What is the programming feature that combines relevant data and methods of an object, ensuring data security?

The programming feature that combines relevant data and methods of an object while ensuring data security is encapsulation. This concept allows an object to maintain control over its data by restricting access to its internal state. By bundling the data (attributes) and methods (functions) that manipulate the data into a single unit (the object), encapsulation provides a way to protect the integrity of the data. It helps to prevent unintended interference and misuse of the data by exposing only specific methods for interaction, often through public interfaces while keeping the inner workings private.

This feature is crucial in object-oriented programming as it promotes a modular design. By shielding the internal state, encapsulation facilitates maintenance and enhances code readability and reusability. It allows programmers to implement safeguards and validations, ensuring that the data can only be modified in controlled ways.

While inheritance refers to deriving new classes from existing ones, thereby promoting code reuse, and polymorphism allows methods to do different things based on the object they are acting upon, these concepts do not inherently address data security. Abstraction simplifies complex systems by hiding unnecessary details, but it, too, does not inherently ensure data security. In contrast, encapsulation directly focuses on safeguarding the data within objects and controlling access to it through methods, making it