What is the difference between Composition and Association relationship?

Question

In OOP, what is the difference between composition (denoted by filled diamond in UML) and association (denoted by empty diamond in UML) relationship between classes. I\'m a

Answer 1

Usually, composition means that the lifetime of the contained object is bounded by that of the container, whereas association is a reference to an object which may exist independently.

However, this is just the practice I've observed. I hate to admit it, but ploughing through the UML2 spec isn't high on my list of fun stuff to do!