Late binding

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In computing and information science, late binding is a paradigm in which a user knows only the name of something but not its location; the user need not be aware if information moves from one computer to another, because the database will be updated along with the move so that people can always find the address when it is needed.

Late binding has been often used in compilers for programming languages and linkers which load programs in a computers memory before and during their execution.

The Domain Name System, introduced into the Internet in 1983, is an early and successful implementation of this concept.

Library science has embodied the concept in its Digital Object Identifier (DOI) standard for looking up publications online.