Encapsulation (computer programming): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:50, 31 March 2021

Revision as of 13:22, 21 June 2021

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Some languages like [[Smalltalk]] and [[Ruby (programming language)|Ruby]] only allow access via object methods, but most others (e.g., [[C++]], [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]], [[Delphi (programming language)|Delphi]] or [[Java (programming language)|Java]]) offer the programmer a degree of control over what is hidden, typically via keywords like <code>public</code> and <code>private</code>.<ref name=Pierce/> ISO C++ standard refers to <code>protected</code>, <code>private</code> and <code>public</code> as "[[access specifiers]]" and that they do not "hide any information". Information hiding is accomplished by furnishing a compiled version of the source code that is interfaced via a header file.

Almost always, there is a way to override such protection &ndash; usually via [[Reflection (computer programming)|reflection]] API (Ruby, Java, C#, etc.), sometimes by mechanism like [[name mangling]] ([[Python (programming language)|Python]]), or special keyword usage like <code>friend</code> in C++. Systems that provide object-level [[capability-based security]] (adhering to the [[object-capability model]]) are an exception, and guarantee strong encapsulation.

=== Examples ===