13.14. Privacy
Attributes in Python are, by default, “public” all the time, accessible by both code within the module and modules that import the module containing the class.
Many OO languages provide some level of privacy for the data and provide only accessor functions to provide access to the values. This is known as implementation hiding and is a key component to the encapsulation of the object. Most OO languages provide “access specifiers” to restrict who has access to member functions.
Python 1.5 introduces an elementary form of privacy for class elements (attributes or methods). Attributes which begin with a double underscore (__) are mangled during run-time so direct access is thwarted. In actuality, the name is prepended with an underscore ...
Get Core Python Programming now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
