Should class variables be public or private?

[hollow forum]

?

[amber osprey]

<@&987246399047479336> please have a look, thanks.

[amber osprey]

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[hollow forum]

I was wondering, should class varaible bet set to private, and I should put methods to access them?

[flat pine]

just to be sure, class variable = static variable ?

[long hemlock]

i assume it means any class field?

[onyx relic]

preferably private with setters/getters as that allows for greater flexibility and you can adhere to a design much better but it's up to you whatever you want to do, I've commonly done for some of my work ```java
public class Something {
public final int a;
public final int b;
public Something (int a, int b) {
this.a = a;
this.b = b;
}
...
}

Microsoft also follows a similar approach with some of their SDK's but it all depends what you're trying to achieve

static constants, often public

[flat pine]

Unless you are in a specific case of an access limited class that only hold data and is only used by a single class, or is a class in a very small project, never do that, ever

[onyx relic]

Yep, my usecase is usually ala's former

[flat pine]

And by default you should learn to just use private with getters

in any case

for at least some time until you are intermediate

[stuck palm]

what exactly is wrong with this one? would you elaborate on this for me please?

[hollow forum]

Also, is it a problem if I use those setters/getters internally in the class itself where they were defined?

for a static variable

for example in the main

or would this be redundant and I should just go directly for the static variable instead?

[flat pine]

@hollow forum please answer my question

[hollow forum]

yes

[flat pine]

depends then, usually you don't mind having public constants, and for non constants, they should be rare enough

[flat pine]

wdym

[stuck palm]

"never do that" confused me. what exactly is wrong with his way?
i started coding a few months ago so i am quite inexperienced and love for some practical insights

[modern matrix]

i guess it breaks the encapsulation(not good to know what you not supposed to)

[molten arch]

you cant change the implementation without changing the api of your class if you dont use getters

[stuck palm]

oh he was referring to static constants. i thought he was referring to his entire block of code. okay, yes thats clear to me. thanks!

[flat pine]

you shouldn't have a static mutable variable, you should use static as few as possible

[hollow forum]

i only have one, and it's not me who decided about it. Still, my question stands though

[flat pine]

you shouldn't need a getter or setter then

[hollow forum]

ok so direct access inside the class

that was what I was wondering

thanks