What is the purpose of access modifiers?

What is the purpose of access modifiers in programming?

Access modifiers are keywords used to set the visibility of classes, methods, and variables in object-oriented programming.

Can you give me examples of different access modifiers?

Sure! Common access modifiers include public, private, and protected. Public members are accessible from anywhere, private members are only accessible within the same class, and protected members can be accessed in the same class and subclasses.

Why would I use private or protected instead of public?

Using private or protected helps encapsulate your data, preventing unauthorized access and modification, which enhances security and maintainability.

Are there any programming languages that don't use access modifiers?

Yes, some languages like JavaScript do not have traditional access modifiers, but they use other mechanisms like closures to achieve similar encapsulation.