What good are public variables then?

Question

I\'m a total newbie with tons of ?\'s in my mind and a lot to experience with C++ yet! There\'s been something which I find really confusing and it\'s the use of public vari

Answer 1

One argument runs something like this:

If code external to the class in question relies directly on a particular member, making a change to that member means changing every piece of code that accesses it. If instead it is accessed by member functions, you can keep that part of the interface the same, and only have to make changes to that class to keep external code working.

Using "getters" and "setters" gives you some flexibility built into the coupling of your objects.