How abstraction and encapsulation differ

Question

I'm getting ready for an interview, so I decided to brush up on my OOP knowledge. Hundreds of articles are available, yet each one appears to describe them differently. Some suggest

"The process of recognising common patterns with systematic variations; an abstraction represents the common pattern and gives a mechanism of defining the variation to utilise,"  is abstraction

Other say

Abstraction means to show only the necessary details to the client of the object

The same is the case with encapsulation.

The problem with me is that athough I can implement these, I am not able to come up with proper difference between encapsulation and abstraction. Let's say if I were to be in an interview on this question, I think I would mess up because I think they are very relatable.

Any answers?

Answer 1

They are, in my opinion, slightly different notions, although they are frequently used interchangeably. Encapsulation is a design philosophy that involves building items that are equivalent to familiar objects/processes to aid understanding, whereas abstraction is more of a design philosophy that involves making products that are analogous to familiar objects/processes to aid understanding. Encapsulation is simply one of several abstraction techniques available.

Consider the word "windows." They are simply graphical squares on the screen, not windows in the classic sense. However, thinking of them as windows is helpful. That's a euphemism.

Encapsulation occurs when the "windows API" hides the intricacies of how text or graphics are physically produced within the limits of a window.