Physics of charmed hadrons

Twenty five years that have passed since the experimental discovery of the first charmed particle have been extremely successful for the physics of ch armed particles. In the 30 odd experiments conducted over this period, a la rge number of states of charmed mesons and baryons have been observed, over a thousand decay channels studied, and lifetimes measured. In the present paper, basic experimental results are reviewed and prospects for the neares t future are discussed.