General Definition
In general, encapsulation is one of the 4 fundamentals of OOP (object-oriented programming). Encapsulation is to hide the variables or something inside a class, preventing unauthorized parties to use. So the public methods like getter and setter access it and the other classes call these methods for accessing.
This mechanism is not unique to object-oriented programming. Implementations of abstract data types, e.g. modules, offer a similar form of encapsulation. This similarity stems from the fact that both notions rely on the same mathematical fundament of an existential type.
Read more about this topic: Encapsulation (object-oriented Programming)
Famous quotes containing the words general and/or definition:
“Of what use, however, is a general certainty that an insect will not walk with his head hindmost, when what you need to know is the play of inward stimulus that sends him hither and thither in a network of possible paths?”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Was man made stupid to see his own stupidity?
Is God by definition indifferent, beyond us all?
Is the eternal truth man’s fighting soul
Wherein the Beast ravens in its own avidity?”
—Richard Eberhart (b. 1904)