Encapsulation in Java refers to the mechanism of wrapping data and methods together in a single unit called a class.
It helps to keep the data private and inaccessible from outside the class, preventing unauthorized access and modification.
Encapsulation provides a way to enforce data integrity and maintain consistency by controlling access to data using access modifiers such as private, public, and protected.
With encapsulation, the internal details of a class can be hidden from other classes, promoting code modularity and reducing interdependence among classes.
It also enables the creation of getter and setter methods that provide controlled access to class variables, allowing for secure and controlled data manipulation.
Encapsulation is one of the four fundamental principles of object-oriented programming (OOP) that helps to achieve abstraction, inheritance, and polymorphism.
The encapsulation mechanism provides a high level of security by hiding the implementation details from the outside world and only exposing the necessary public interface.
Encapsulation helps in code maintenance by preventing direct access to class variables, thereby making it easy to modify the internal implementation without affecting the client code.
It also helps in enhancing code reusability by allowing other classes to use the public interface of a class without worrying about the internal details.