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In computer science, a mutator method is a method used to control changes to a variable. They are also widely known as ''setter'' methods. Often a setter is accompanied by a getter (also known as an ''accessor''), which returns the value of the private member variable. The mutator method is most often used in object-oriented programming, in keeping with the principle of encapsulation. According to this principle, member variables of a class are made private to hide and protect them from other code, and can only be modified by a public member function (the mutator method), which takes the desired new value as a parameter, optionally validates it, and modifies the private member variable. Mutator methods may also be used in non-object-oriented environments. In this case, a reference to the variable to be modified is passed to the mutator, along with the new value. In this scenario, the compiler cannot restrict code from bypassing the mutator method and changing the variable directly. The onus falls to the developers to ensure the variable is only modified through the mutator method and not modified directly. In programming languages that support them, properties offer a convenient alternative without giving up the utility of encapsulation. In the examples below, a fully implemented mutator method can also validate the input data or take further action such as triggering an event. ==Implications== The alternative to defining mutator and accessor methods, or property blocks, is to give the instance variable some visibility other than private and access it directly from outside the objects. Much finer control of access rights can be defined using mutators and accessors. For example, a parameter may be made read-only simply by defining an accessor but not a mutator. The visibility of the two methods may be different; it is often useful for the accessor to be public while the mutator remains protected, package-private or internal. The block where the mutator is defined provides an opportunity for validation or preprocessing of incoming data. If all external access is guaranteed to come through the mutator, then these steps cannot be bypassed. For example, if a date is represented by separate private year, month and day variables, then incoming dates can be split by the setDate mutator while for consistency the same private instance variables are accessed by setYear and setMonth. In all cases month values outside of 1 - 12 can be rejected by the same code.Accessors conversely allow for synthesis of useful data representations from internal variables while keeping their structure encapsulated and hidden from outside modules. A monetary getAmount accessor may build a string from a numeric variable with the number of decimal places defined by a hidden currency parameter.Modern programming languages often offer the ability to generate the boilerplate for mutators and accessors in a single line—as for example C#'s public string Name and Ruby's attr_accessor :name. In these cases, no code blocks are created for validation, preprocessing or synthesis. These simplified accessors still retain the advantage of encapsulation over simple public instance variables, but it is common that, as system designs progress, the software is maintained and requirements change, the demands on the data become more sophisticated. Many automatic mutators and accessors eventually get replaced by separate blocks of code. The benefit of automatically creating them in the early days of the implementation is that the public interface of the class remains identical whether or not greater sophistication is added, requiring no extensive refactoring if it is. Manipulation of parameters that have mutators and accessors from ''inside'' the class where they are defined often requires some additional thought. In the early days of an implementation, when there is little or no additional code in these blocks, it makes no difference if the private instance variable is accessed directly or not. As validation, cross-validation, data integrity checks, preprocessing or other sophistication is added, subtle bugs may appear where some internal access makes use of the newer code while in other places it is bypassed. Accessor functions can be less efficient than directly fetching or storing data fields due to the extra steps involved, however such functions are often inlined which eliminates the overhead of a function call. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mutator method」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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