They are two completely different things.
A
Class[
^] is a blueprint of a custom type, which can have
Methods,
Properties,
Fields, etc. A Class can be used to create Object by instantiating them and assigning them to variables.
Encapsulation [
^] is the level of access an
Object provides to the rest of your application. For example a
Method can be
Private, which means it is only accessible from within its own
Class. A
Method can be
Public, which means any other
Object holding a a reference to an instance of the particular
Class can call that
Method.
I have written an
article[
^] that, for a part, discusses the benefits of proper Encapsulation of your
Classes.
Also consider this (example in C# since you did not provide a language):
public class Test
{
private int _counter;
public void IncrementCounter()
{
_count += 1;
}
}
In that example the
Class is
Test. It Encapsulates an
int called
_counter. This
_counter cannot be directly accessed by other parts of your application. The
Method IncrementCounter on the opposite CAN be called from anywhere. So access to
_counter is limited to calling the
IncrementCounter Method.
_counter is enclosed by the
Test Class and protected from the exterior environment.
Hope that clears up a thing or two.
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