Data Encapsulation

is the separation of the representation of data from the applications that use the data at a logical level; a programming language feature that enforces information hiding.

 

Example of Program Level Data Encapsulation.

Enclosing all parts of an abstraction within a container

 

Benefit

  • to pretect access to the encapsulated (hidden) data
  • Increased modularity.

Language Specific

  • Most languages like Java have a "protection type" that can be applied to data and operations.
  • Publish access operations so users of a class are encoraged to use these and not directly/access data.
    • getX(), setX() operations.

In C++: Can do information hidding with protection type declarations of private, public, etc.

 

 

 
© Lynne Grewe