Is it worth making get and set methods in OOP?

Question

I have seen some some projects in which classes are having get and set methods to manipulate insert data. Let me have an example here :

    class Student ext         


        

Answer 1

An example as to why to sometimes use getters and setters: I have code that sets a value in 200 different files:

$cat->name = 'Fery'          // in file one
$favoriteCat->name = 'Tery'  // in another file
$fatCat->name = 'jery'             // in another file
// 200 more calls in alot of places

Imagine the customer suddenly has a new requirement: "all cat names must be prepended by 'Sweet'

Now we must find all declarations of cats and replace their assignments:

$cat->name = 'Sweet '.'Fery'
// times 200   

On the other hand, If we used a setter method all we need to do is add the code to add 'Sweet ' in one place:

public function setCatname($catname)
{
  $this->catName = 'Sweet ' . $catname;
}