Information hiding

In computer science, the principle of information hiding is the hiding of design decisions in a computer program that are most likely to change, thus protecting other parts of the program from change if the design decision is changed. Protecting a design decision involves providing a stable interface which shields the remainder of the program from the implementation (the details that are most likely to change). In modern programming languages, the principle of information hiding manifests itself in a number of ways, including encapsulation (given the separation of concerns) and polymorphism.