Question

what is information hiding

Answers

GPT 3.5
Information hiding is a principle in software engineering that aims to isolate the internal details of a system component from other components or external users. It refers to the practice of hiding the complex implementation details of a class, module, or system, and only exposing a simplified and limited interface to the other components or users.

The main purpose of information hiding is to achieve a higher level of abstraction, encapsulation, and modularity in a software system. By hiding the inner workings and implementation details, it enables developers to manipulate and interact with the system through a well-defined and controlled interface, without knowing or depending on the underlying complexities.

This principle helps in improving the maintainability, reusability, and flexibility of the software system. It prevents the propagation of changes across other components when internal details are modified, as long as the interface does not change. Information hiding also helps to reduce complexity and potential errors by limiting the access to data and implementation, allowing for better debugging, testing, and code management.

In object-oriented programming, information hiding is achieved through the use of access modifiers like private, protected, and public, which control the visibility and accessibility of data and methods within a class.

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