Is encapsulation a mechanism for restricting access to methods and data within a class?

Encapsulation is a principle of object-oriented programming that combines data (attributes) and methods that work with this data into a single class. It is often understood as a mechanism to restrict access to the internal data and methods of a class to protect them from direct external modification.

In Python, encapsulation is not strictly enforced but rather implemented through conventions:

• Attributes and methods with a single underscore (_attr) are considered protected and are not intended for use outside the class and its subclasses.
• Attributes and methods with double underscores (__attr) invoke name mangling, which makes external access more difficult.

Example:

class MyClass:
    def __init__(self):
        self.public = 1
        self._protected = 2
        self.__private = 3

    def get_private(self):
        return self.__private

obj = MyClass()
print(obj.public)        # 1
print(obj._protected)    # 2 (not recommended for external use)
#print(obj.__private)    # Error
print(obj.get_private()) # 3

Thus, encapsulation in Python is a mechanism for combining data and methods, as well as a means of restricting access to internal class elements. However, these restrictions are conditional and based on conventions rather than strict language rules.