Getters/Setters do have a couple of reasons to exist: 1) Allowing you to validate data/morph data on your objects on set. (example: Date is not a workday) 2)

Getters/Setters do have a couple of reasons to exist: 1) Allowing you to validate data/morph data on your objects on set. (example: Date is not a workday) 2) Allow others to do either 1 or other actions on set/get (examples: Hibernate entity beans that update db/set dirty on set, GUI can extend object to update on set) That said it was a total PITA when this first became popular. I spent way too much time changing code over because that was now "best practice". And don't get me started on Boolean not being get but is or has.