Why should I use "get"/"set" functions?

programming flash
1

So I have been programming for two years and I have been using AS3 for about 5 months. I’m ready to start making my code a bit more sophisticated, so I’ve been getting into things like composition and design patterns.

With that in mind, I have been searching for coding standards that I can start implementing to clean up my code a bit. While searching for different ways to do this recently, I came across “get” and “set” methods.

So here is what I have been doing to make my variables changeable/retrieveable from other classes:


//getter
public function getSomething():String {
    return _something;
}

//setter
public function setSomething(setVar:String):void {
    _something = setVar;
}

Now, here is what I have recently found to be the standard:


//getter
public function **get **getSomething():String {
    return _something;
}

//setter
public function **set **setSomething(setVar:String):void {
    _something = setVar;
}

Notice the only difference is adding the words “get” and “set” to the signature…

So here’s my question: why does it matter if I add the words “get” and “set”? Does it change functionality at all, or is it kind of like binding a type to a variable in that it limits what the method can do?