[UML Diagrams]

Good morning - I have a question about UML Diagrams.

 

Let's assume that we have a class called Step. One of Step's properties is stepNo.

 

In a UML Class Diagram, we could use the following to indicate the types that stepNo's getter and setter methods are expected to return.

 

+getStepNo:String

+setStepNo:void

 

In a UML Class Diagram, we could use the following to indicate the types that stepNo's getter and setter methods expect to receive as input parameters.

 

+getStepNo()

+setStepNo(stepNo:String)

 

For each method, how would we indicate both? In other words, how do we represent both the parameters a method expects to receive and those it expects to return?

 

Thank you.

[Access Private Member Through Public Function]

I was experimenting with the access modifiers in Step 17 of Object Oriented PHP for Beginners. I made pinn_number a private property. I used the classes' constructor to set its value. Finally, I created a public function called get_pinn_number().

 

Outside of the class, I was able to obtain the value of pinn_number using get_pinn_number. I do not understand why this would work. I understand that the value of making properties private is so that their values are available only within the class where they are defined. Therefore, in practice, why would a developer make the value of a private property available through a public function? In practice, would a developer make get_pinn_number() a private function - and not a public one? This documentation is awesome! Thanks so much!