Encapsulation in C#

Encapsulation is a process of binding the data members and member functions into a single unit. Class is the real-time example for encapsulation because it will combine various types of data members and member functions into a single unit.

 

Generally, encapsulation is used to prevent alteration of code (data) accidentally from the outside of functions. In C#, defining a class fields with properties, we can protect the data from accidental corruption.

 

If we define class fields with properties, then the encapsulated class won’t allow us to access the fields directly instead, we need to use getter and setter functions to read or write data based on our requirements.

 

In the example below, we define an encapsulation by defining a class with properties and get and set accessors.

 

using system;

class User

{

    private string location;

    private string name;

    public string Location

    {

        get

        {

            return location;

        }

        set

        {

            location = value;

        }

 

    }

    public string Name

    {

        get

        {

            return name;

        }

        set

        {

            name = value;

        }

    }

}

 

From the code above, we defined variables with private access modifiers and exposing those variables in a public way by using properties get and set accessors. In case, if you want to make any modifications to the defined variables, then we can make it by using properties with get and set accessors.

 

Encapsulation Real-time Example in C#

Below is an example of defining an encapsulated class in C#.

 

using System;

namespace Csharpnaija

{

    class User

    {

        public string Location { get; set; }

        public string Name { get; set; }

        public string UserDetails()

        {

            return $"My name is {Name}, I live in {Location}";

        }

    }

 

    class Program

    {

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            User u = new User();

            // set accessor will invoke

            u.Name = "Musa Gadabs";

            // set accessor will invoke

            u.Location = "Abuja";

            // get accessor will invoke

            Console.WriteLine("Name: " + u.Name);

            // get accessor will invoke

            Console.WriteLine("Location: " + u.Location);

            //Accessing the encapsulated method

            Console.WriteLine(u.UserDetails());

            Console.WriteLine("\nPress Enter Key to Exit..");

            Console.ReadLine();

        }

    }

}

 

If we observed above code snippets, we defined a class with two properties Location and Name using auto property without the field or private variables as in the first example. We can manipulate the field values in the same way when we have private variables.

 

This is how you can use encapsulation in C# to bind data members and member functions into a single unit by protecting the data from accidental corruption.

 

References

 1.     Tutlane

2.     Geeksforgeeks

3.     Tutorial Points