Section 9.4. States

9.4. States

During an interaction, a participant can exist in any number of states. A participant is said to be in a particular state when it receives an event (such as a message). The participant can then be said to be in that state until another event occurs (such as the return of that message). See the "Events and Messages" section later in this chapter for an explanation of how events and messages are applied to timing diagrams.

States on a timing diagram are placed next to their corresponding participant, as shown in Figure 9-5.

Figure 9-5. States are written horizontally on a timing diagram and next to the participant that they are associated with