On 2/13/07, Holth, Daniel C. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I was wondering what people's thoughts were on the use of "get" and
"set" functions. I personally have felt that creating functions such
as:
public function get theLetterA(){
return "a";
}
so the user can simply call someObject.theLetterA are confusing because
the user doesn't know if they are doing a function call or accessing a
public variable. I prefer writing functions such as:
That's the point, though. They don't actually need to know. If you're
using someone else's class, you don't need to know how it's
implemented; you just need to know the interface.
Are there advantages to using "get" and "set" that I'm not seeing?
You can implement as either a public variable (faster, simpler) or as
getter/setter functions (more options, more security) without changing
the class' interface.
I ask because I was always use getVariable() functions and started
reading ActionScript 3 with Design Patterns and the authors (as well as
many others I've read) are using "get" and "set" functions.
AFAIK, getVariable() is a holdover from Java, which doesn't have properties.
As a final benefit, using properties makes code much more readable. Compare:
obj.property += value;
obj.setProperty(obj.getProperty() + value);
The only time I ever use "getX" as a function name is if I need to
pass one or more arguments (which you can't do with getters) For
example:
public function getItemAt(index:Number):Item {
return _items[index];
}
--
Mike Keesey
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