Are Get-Set methods a violation of Encapsulation?
- by Dipan Mehta
In an Object oriented framework, one believes there must be strict encapsulation. Hence, internal variables are not to be exposed to outside applications.
But in many codebases, we see tons of get/set methods which essentially open a formal window to modify internal variables that were originally intended to be strictly prohibited. Isn't it a clear violation of encapsulation? How broadly such a practice is seen and what to do about it?
EDIT:
I have seen some discussions where there are two opinions in extreme: on one hand people believe that because get/set interface is used to modify any parameter, it does qualifies not be violating encapsulation. On the other hand, there are people who believe it is does violate.
Here is my point. Take a case of UDP server, with methods - get_URL(), set_URL(). The URL (to listen to) property is quite a parameter that application needs to be supplied and modified. However, in the same case, if the property like get_byte_buffer_length() and set_byte_buffer_length(), clearly points to values which are quite internal. Won't it imply that it does violate the encapsulation? In fact, even get_byte_buffer_length() which otherwise doesn't modify the object, still misses the point of encapsulation, because, certainly there is an App which knows i have an internal buffer! Tomorrow, if the internal buffer is replaced by something like a *packet_list* the method goes dysfunctional.
Is there a universal yes/no towards get set method? Is there any strong guideline that tell programmers (specially the junior ones) as to when does it violate encapsulation and when does it not?
