25 Oct 2023
Beginner
| Feature | Abstraction | Encapsulation |
|---|---|---|
| Main Purpose | To hide complex implementation details and provide a simplified view of an object or system. | To restrict access to an object's internal state and only expose necessary functionality. |
| Focus | Focuses on the "what" and "why" of an object, emphasizing the essential properties and behaviors. | Focuses on the "how" of an object, protecting the object's internal details and controlling access. |
| Level of Detail | Provides a high-level view, defining the interface and abstract behavior without specifying the implementation. | Concerned with the low-level details of an object, including attributes and methods, which are often private. |
| Accessibility | Abstraction may involve defining abstract classes or interfaces, which can have abstract methods. | Encapsulation involves access modifiers (e.g., public, private, protected) to control the visibility of members. |
| Inheritance | Abstraction can be achieved through inheritance, where child classes inherit and implement abstract methods. | Encapsulation is not directly related to inheritance but can be used in combination with it for controlled access to inherited members. |
| Flexibility | Provides flexibility to change the underlying implementation without affecting the code that uses the abstract interface. | Provides flexibility in modifying internal implementation details without impacting external code that relies on the encapsulated interface. |
| Examples | Abstract classes, interfaces, design patterns like Factory and Strategy, creating generic classes and methods. | Using private fields with getter and setter methods, controlling data access and modification. |
| Real World Example | Consider a car. When you drive a car, you only need to know how to operate the steering wheel, pedals, and gear shift. You don't need to know how the engine works or how the transmission works. This is because the car's designer has used abstraction to hide the implementation details of the car from you. | Consider a bank account. When you open a bank account, you only need to know how to deposit and withdraw money. You don't need to know how the bank stores your money or how it calculates interest. This is because the bank has used encapsulation to hide the implementation details of the bank account from you. |
In summary, abstraction is about defining a high-level view of an object or system, emphasizing what it does without specifying how it does it. Encapsulation, on the other hand, is about controlling access to an object's internal details, focusing on how it achieves its functionality while hiding the implementation. Both concepts are fundamental to object-oriented programming and contribute to the modularity and maintainability of code.
