Information hiding is a principle in OOP that suggests hiding the internal details of an object and exposing only essential information and interfaces to the outside world. It prevents direct access to object data and restricts it to the defined methods.
For example: When you use a mobile phone, you interact with its interface, such as making calls, sending messages, or using applications. The internal details of how the phone processes those actions, manages memory, or connects to the network are hidden from you. You don't need to know the intricate details of the phone's hardware or software implementation to use it effectively. The phone exposes only the necessary interfaces (buttons, touchscreen, menus) to interact with the device while hiding the complexity behind the scenes.
We can achieve information hiding using Encapsulation and Abstraction.
Encapsulation:
Encapsulation is a fundamental principle in OOP that combines data (fields) and the methods operating on that data into a single entity called a class. This involves bundling the data and methods together, hiding the internal implementation, and providing controlled access to the data through public methods, known as getters and setters, or through properties in C#. Encapsulation's main idea is to protect the integrity of data and prevent it from being accessed or modified directly by external code.
Abstraction:
Data abstraction is the property by virtue of which only the essential details are displayed to the user. The non-essential units are not displayed to the user.
Access specifiers in C# play a crucial role in achieving abstraction. They control the visibility and accessibility of class members and provide a way to encapsulate data and hide implementation details.
For example: A car is viewed as a car rather than its individual components.
By combining information hiding, encapsulation, and abstraction, object-oriented programming provides a powerful and modular approach to software development. It promotes code reusability, maintainability, and a more intuitive representation of real-world entities and concepts.
