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In Python, if a name is intended to be "private", it is prefixed by one or two underscores. Private variables are enforced in Python only by convention. Names can also be suffixed with an underscore to prevent conflict with Python keywords. Prefixing with double underscores changes behaviour in classes with regard to name mangling.
Python's runtime does not restrict access to such attributes, the mangling only prevents name collisions if a derived class defines an attribute with the same name. On encountering name mangled attributes, Python transforms these names by prepending a single underscore and the name of the enclosing class, for example:
Python has very limited support for private variables using name mangling which is rarely used in practice as information hiding is seen by some as unpythonic, in that it suggests that the class in question contains unaesthetic or ill-planned internals. The slogan "we're all responsible users here" is used to describe this attitude.
An identifier I' (for variable X') masks an identifier I (for variable X) when two conditions are met I' has the same name as I; I' is defined in a scope which is a subset of the scope of I; The outer variable X is said to be shadowed by the inner variable X'. For example, the parameter "foo" shadows the local variable "foo" in this common pattern:
In computer programming, variable shadowing occurs when a variable declared within a certain scope (decision block, method, or inner class) has the same name as a variable declared in an outer scope. At the level of identifiers (names, rather than variables), this is known as name masking .
Prolog, for both atoms (predicate names, function names, and constants) and variables [20] Python, for variable names, function names, method names, and module or package (i.e. file) names [3] PHP uses SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE for class constants; PL/I [21] R, for variable names, function names, and argument names, especially in the tidyverse style ...
In this example of a simple class representing a student with only the name stored, one can see the variable name is private, i.e. only visible from the Student class, and the "setter" and "getter" are public, namely the "getName()" and "setName(name)" methods.
Private (or class-private) restricts access to the class itself. Only methods that are part of the same class can access private members. Protected (or class-protected) allows the class itself and all its subclasses to access the member. Public means that any code can access the member by its name.