Introduction

What is Encapsulation?

Encapsulation is a fundamental concept in object-oriented programming (OOP). It refers to the practice of hiding the internal implementation details of an object from the outside world, and instead providing a public interface for interacting with the object.

In Python, encapsulation is achieved through the use of access modifiers. Access modifiers are keywords that specify the level of access to an object's attributes and methods. There are three levels of access in Python:

• Public: Public attributes and methods can be accessed from anywhere in the program, both inside and outside the class definition. In Python, public attributes and methods are denoted by their lack of an access modifier.
• Protected: Protected attributes and methods can only be accessed from within the class definition, or from within a subclass of the class. In Python, protected attributes and methods are denoted by a single underscore (_) before their name.
• Private: Private attributes and methods can only be accessed from within the class definition. In Python, private attributes and methods are denoted by a double underscore (__) before their name.

Why is Encapsulation Important?

Encapsulation is important for several reasons:

• It allows objects to maintain their internal state while still providing a public interface for interacting with the object. This makes it easier to reason about the behavior of the object, as you don't need to worry about the internal implementation details.
• It helps to prevent accidental modification of an object's internal state from outside the object. By hiding the implementation details, you can ensure that the object is only modified through its public interface, which can help to prevent bugs and make the code more maintainable.
• It allows you to change the implementation details of an object without affecting the code that uses the object. As long as the public interface remains the same, you can change the internal implementation details of the object without affecting any code that uses the object.

Example

Here is an example of encapsulation in Python:

class Person:
    def __init__(self, name, age):
        self._name = name
        self._age = age

    def get_name(self):
        return self._name

    def set_name(self, name):
        self._name = name

    def get_age(self):
        return self._age

    def set_age(self, age):
        self._age = age

In this example, the Person class has two protected attributes (_name and _age) and four public methods (get_name, set_name, get_age, and set_age). The protected attributes are accessed through the public methods, which allows the object to maintain its internal state while still providing a public interface for interacting with the object.