Abstraction

Abstraction involves displaying only essential information while concealing underlying details.

Data abstraction refers to providing only data-related information to the user, hiding additional information that is not needed.

Access Specifiers

Abstraction can be implemented by using access specifiers to control the accessibility of members within a class:

• Members declared as public in a class can be accessed from anywhere in the program.
• Members declared as private in a class, can be accessed only from within the class. They are not allowed to be accessed from any part of the code outside the class.

// C++ Program to demonstrate abstraction
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class implementAbstraction {
private:
  int a, b;

public:
  // Method to set values of
  // private members
  void set(int x, int y) {
    a = x;
    b = y;
  }

  void display() {
    cout << "a = " << a << endl;
    cout << "b = " << b << endl;
  }
};

int main() {
  implementAbstraction obj;
  obj.set(10, 20);
  obj.display();
  return 0;
}

The output will be:

a = 10
b = 20

Advantages of Data Abstraction

Data abstraction has several advantages including:

• Simplicity: Helps the user to avoid writing the low-level code.
• Reusability: Avoids code duplication and increases reusability.
• Modularity: Allows for changes to the internal implementation of the class independently without affecting the user.
• Security: Enhances the security of an application or program by only providing essential details to the user and keeping sensitive information hidden.
• Readability: Reduces the complexity as well as the redundancy of the code, therefore increasing the readability.