Encapsulation (computer programming): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:24, 21 July 2022

Revision as of 19:25, 21 July 2022

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{{Short description|Bundling of data}}

In [[object-oriented programming]] (OOP), '''encapsulation''' refers to the bundling of data with the methods that operate on that data. Often that definition is misconstrued to mean that the data is somehow hidden. In Java, you can have encapsulated data that is not hidden at all. So '''encapsulation''' and '''hiding''' are not the same and have different meaning! <ref name="Rogers01" /> Encapsulation is used to close (in meaning containscontaining) the structure of data object inside a [[Class (computer programming)|class]], preventing direct access to them (in meaning: you can not use any member of a class without the class mention, e.g. if some class A has x field you could not use this field x without class A or their instance).

Publicly accessible methods are generally provided in the class to access or modify the state more abstractly. In practice sometimes methods (so-called [[Mutator method|"getters" and "setters"]]) are provided to access the values indirectly, but, although not necessarily a violation of abstract encapsulation, they are often considered a sign-post of potentially poor object-oriented programming (OOP) design practice <ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.infoworld.com/article/2073723/why-getter-and-setter-methods-are-evil.html |title=Why Getter and Setter methods are evil |last=Holub |first=Allen |publisher=JavaWorld |date=September 5, 2003 |website=Info World |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729073721/https://www.infoworld.com/article/2073723/why-getter-and-setter-methods-are-evil.html |access-date=January 17, 2021|archive-date=2020-07-29 }}</ref> (an [[Anti-pattern]]).