[SPENCER24]

help got a problem
i got an exam tomorrow and was just wandering
in a program if u have two attributes with different access modifiers- one private and one public, how would you define one of the attributes to break the encapsulation principle? sorry its a question i know is gonna come up
my friend said:
answer: make the attribute which is private, public. this is to modify the value of that attribute.
please say he is right someone
whats the answer??

[bones]

Yes, I'd say that is correct.

The encapsulation principle is really exactly what it sounds - that each class should be encapsulated. This means that all attributes that don't absolutely need to be public shouldn't be, and that all classes should essentially manage and have exclusive access to their own attributes. Having a class attribute as public allows other external classes to modify its value, which breaks this principle. This might not be a problem in some cases and is sometimes used if the programmer doesn't want to have access methods (getX() and setX()), but can cause problems in some circumstances (e.g. where the value is restricted somehow - it could be set to an invalid value by another class).

Hope this helps a little. Good luck with the exam

[SPENCER24]

(Original post by bones)
Yes, I'd say that is correct.

The encapsulation principle is really exactly what it sounds - that each class should be encapsulated. This means that all attributes that don't absolutely need to be public shouldn't be, and that all classes should essentially manage and have exclusive access to their own attributes. Having a class attribute as public allows other external classes to modify its value, which breaks this principle. This might not be a problem in some cases and is sometimes used if the programmer doesn't want to have access methods (getX() and setX()), but can cause problems in some circumstances (e.g. where the value is restricted somehow - it could be set to an invalid value by another class).

Hope this helps a little. Good luck with the exam

Thanks so much.. i know now to say make the attribute which is public, private.