How do I access a private variable from a method?

Question

currentColor = getCarColor(this.car.color)

Here color is private and getCarColor is a method, how do I access the variable color?

That breaks encapsulation. Unless you have an extremely good reason, don't. If you do have a good reason, you can use reflection. — Sotirios Delimanolis, Feb 19 '14 at 15:21
That's the reason we use setters and getters for variables in a class rather than accessing them directly — Harshavardhan Konakanchi, Feb 19 '14 at 15:23
If the private variable is inside a class that you own, why not add a getter method to the class? — jonhopkins, Feb 19 '14 at 15:23
There already is a public getter method, getCarColor (as I understand it... ), but it's not doing what I think it should be doing. — tarutao, Feb 19 '14 at 16:20

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 19 '14 at 15:25

3

You should not be accessing private variables directly: they are made private for a reason.

The proper way to do it is to add a public accessor method for the color to the car:

class Car {
    private Color color;
    // Add this method:
    public Color getColor() { return color; }
}

answered Feb 19 '14 at 15:25

There already is a public getter method, getCarColor (as I understand it... ), but it's not doing what I think it should be doing. – tarutao Feb 19 '14 at 16:20
@user3328737 You are calling it like `this.car.getCarColor()`, right? – Sergey Kalinichenko Feb 19 '14 at 16:24
@user3328737 You are welcome. If you no longer need help with this, consider accepting the answer to indicate to other site visitors that you are no longer actively looking for an improved answer. – Sergey Kalinichenko Feb 19 '14 at 16:43
I think my previous comment because of swear word... : ) I'll mark it as answered as soon as I can figure out how. – tarutao Feb 19 '14 at 16:59

1 Answers1