Encapsulation in Java
EECS2030: Advanced
Object Oriented Programming
Fall 2017
C HEN -W EI WANG
Encapsulation (1.1)
Consider the following problem:
● A person has a name, a weight, and a height.
● A person’s weight may be in kilograms or pounds.
● A person’s height may be in meters or inches.
● A person’s BMI is calculated using their height in meters and
weight in kilograms.
Consider a first solution:
class Person {
public String name;
public double weight; /* in kilograms */
public double height; /* in meters */
public double getBMI() { return weight / (height * height); }
}
● Since both attributes height and weight are declared as
public, we do not need the setter methods for them.
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Encapsulation (1.2)
Say an application of the Person class mistakenly thinks that the
height in inches and weight in pounds should be set:
1 class BMICalculator {
2 public static void main(String args[]) {
3 Person jim = new Person();
4 /* Jim’s height and weight are 1.78 m and 85 kg */
5 jim.weight = 85 * 2.2;
6 jim.height = 1.78 * 39;
7 System.out.println(jim.getBMI());
8 } }
● Line 7: 85×2.2 2 = 0.038, rather than 85 2 = 26.827!!!
(1.78×39) 1.78
● Solution:
○ Disallow any application class of Person to directly assign to
weight and height.
○ Provide proper setter methods as the only means for assigning
these two attributes.
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Encapsulation (2.1)
Now consider a better solution:
class Person {
public String name;
private double weight; /* in kilograms */
private double height; /* in meters */
public void setWeightInKilograms(double k) { weight = k; }
public void setWeightInPounds(double p) { weight = p / 2.2; }
public void setHeightInMeters(double m) { height = m; }
public void setHeightInInches(double i) { height = i / 39; }
public double getBMI() { return weight / (height * height); }
}
Exercise: Modify the Person class so that weight is
measured in pounds and hegiht is measured in inches.
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Encapsulation (2.2)
Now an application of the Person class may only set the weight
and height of a person by calling the appropriate methods:
1 class BMICalculator {
2 public static void main(String args[]) {
3 Person jim = new Person();
4 /* Jim’s height and weight are 1.78 m and 85 kg */
5 jim.setWeightInPounds(85 * 2.2);
6 jim.setHeightInInches(1.78 * 39);
7 System.out.println(jim.getBMI());
8 } }
● Since both attributes weight and height in class Person are
declared as private, it is disallowed in any other class (e.g.,
BMICalculator) to access them (e.g., jim.weight).
● Line 7 now should return the correct BMI value.
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Encapsulation (3.1)
● Question : What if in the Person class, we want the weight
attribute to mean pounds and height to mean inches?
● Hint: Which classes will you have to change? Person?
BMICalculator? Both?
● Modify the setter methods in Person accordingly. [Exercise!]
● No change is needed in the BMICalculator!
○ Since class BMICalculator was disallowed to access weight
and height, as soon as the setter definitions are modified in
Person, the calculation will still work!
● What we have achieved:
○ Implementation details in Person (i.e., weight and height) are
hidden from all potential applications (e.g., BMICalculator).
○ When these implementation details are changed in Person (e.g.,
weight interpreted in pounds rather than in kilograms):
● Only the Person class has to be changed.
● All existing application classes can remain unchanged.
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Encapsulation (3.2)
● A software component hides the internal
details of its implementation, so that:
○ It has a stable interface;
○ Programmers of other components can
only depend on its public interface, rather
than writing code that depends on those
implementation decisions ;
○ The component developer may change
the implementation without affecting the
code of any other components.
● In Java, we achieve this by
○ declaring attributes or helper methods as
private;
○ providing public accessors or mutators.
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Encapsulation (3.3)
● Follow this tutorial video:
https:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2Q-uasRmAU&index=1&
list=PL5dxAmCmjv_492h1b0yiZSyhC3ImEetLV
● For complete details about controlling the access for attributes,
refer to:
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/
javaOO/accesscontrol.html
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Index (1)
Encapsulation (1.1)
Encapsulation (1.2)
Encapsulation (2.1)
Encapsulation (2.2)
Encapsulation (3.1)
Encapsulation (3.2)
Encapsulation (3.3)
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