Question

I recently started making simple 2D games, and came across a dilemma – to use or not to use getter and setter methods for the x and y positions of an object. It would look clearer if i wouldn’t use methods, but access the variables directly instead, and also, many method calls on the object would hurt performance. Also getting and setting the position pretty much remains simple, so there is really no need for encapsulation here? Or should we always stick to the convention of getter and setter methods at all times?

Answer 1

It’s always better to stick to the convention. Plus, the JIT will simplify operations in order to access directly to the field instead of going through all the methods stack.

It’s called method inlining.

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The Java 2 release of the Java VM automatically inlines simple methods at runtime. In an un-optimized Java VM, every time a new method is called, a new stack frame is created. The creation of a new stack frame requires additional resources as well as some re-mapping of the stack, the end result is that creating new stack frames incurs a small overhead.

Method inlining increases performance by reducing the number of method calls your program makes. The Java VM inlining code inlines methods that return constants or only access internal fields.

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Resources :

• sun.com – Performance Features and Tools

On the same topic :

• Java language convention; getters/setters