What are the best practices for data hiding in programming?

What are the best practices for data hiding in programming?

Data hiding is a key principle in object-oriented programming. Best practices include using private and protected access modifiers, encapsulating data within classes, and providing public methods for data access.

Can you explain why data hiding is important?

Data hiding helps to protect the integrity of the data, reduces complexity, and enhances maintainability by preventing external interference.

What are some examples of data hiding in different programming languages?

In Java, you can use the 'private' keyword to restrict access. In Python, prefixing an attribute with an underscore indicates it should be treated as private.

How does data hiding relate to encapsulation?

Data hiding is a part of encapsulation. While encapsulation bundles data and methods, data hiding restricts access to the internal state of an object.