming is fundamentally about simplifying complex systems by focusing on the essential characteristics of an object while ignoring the irrelevant details. This process allows developers to manage complexity by reducing the amount of information they need to handle at any given moment. By abstracting the necessary attributes and behaviors, programmers can create more general and flexible components that can be reused in various contexts, rather than being bogged down by the specifics of their implementation.

For instance, in an object-oriented programming context, when defining a class for a vehicle, abstraction enables you to focus on the common attributes of vehicles—like speed, fuel type, and capacity—without getting into the specifics of how each vehicle operates or the particular materials used in its construction. This encapsulates the complexities and allows other developers to interact with the vehicle class at a higher level without needing to understand all the minute details.

In contrast, making a class reusable involves considerations of design patterns and proper separation of concerns, creating new objects from existing ones relates to inheritance or cloning, and optimizing code focuses on improving the performance efficiency of the system. While these concepts are important in programming, they do not encapsulate the core principle of abstraction as effectively as identifying and focusing on essential characteristics does.