What's the advantage of using getters and setters?

The advantages of using getters and setters, often referred to as accessors and mutators, are primarily centered around encapsulation, code maintainability, and flexibility in how data is accessed and modified within an object. Here are the key benefits:

Encapsulation

Getters and setters contribute to encapsulation by hiding the internal representation of properties. This means that the actual data structure storing the data can be changed without affecting the code that uses these properties. By using getters and setters, you can control how important variables are accessed and modified. This encapsulation protects the integrity of the data and prevents external code from directly changing fields in potentially harmful ways[1][2][4][5].

Code Maintainability

Using getters and setters makes the code more maintainable. If the implementation changes, the interface remains consistent. This is crucial in large codebases where changes to data handling might be necessary as requirements evolve. For instance, if you initially store a date as a string and later decide to use a Date object, only the getter and setter need to be updated. The rest of your code can continue to function without any changes[2][5].

Additional Logic

Getters and setters allow embedding additional logic when accessing or modifying a property. For example, you can add validation checks within a setter to ensure that no invalid data is set to the property. Similarly, a getter can compute values on the fly rather than just returning them. This is not possible with public fields, as they are simply accessed directly[1][2][4][5].

Flexibility with Access Levels

Getters and setters provide control over the access level of class properties. For instance, you can make the getter public but keep the setter protected or private. This is useful when you want to allow broad read acces...