Which characteristic is key to Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)?

In Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), encapsulation is a fundamental characteristic that plays a crucial role in managing complexity and enhancing data integrity. It involves bundling the data (attributes) and methods (functions) that operate on the data into a single unit, typically referred to as a class. By doing this, encapsulation restricts direct access to some of an object’s components, ensuring that the object's state is protected from unintended interference and misuse.

This characteristic allows for control over how data is accessed and modified, as it typically includes access modifiers (such as private, protected, or public) that determine whether a class's members can be accessed from outside the class. Encapsulation not only improves security and data hiding but also simplifies the interaction with the object by providing a clear interface. Thus, developers can work with the object's public methods without needing to understand the intricate details of its internal workings, resulting in a more modular and maintainable code structure.

Other characteristics, while important in their own right, serve different purposes within OOP. For instance, abstraction helps simplify complex systems by modeling classes based on essential properties, inheritance allows classes to share behaviors and attributes, and polymorphism facilitates the ability of different classes to be treated as instances of the