9. Accessor Operations

Normally, all object attributes are declared private.

This prevents objects from accessing other object attributes directly.

Such arrangement is dictated by the rules of encapsulation.

Accessor operations, known as setters and getters allow sharing appropriate information between objects.

For example,

public class Point {
    int x;
    int y;
    public void setX( int x ) {
        this.x = x;
    }
    public  int getX() {
        return x;
    }
    public void setY( int y ) {
        this.y = y;
    }
    public  int getY() {
        return y;
    }
}

Note: Encapsulation preserves data integrity.