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Are mutators private or public?
Accessors and mutators are public member functions in a class that get (accessors) and set (mutators) the values of class member functions. In other words, these are functions that exist solely to set or get the value of a class member variable.
What is the significance of having public accessor methods for private fields?
Private fields are considered to be internal to the object. So the outside world doesn’t need to know about how the data is stored inside the object. This means you can easily change the internal representation of data of an object while everyone else still uses the same accessors / mutators to do its work.
Why do you provide accessor methods in a class rather than making the class’s fields publicly accessible?
Certainly, the hard-liners are correct when it comes to public classes: if a class is accessible outside its package, provide accessor methods, to preserve the flexibility to change the class’s internal representation.
Should setters be public or private?
Usually you want setters/getters to be public, because that’s what they are for: giving access to data, you don’t want to give others direct access to because you don’t want them to mess with your implementation dependent details – that’s what encapsulation is about.
Can a mutator change class fields?
because immutability is remaining intact once set. Immutable only has a getter. There’s no way to change the value of its fields once it’s set. Once a String object is created, it is not allowed to change.
Why do we use private fields?
Fields should be declared private unless there is a good reason for not doing so. One of the guiding principles of lasting value in programming is “Minimize ripple effects by keeping secrets.” When a field is private , the caller cannot usually get inappropriate direct access to the field.
Can a class be immutable if it has a private?
So, I read somewhere that there are 3 requirements for a class to be immutable in Java. All data fields must be private. There can’t be any mutator methods for data fields. No accessor methods can return a reference to a data field that is mutable.
Are there any mutator methods for data fields?
Yes, there can’t be any mutator methods for data fields. The reason is that setting the method private only effects the scope of the method. If you want a truly immutable variable then you must set variable final as well. This way your variable cannot be mutated.
When to use the mutator method in Java?
This method is also called the Getter method. This method returns the variable value. productName= p.getName(); //to get the product name in the p object. We use the Mutator method to store or change the value of the instance variable of the class. This method is also called the Setter method. This method sets the variable value.
When to use public, protected, private access in Java?
That’s the wrong approach. At design time, you should know what public access you want to give. Usually you give public access because that’s the whole purpose of your class. And you give protected access because you want subclasses to access things. And you use private for things that are nobody else’s business.