Getters & Setters

Encapsulation often involves the use of getter and setter methods as a way to control access to an object's private data members. Getter methods (also called accessor methods) allow you to retrieve the value of a private data member, and setter methods (also called mutator methods) allow you to modify the value of a private data member. Here's how getters and setters are related to encapsulation:

1. Getters (Accessor Methods):

   • Getter methods are public methods defined within a class to provide controlled access to private data members.

   • They are used to retrieve the values of private data members.

   • Getters typically have a const qualifier in their method signatures to indicate that they do not modify the object's internal state.

   cppCopy codeclass MyClass {
   private:
       int myValue;
   
   public:
       int GetValue() const {
           return myValue;
       }
   };

2. Setters (Mutator Methods):

   • Setter methods are public methods defined within a class to modify the values of private data members.

   • They are used to update the internal state of an object.

   • Setters can perform validation and enforce constraints on the values being set.

   cppCopy codeclass MyClass {
   private:
       int myValue;
   
   public:
       void SetValue(int newValue) {
           if (newValue >= 0) {
               myValue = newValue;
           }
       }
   };

By using getter and setter methods, you can achieve several objectives related to encapsulation:

• Controlled Access: You can enforce controlled access to the private data members, allowing you to define rules for reading and modifying the data.

• Data Validation: Setters can include validation logic to ensure that the data remains in a valid state.

• Abstraction: Getter and setter methods abstract away the details of how the data is stored or manipulated, providing a clean interface to the class's users.

• Flexibility: If the internal representation of the data changes, you can update the getter and setter methods without affecting the external code that uses the class.

• Encapsulation: Together with private data members, getter and setter methods contribute to the encapsulation of data and behavior within a class.

Using getter and setter methods is a common practice in object-oriented programming and contributes to the principles of encapsulation and information hiding, allowing you to manage and protect the internal state of objects while providing controlled access to it.