University of Central Florida (UCF) COP3330 Object Oriented Programming Final Practice Exam

The main purpose of encapsulation in object-oriented programming is to hide implementation details and restrict access to the internal state of an object. This means that the inner workings of a class are shielded from the outside world, allowing changes to be made to the encapsulated code without affecting other parts of the program that rely on the object.

By using encapsulation, developers can enforce a controlled interface through which the object's data can be accessed or modified. This promotes modularity and enhances maintainability, as it isolates the effects of changes and reduces the risk of unintended interactions with other parts of the application. As a result, encapsulation plays a critical role in achieving better data integrity and ensuring that the object's state is only altered in well-defined ways.

This principle contrasts with other choices. For example, increasing code complexity does not align with encapsulation; rather, encapsulation aims to simplify interactions and reduce complicated dependencies. Enabling multiple inheritance is related to the class structure and relationships, but not directly tied to encapsulation. Lastly, creating global variables is unassociated with encapsulation and can lead to poor design practices, as encapsulation encourages the use of object-specific data instead.