Does __get() and __set() mean leaky encapsulation?

Question

In OO programming would it be looked down upon to use the magic methods __get() and __set(), do these cause encapsulation to leak out of a class? For example:

class User {
    private $username;
    private $password;

    public function __set($name,$value) {
        $this->$name = $value;
    }

    public function __get($name) {
        return $this->$name;
    }
}

This effectively makes private/protected variables public.

Answer 1

Your code:

class User {
    private $username;
    private $password;

    public function __set($name,$value) {
        $this->$name = $value;
    }

    public function __get($name) {
        return $this->$name;
    }
}

is totally unnecessary in this case.

Encapsulation does not mean "a bunch of getters and setters". You can just refactor it to:

class User {
    public $username;
    public $password;
}

and as far as encapsulation is concerned, they are equivalent.

In general __get and __set have some uses, but if you can do without, you should (especially considering that they are "considerably slower" than normal method definitions).