What Is Wrapper Software Engineering?

A wrapper can be seen as a layer between the complicated and the simple. Wrappers are a class that provides an interface for another type. It uses the other class's methods and data but does not include the actual code for those methods and data. The wrapper thus hides knowledge of the underlying class implementation details and possibly guards against some forms of vulnerability by providing proper validation and data protection. In software engineering, a wrapper is defined as an entity that encapsulates and hides the underlying complexity of another entity using well-defined interfaces. Wrappers present a more straightforward interface for accessing complex functionality and are commonly used in large software systems to facilitate integration between components. The wrapper pattern enables the implementation of an interface for an object that does not necessarily implement it. It lets other things communicate with the wrapper object, although they might otherwise be unable to do so because of data format incompatibilities. Sometimes, you need to work with two classes that need help understanding each other. Perhaps one type reads dates in DD/MM/YY format, and another writes them in MM/DD/YYYY format or they're both working with a standard data structure like a string, but one class counts letters and the other counts bytes. In these cases, you may need to create a wrapper class that hides the implementation details from the end user of your code but allows both types to interact with each other through the interface defined by the wrapper. The classic example is an ATM interface for transferring money between accounts. There are types of ATM interfaces on the market today some use tokens, and others use credit card accounts. Still, they all conform to a common standard protocol that allows you to withdraw money from anyone's account as long as you have their account number.