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

Encapsulation in object-oriented programming refers to the practice of bundling the data (attributes) and methods (functions or procedures) that operate on that data within a single unit, typically known as a class. This design principle ensures that the internal state of an object is protected from unintended interference and misuse from outside code.

By keeping the data and methods together, encapsulation promotes a stronger abstraction by exposing only the necessary functionalities while hiding the internal workings. This means that users of a class interact with the object's interface (the public methods) rather than directly accessing the data variables, promoting modularity and easier maintenance of the code.

For instance, if you are working with a class representing a bank account, the balance may be a private attribute. You would provide public methods to deposit or withdraw funds, thus controlling how the balance can be modified and ensuring there is always a correct operation based on the defined rules. This way, instances of the class protect themselves from being inadvertently corrupted by external actions.

The other options represent different concepts that do not align with the definition of encapsulation. Inheritance relates to class relationships, overloading focuses on method names, and instantiation refers to creating objects from classes, none of which directly involve the bundling of data