Set and Get Methods in java?

Question

How can I use the set and get methods, and why should I use them? Are they really helpful? And also can you give me examples of set and get methods?

Answer 1

Set and Get methods are a pattern of data encapsulation. Instead of accessing class member variables directly, you define get methods to access these variables, and set methods to modify them. By encapsulating them in this manner, you have control over the public interface, should you need to change the inner workings of the class in the future.

For example, for a member variable:

Integer x;

You might have methods:

Integer getX(){ return x; }
void setX(Integer x){ this.x = x; }

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chiccodoro also mentioned an important point. If you only want to allow read access to the field for any foreign classes, you can do that by only providing a public get method and keeping the set private or not providing a set at all.

Answer 2

I want to add to other answers that setters can be used to prevent putting the object in an invalid state.

For instance let's suppose that I've to set a TaxId, modelled as a String. The first version of the setter can be as follows:

private String taxId;

public void setTaxId(String taxId) {
    this.taxId = taxId;
}

However we'd better prevent the use to set the object with an invalid taxId, so we can introduce a check:

private String taxId;

public void setTaxId(String taxId) throws IllegalArgumentException {
    if (isTaxIdValid(taxId)) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Tax Id '" + taxId + "' is invalid");
    }
    this.taxId = taxId;
}

The next step, to improve the modularity of the program, is to make the TaxId itself as an Object, able to check itself.

private final TaxId taxId = new TaxId()

public void setTaxId(String taxIdString) throws IllegalArgumentException {
    taxId.set(taxIdString); //will throw exception if not valid
}

Similarly for the getter, what if we don't have a value yet? Maybe we want to have a different path, we could say:

public String getTaxId() throws IllegalStateException {
    return taxId.get(); //will throw exception if not set
}

Answer 3

I think you want something like this:

public class Person {

  private int age;

  //public method to get the age variable
  public int getAge(){
       return this.age
  }

  //public method to set the age variable
  public void setAge(int age){
       this.age = age;
  }
}

You're simply calling such a method on an object instance. Such methods are useful especially if setting something is supposed to have side effects. E.g. if you want to react to certain events like:

  public void setAge(int age){

       this.age = age;

       double averageCigarettesPerYear = this.smokedCigarettes * 1.0 / age;

       if(averageCigarettesPerYear >= 7300.0) {
           this.eventBus.fire(new PersonSmokesTooMuchEvent(this));
       }
  }

Of course this can be dangerous if somebody forgets to call setAge(int) where he should and sets age directly using this.age.