What is the difference between association, aggregation and composition?

From a post by Robert Martin in comp.object:

Association represents the ability of one instance to send a message to another instance. This is typically implemented with a pointer or reference instance variable, although it might also be implemented as a method argument, or the creation of a local variable.

//[Example:]

//|A|----------->|B|

class A
{
  private:
    B* itsB;
};

Aggregation [...] is the typical whole/part relationship. This is exactly the same as an association with the exception that instances cannot have cyclic aggregation relationships (i.e. a part cannot contain its whole).

//[Example:]

//|Node|<>-------->|Node|

class Node
{
  private:
    vector<Node*> itsNodes;
};

The fact that this is aggregation means that the instances of Node cannot form a cycle. Thus, this is a Tree of Nodes not a graph of Nodes.

Composition [...] is exactly like Aggregation except that the lifetime of the 'part' is controlled by the 'whole'. This control may be direct or transitive. That is, the 'whole' may take direct responsibility for creating or destroying the 'part', or it may accept an already created part, and later pass it on to some other whole that assumes responsibility for it.

//[Example:]

//|Car|<#>-------->|Carburetor|

class Car
{
  public:
    virtual ~Car() {delete itsCarb;}
  private:
    Carburetor* itsCarb
};

As others said, an association is a relationship between objects, aggregation and composition are types of association.

From an implementation point of view, an aggregation is obtained by having a class member by reference. For example, if class A aggregates an object of class B, you'll have something like this (in C++):

class A {
    B & element;
  // or B * element;
};

The semantics of aggregation is that when an object A is destroyed, the B object it is storing will still exists. When using composition, you have a stronger relationship, usually by storing the member by value:

class A {
    B element;
};

Here, when an A object is destroyed, the B object it contains will be destroyed too. The easiest way to achieve this is by storing the member by value, but you could also use some smart pointer, or delete the member in the destructor:

class A {
    std::auto_ptr<B> element;
};

class A {
    B * element;

    ~A() {
        delete B;
    }
};

The important point is that in a composition, the container object owns the contained one, whereas in aggregation, it references it.

I think this link will do your homework: http://ootips.org/uml-hasa.html

To understand the terms I remember an example in my early programming days:

If you have a 'chess board' object that contains 'box' objects that is composition because if the 'chess board' is deleted there is no reason for the boxes to exist anymore.

If you have a 'square' object that have a 'color' object and the square gets deleted the 'color' object may still exist, that is aggregation

Both of them are associations, the main difference is conceptual

    Simple rules:
    A "owns" B = Composition : B has no meaning or purpose in the system 
    without A
    A "uses" B = Aggregation : B exists independently (conceptually) from A
    A "belongs/Have" B= Association; And B exists just have a relation
    Example 1:

    A Company is an aggregation of Employees.
    A Company is a composition of Accounts. When a Company ceases to do 
    business its Accounts cease to exist but its People continue to exist. 
    Employees have association relationship with each other.

    Example 2: (very simplified)
    A Text Editor owns a Buffer (composition). A Text Editor uses a File 
    (aggregation). When the Text Editor is closed,
    the Buffer is destroyed but the File itself is not destroyed.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/types-relationships-object-oriented-programming-oop-sarah-el-dawody/

Composition: is a "part-of" relationship.

for example “engine is part of the car”, “heart is part of the body”.

Association: is a “has-a” type relationship

For example, suppose we have two classes then these two classes are said to be “has-a” relationships if both of these entities share each other’s object for some work and at the same time they can exist without each other's dependency or both have their own lifetime.

The above example showing an association relationship because of both Employee and Manager class using the object of each other and both their own independent life cycle.

Aggregation: is based is on "has-a" relationship and it's is \\a special form of association

for example, “Student” and “address”. Each student must have an address so the relationship between Student class and Address class will be “Has-A” type relationship but vice versa is not true.

Association, Aggregation, Composition

Association, Aggregation, Composition are about Has a relationship.

Aggregation and Composition are subsets of Association which describe relationship more accurately

Aggregation - independent relationship. An object can be passed and saved inside class via constructor, method, setter...

Composition - dependent relationship. An object is created by owner object

*Association is an alternative for sybtyping

Composition: This is where once you destroy an object (School), another object (Classrooms) which is bound to it would get destroyed too. Both of them can't exist independently.

Aggregation: This is sorta the exact opposite of the above (Composition) association where once you kill an object (Company), the other object (Employees) which is bound to it can exist on its own.

Association.
Composition and Aggregation are the two forms of association.

From: Remo H. Jansen book “Beginning React: Learning TypeScript 2.x - Second Edition” :

We call association those relationships whose objects have an independent life cycle where there is no ownership of the objects. Let's take a look at an example of a teacher and a student. Multiple students can be associated with a single teacher, and a single student can be associated with multiple teachers, but both have independent life cycles (both can create and delete independently). So, when a teacher leaves the school, we don't need to delete any students, and when a student leaves the school, we don't need to delete any teachers.

We call aggregation those relationships whose objects have an independent life cycle, but there is ownership, and child objects cannot belong to another parent object. Let's take an example of a cell phone and a cell phone battery. A single battery can belong to a phone, but if the phone stops working, and we delete it from our database, the phone battery will not be deleted because it may still be functional. So, in aggregation, while there is ownership, objects have their life cycle

We use the term composition to refer to relationships whose objects don't have an independent life cycle, and if the parent object is deleted, all child objects will also be deleted. Let's take an example of the relationship between questions and answers. Single questions can have multiple answers, and answers cannot belong to multiple questions. If we delete questions, answers will automatically be deleted.

In a very simple sentence:
Aggregation and Composition are subsets of association.

• A uses B -> this is an aggregation

• A needs B -> is composition.

Read more here.

Association is a relationship between two separate classes and the association can be of any type say one to one, one to may etc. It joins two entirely separate entities.

Aggregation is a special form of association which is a unidirectional one way relationship between classes (or entities), for e.g. Wallet and Money classes. Wallet has Money but money doesn’t need to have Wallet necessarily so its a one directional relationship. In this relationship both the entries can survive if other one ends. In our example if Wallet class is not present, it does not mean that the Money class cannot exist.

Composition is a restricted form of Aggregation in which two entities (or you can say classes) are highly dependent on each other. For e.g. Human and Heart. A human needs heart to live and a heart needs a Human body to survive. In other words when the classes (entities) are dependent on each other and their life span are same (if one dies then another one too) then its a composition. Heart class has no sense if Human class is not present.