Thread: private data member with public set member function

Isn't it somehow an avoidable contradiction?

I mean,

Code:

class D {
    private:
        int myproperty;
    public:
        D(int mp=1):myproperty(mp){;}
        void SetMyproperty(int setvar) {myproperty = setvar;}
};

Why do I want to this? Why did I declared myproperty private if I then create a public member function to change it?

>Why did I declared myproperty private if I then create a public member function to change it?
So that the class can regulate how myproperty is changed. If you made it public then any other code in the program could change the value to anything and the class would have no idea whether or not myproperty is actually a valid value.

Code:

void SetMyproperty(int setvar) {myproperty = setvar;}

This is as simple as it gets, but not very realistic. If this is all you are doing then the set method is a waste of time, this method is where you can and should thoroughly check the contents of setvar and make sure that everything is kosher before assigning it to myproperty. If you do this then you can use myproperty in the program without having to validate it since you can be sure that it's not a wacky value, it was checked before being assigned.

-Prelude

Thanks Prelude

I knew I was missing something.
Much easier to place the validation code and/or some needed processing under the class definition than to do it everytime the data member is changed.