encapsulation

encapsulation is used to refer to one of two related but distinct notions, and sometimes to the combination^[1][2] thereof:

• A language mechanism for restricting direct access to some of the object's components.^[3][4]
• A language construct that facilitates the bundling of data with the methods (or other functions) operating on that data.^[5][6]

Some programming language researchers and academics use the first meaning alone or in combination with the second as a distinguishing feature of object-oriented programming, while some programming languages which provide lexical closures view encapsulation as a feature of the language orthogonal to object orientation.

The second definition is motivated by the fact that in many of the OOP languages hiding of components is not automatic or can be overridden; thus, information hiding is defined as a separate notion by those who prefer the second definition.

The features of encapsulation are supported using classes in most object-oriented programming languages, although other alternatives also exist.

An information-hiding mechanism[edit]

See also: Information hiding

Encapsulation can be used to hide data members and members function. Under this definition, encapsulation means that the internal representation of an object is generally hidden from view outside of the object's definition. Typically, only the object's own methods can directly inspect or manipulate its fields. Some languages like Smalltalk and Ruby only allow access via object methods, but most others (e.g. C++, C#, Delphi or Java) offer the programmer a degree of control over what is hidden, typically via keywords like public and private.^[4] It should be noted that the ISO C++ standard refers to protected, private and public as "access specifiers" and that they do not "hide any information". Information hiding is accomplished by furnishing a compiled version of the source code that is interfaced via a header file.

Hiding the internals of the object protects its integrity by preventing users from setting the internal data of the component into an invalid or inconsistent state. A supposed benefit of encapsulation is that it can reduce system complexity, and thus increase robustness, by allowing the developer to limit the inter-dependencies between software components^{[citation needed]}.

Almost always, there is a way to override such protection – usually via reflection API (Ruby, Java, C#, etc.), sometimes by mechanism like name mangling (Python), or special keyword usage like friend in C++.