BCA / B.Tech 10 min read

Data Hiding in C++

Data Hiding in C++:


What is Data Hiding?
Data Hiding is an important concept in Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), which is the process of keeping data safe and hidden. Under data hiding, a programmer prevents the data members of a class from being directly accessed or modified by external code. Its main purpose is to maintain data security and integrity.

Purposes of Data Hiding:
  • Data Security: Protects data from improper or accidental changes by external code.
  • Data Integrity: Ensures that data is modified correctly through defined methods.
  • Modularity: Makes code modular and organized, which simplifies debugging and maintenance.
  • Control within the Class: Gives the class full control over how its data can be accessed.

How is Data Hiding Implemented?
Data hiding is implemented in C++ through access specifiers: `private`, `protected`, and `public`. To effectively implement data hiding, data members are declared as `private` or `protected`, and public methods (getter and setter functions) are defined to access or modify them safely.

Benefits of Data Hiding:
Security, data integrity, flexibility, and reusability.