Object-Oriented Programming, unit: Encapsulation and Access Control. Core concepts, terminology, and worked-example cues a college student meets for this unit, building on prior units without repeating them. Front: a term, concept, or short problem cue. Back: the definition, explanation, or answer.
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- What is encapsulation?
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Bundling data and methods together while restricting direct access to internal state- Why is encapsulation useful?
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It protects an object's internal state from unintended interference and misuse- What is access control, in OOP?
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Rules determining which parts of a program can access a class's members- What does the 'private' access modifier do?
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Restricts a member's visibility to within its own class only- What does the 'public' access modifier do?
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Allows a member to be accessed from anywhere the object is visible- What does the 'protected' access modifier do?
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Allows access within the class and its subclasses, but not from unrelated code- What is information hiding?
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Concealing internal implementation details from outside code that uses an object- What is a data abstraction, in the context of encapsulation?
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Exposing only relevant, essential details of an object while hiding complexity- Why are instance variables commonly made private?
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To prevent external code from directly modifying an object's state in invalid ways- What is validation logic often placed in, when using encapsulation?
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Setter methods, to ensure only valid values are assigned to instance variables- What is a package (or namespace), in relation to access control?
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A grouping of related classes, sometimes affecting default access visibility- What is coupling, in software design?
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The degree to which different classes or modules depend on each other's internals- Why does encapsulation reduce coupling?
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It hides internal details, so other code depends only on a class's public interface- What is an interface's role in supporting encapsulation?
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It defines what a class can do without revealing how it does it- What is immutability, in object design?
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Designing an object so its state cannot be changed after creation
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