Object-Oriented Thought Process, The, Second Edition

Encapsulation

One of the primary advantages of using objects is that the object need not reveal all its attributes and behaviors. In good OO design (at least what is generally accepted as good), an object should only reveal the interfaces needed to interact with it. Details not pertinent to the use of the object should be hidden from other objects. This is called encapsulation. For example, an object that calculates the square of a number must provide an interface to obtain the result. However, the internal attributes and algorithms used to calculate the square need not be made available to the requesting object. Robust classes are designed with encapsulation in mind. In the next sections, we cover the concepts of interface and implementation, ...