Encapsulation

Encapsulation is the packing of data and {{glossary("function","functions")}} into one component (for example, a {{glossary("class")}}) and then controlling access to that component to make a "blackbox" out of the {{glossary("object")}}. Because of this, a user of that class only needs to know its interface (that is, the data and functions exposed outside the class), not the hidden implementation.

See also

• Encapsulation on Wikipedia