Explain the concept of data classes and their purpose in programming languages.

Data classes in programming are special classes designed to store data with minimal logic. Their main purpose is to simplify the creation of objects that contain a set of fields (attributes) and automatically provide standard methods such as constructors, comparison methods, string conversion, etc.

In Java, with the introduction of version 14, record was introduced — a special type of class for storing immutable data, which can be considered an analog of data class:

public record Person(String name, int age) {}

Person p = new Person("Ivan", 30);
System.out.println(p.name()); // Ivan

Before the appearance of record, data classes in Java were created manually using regular classes with fields, constructors, getters, setters, equals, hashCode, and toString.

The main purposes of data classes:

• Storing data without additional logic.
• Simplifying and reducing boilerplate code.
• Providing convenient comparison and copying of objects.

Thus, data classes help write cleaner and more understandable code, focusing on data rather than behavior.