Data Encapsulation Concept

Data Encapsulation refers to a programming concept that binds a group of functions, related properties, and other members as a single unit, known as a class. It is an object-oriented concept that hides the implementation details from users, ensuring confidentiality and integrity of data. The benefits of Data Encapsulation include promoting maintenance, ensuring data protection, increasing usability, and allowing independent code changes while maintaining a public interface.

BLOG: DATA ENCAPSULATION
WHAT IS DATA ENCAPSULATION?

Data Encapsulation
7th August 2019
Data Encapsulation refers to Programming concept which is Object Oriented and binds a group
of functions, related properties, as well as other members that are considered as a single unit. A
class stands as the most suitable example of Data Encapsulation. It is also known as data hiding
because it prevents users to access the details of implementation. Therefore, data encapsulation
guarantees the confidentiality and integrity of data that are contained in an Object. The entire
idea of data encapsulation is of hiding the details related to implementation from the users. Data
encapsulation allows users to perform a set of restricted operations on all the hidden members of
a class by executing some special functions that are commonly termed methods. The actions that
are performed by applying methods are identified by a class’s designer, who needs to be very
careful while designing the methods. The designers must not make such methods too restrictive
or overly flexible. This particular idea of hiding away all the details about implementation from
users and providing a clearly defined, restricted interface is the theme underlying behind
‘abstract data type’ concept.
The benefits of applying data encapsulation mechanism come at the time when the
implementation of a class changes whereas the interface of the class remains same as before.
Data encapsulation concept is supported in computer programming languages like C+ and C++
through the utilisation of public, private and protected keywords that are placed in the
declaration of a class. In a class, anything that is placed after placing the public keywords is
accessible to every user present in the class. Furthermore, the elements which are placed after
placing the protected keywords are accessible to all the methods only that are derived from the
class. Data Encapsulation mechanism is implemented by using access modifiers or access
specifiers. It uses to define the scope as well as the visibility of the members in a class. In C#
programming language, five different types of modifiers are used by encapsulation for
encapsulating data. The five modifiers are Public, Private, Protected, Internal, and Protected
internal.

Definition and Benefits of Data Encapsulation
Data encapsulation which is also called data hiding is a mechanism by applying which the
implementation related details in relation to a particular class are concealed or kept hidden from
all the users. Here, the users are only able to perform only a restricted set of operations by
executing some specially designed functions that are commonly known as methods. Data
encapsulation also refers to the act of:
 Wrapping private data and information in classes in object-oriented programming
languages: Encapsulation (programming which is object-oriented), separation of
concerns, information hiding.
In the network protocol, data encapsulation also refers as an OSI model. It is beneficial for
promoting maintenance, ensuring confidentiality, data protection, and increasing usability. Along
with this, the benefits of data encapsulation also include changing of codes independently. Data
encapsulation needs to be implemented with public interface.