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Can you write object oriented code in C?

I am writing a large application in C and have heard that prior to the advent of C++ programmers used to implement the "Object Oriented" pattern in C. My question is what is the usual form this pattern takes? and how would I go about implementing such an OOP pattern in a modern C application?

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    I hate to do this, but have you even searched? google.com/search?q=object+oriented+c Commented Jul 29, 2009 at 16:37
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    rye there's nothing in the FAQ that says "If an answer can easily be found on google don't ask it here." SO is supposed to be a reference just as much as a question site. Commented Jul 29, 2009 at 16:39
  • i did do a search on google prior to asking the Q and i wasn't happy with many of the results. I am also just curious what different patterns there are out there, esp. ones that have been battle tested by veteran programmers and aren't just what some guy thinks might work. Commented Jul 29, 2009 at 16:44
  • Hey, links to searches don't work right in comments! I'm off to meta... Commented Jul 29, 2009 at 16:46
  • @Spencer Ruport: But you should avoid needless duplicates of things easily found on StackOverflow, as is the case here. Commented Jul 29, 2009 at 16:52

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Here are a few helpful links to guides on Object Oriented C:

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Check out COOP - it has Classes , Inheritance, Exceptions, Unit Testing, and more - with pure C
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Where a C++ object has methods, object-style 'C' takes a struct full of function pointers. The functions corresponding to a member function have an explicit data argument that takes the place of the implied 'this' pointer.

Subclasses use function-pointer structs of the same type, with different function pointers to indicate overridded methods.

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I used to simply adopt naming conventions for a structure and associated "methods". Each method would begin with e.g. CANDIDATE_ for a candidate object, and be associated with a typedef CANDIDATE { ... }, and be in a file Candidate.c

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This method always worked for me. Much easier than having a struct of function pointers that needed to all be initialized somewhere. The downside is that you can't do virtual functions without them...
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An additional link from someone who wrote several OO frameworks for C.

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