Western Governors University (WGU) ICSC2211 D684 Introduction to Computer Science Practice Test

Encapsulation in object-oriented programming (OOP) refers to the mechanism of restricting access to certain components of an object, thereby protecting the object's internal state and data from outside interference. By bundling the data (attributes) and methods (functions) that operate on the data into a single unit, or object, encapsulation ensures that changes to the internal workings of a class do not affect other parts of the program that use that class. This leads to increased modularity and maintainability, as the implementation details of a class are hidden from the outside.

Through encapsulation, access modifiers like public, private, and protected can be used to control how the data is accessed and modified. For instance, private variables cannot be accessed directly from outside the class, which helps prevent unintended interference and misuse of the object's data.

This protective barrier allows developers to enforce constraints on the data and to provide public methods (getters and setters) that control how the data is accessed and modified. Thus, encapsulation plays a crucial role in safeguarding an object from unwanted access and potential corruption of its state.