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Data encapsulation, also known as data hiding, is the mechanism whereby the implementation details of a class are kept hidden from the user. The user can only perform a restricted set of operations on the hidden members of the class by executing special functions commonly called methods to prevent attributes of objects from being easily viewed and accessed.
In software systems, encapsulation refers to the bundling of data with the mechanisms or methods that operate on the data. It may also refer to the limiting of direct access to some of that data, such as an object's components. [1] Essentially, encapsulation prevents external code from being concerned with the internal workings of an object.
Encapsulation also protects the integrity of the component, by preventing users from setting the internal data of the component into an invalid or inconsistent state. Another benefit of encapsulation is that it reduces system complexity and thus increases robustness, by limiting the interdependencies between software components.
Similarly, encapsulation prevents external code from being concerned with the internal workings of an object. This facilitates code refactoring, for example allowing the author of the class to change how objects of that class represent their data internally without changing any external code (as long as "public" method calls work the same way ...
The NIST Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [1] is a reference work maintained by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. It defines a large number of terms relating to algorithms and data structures. For algorithms and data structures not necessarily mentioned here, see list of algorithms and list of data structures.
Encapsulation is a means of information hiding. [2] Layered designs in information systems are another embodiment of separation of concerns (e.g., presentation layer, business logic layer, data access layer, persistence layer). [3] Separation of concerns results in more degrees of freedom for some aspect of the program's design, deployment, or ...
A data structure known as a hash table.. In computer science, a data structure is a data organization and storage format that is usually chosen for efficient access to data. [1] [2] [3] More precisely, a data structure is a collection of data values, the relationships among them, and the functions or operations that can be applied to the data, [4] i.e., it is an algebraic structure about data.
These simplified accessors still retain the advantage of encapsulation over simple public instance variables, but it is common that, as system designs progress, the software is maintained and requirements change, the demands on the data become more sophisticated. Many automatic mutators and accessors eventually get replaced by separate blocks ...