Getter & Setter also for in class usage?

Question

It is a bad way of programming, when i get access to my private/protected class members directly in the class via my getter/setter methods?

Alternative #1

<?php

class A {
    private $myVariable;

    public function getMyVariable() {
        return $this->myVariable;
    }

    public function doSomething() {
        $variable = $this->getMyVariable();
    }
}

?>

Alternative #2

<?php

class A {
    private $myVariable;

    public function doSomething() {
        $variable = $this->myVariable;
    }
}
?>

Which way do you prefer? I think the first solution is more readable in constrast to the second one. Please let me hear your opinions.

Thanks in advance.

in my opinion method #2 is perfectly fine. The variable is private. The getter/setter is there in other languas to control the access from external classes. Since you are just have to perform `doSomething()` the shorter version should be enougth. — Friedrich, Aug 18 '14 at 06:46
possible duplicate of [Why use getters and setters?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1568091/why-use-getters-and-setters) — Noy, Aug 18 '14 at 06:47
No! This isn't my question! I know why to use getter and setter from outside my class, to scope my variables - but this is not my question. — xyNNN, Aug 18 '14 at 06:47
It depends. If we're talking about the example above, then #2, because there's less function calls. But if the getter function served more purpose such as validation, [as explained here](http://stackoverflow.com/a/1568230]), then it would be more beneficial to use your function to retrieve the variable. — Dave Chen, Aug 18 '14 at 06:50
Thank you Noy Gabay, i didn't looked at the accepted answer. Then my solution #1 is the best way and this was also my suspicion. — xyNNN, Aug 18 '14 at 06:51

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:05

Since you are determined this is not a duplicate, I will copy the points from this response relevant to this case:

Encapsulation of behavior associated with getting or setting the property - this allows additional functionality (like validation) to be added more easily later.
Controlling the lifetime and memory management (disposal) semantics of the property - particularly important in non-managed memory environments (like C++ or Objective-C).
Providing a debugging interception point for when a property changes at runtime - debugging when and where a property changed to a particular value can be quite difficult without this in some languages.
Allowing inheritors to change the semantics of how the property behaves and is exposed by overriding the getter/setter methods.

Maybe you could explain these points in detail? I kinda lost it at `Controlling the lifetime and memory management`. — Dave Chen, Aug 18 '14 at 06:56

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 18 '14 at 07:10

Maybe you should think in another way: Why do we need getter/setter? They abstract direct access to a field. Even if the Getter does nothing other than setting a value, it can protect you later on. Changing a field to a Getter later is a breaking change, especially in PHP IDEs (badumm). So I think whenever you want to protect a field to prevent vulnerable/buggy code, use getter/setter.

Getter & Setter also for in class usage?

2 Answers2