What is the difference between public, protected,

Question

In Java, are there clear rules on when to use each of access modifiers, namely the default (package private), public, protected and private, while making class and interface and dealing with inheritance?

Answer 1

This page writes well about the protected & default access modifier

.... Protected: Protected access modifier is the a little tricky and you can say is a superset of the default access modifier. Protected members are same as the default members as far as the access in the same package is concerned. The difference is that, the protected members are also accessible to the subclasses of the class in which the member is declared which are outside the package in which the parent class is present.

But these protected members are “accessible outside the package only through inheritance“. i.e you can access a protected member of a class in its subclass present in some other package directly as if the member is present in the subclass itself. But that protected member will not be accessible in the subclass outside the package by using parent class’s reference. ....

Answer 2

Here's a better version of the table. (Future proof with a column for modules.)

Explanations

• A private member (i) is only accessible within the same class as it is declared.

• A member with no access modifier (j) is only accessible within classes in the same package.

• A protected member (k) is accessible within all classes in the same package and within subclasses in other packages.

• A public member (l) is accessible to all classes (unless it resides in a module that does not export the package it is declared in).

---

Which modifier to choose?

Access modifiers is a tool to help you to prevent accidentally breaking encapsulation^(*). Ask yourself if you intend the member to be something that's internal to the class, package, class hierarchy or not internal at all, and choose access level accordingly.

Examples:

• A field long internalCounter should probably be private since it's mutable and an implementation detail.
• A class that should only be instantiated in a factory class (in the same package) should have a package restricted constructor, since it shouldn't be possible to call it directly from outside the package.
• An internal void beforeRender() method called right before rendering and used as a hook in subclasses should be protected.
• A void saveGame(File dst) method which is called from the GUI code should be public.

^{(*) What is Encapsulation exactly?}

Answer 3

(Caveat: I am not a Java programmer, I am a Perl programmer. Perl has no formal protections which is perhaps why I understand the problem so well :) )

Private

Like you'd think, only the class in which it is declared can see it.

Package Private

Can only be seen and used by the package in which it was declared. This is the default in Java (which some see as a mistake).

Protected

Package Private + can be seen by subclasses or package member.

Public

Everyone can see it.

Published

Visible outside the code I control. (While not Java syntax, it is important for this discussion).

C++ defines an additional level called "friend" and the less you know about that the better.

When should you use what? The whole idea is encapsulation to hide information. As much as possible you want to hide the detail of how something is done from your users. Why? Because then you can change them later and not break anybody's code. This lets you optimize, refactor, redesign and fix bugs without worry that someone was using that code you just overhauled.

So, rule of thumb is to make things only as visible as they have to be. Start with private and only add more visibility as needed. Only make public that which is absolutely necessary for the user to know, every detail you make public cramps your ability to redesign the system.

If you want users to be able to customize behaviors, rather than making internals public so they can override them, it's often a better idea to shove those guts into an object and make that interface public. That way they can simply plug in a new object. For example, if you were writing a CD player and wanted the "go find info about this CD" bit customizable, rather than make those methods public you'd put all that functionality into its own object and make just your object getter/setter public. In this way being stingy about exposing your guts encourages good composition and separation of concerns

Personally, I stick with just "private" and "public". Many OO languages just have that. "Protected" can be handy, but it's really a cheat. Once an interface is more than private it's outside of your control and you have to go looking in other people's code to find uses.

This is where the idea of "published" comes in. Changing an interface (refactoring it) requires that you find all the code which is using it and change that, too. If the interface is private, well no problem. If it's protected you have to go find all your subclasses. If it's public you have to go find all the code which uses your code. Sometimes this is possible, for example if you're working on corporate code that's for internal use only it doesn't matter if an interface is public. You can grab all the code out of the corporate repository. But if an interface is "published", if there is code using it outside your control, then you're hosed. You must support that interface or risk breaking code. Even protected interfaces can be considered published (which is why I don't bother with protected).

Many languages find the hierarchical nature of public/protected/private to be too limiting and not in line with reality. To that end there is the concept of a trait class, but that's another show.

Answer 4

public --> can be access every where

private --> can be only access same class

protected --> can be access same class, same package subclass, different package subclass and same package other class

default --> can be access same class, same package subclass and same package other class

Answer 5

Visible to the package. The default. No modifiers are needed.

Visible to the class only (private).

Visible to the world (public).

Visible to the package and all subclasses (protected).

Variables and methods can be declared without any modifiers that are called. Default examples:

String name = "john";

public int age(){
    return age;
}

Private access modifier - private:

Methods, variables and constructors that are declared private can only be accessed within the declared class itself. The private access modifier is the most restrictive access level. Class and interfaces cannot be private.

Variables that are declared private can be accessed outside the class if public getter methods are present in the class.

Using the private modifier is the main way that an object encapsulates itself and hides data from the outside world.

Examples:

Public class Details{

    private String name;

    public void setName(String n){
        this.name = n;
    }

    public String getName(){
        return this.name;
    }
}

Public access modifier - public:

A class, method, constructor, interface, etc. declared public can be accessed from any other class. Therefore fields, methods, blocks declared inside a public class can be accessed from any class belonging to the Java universe.

However, if the public class we are trying to access is in a different package, then the public class still need to be imported.

Because of class inheritance, all public methods and variables of a class are inherited by its subclasses.

Example:

public void cal(){

}

Protected access modifier - protected:

Variables, methods and constructors which are declared protected in a superclass can be accessed only by the subclasses in another package or any class within the package of the protected members' class.

The protected access modifier cannot be applied to class and interfaces. Methods, fields can be declared protected, however methods and fields in a interface cannot be declared protected.

Protected access gives the subclass a chance to use the helper method or variable, while preventing a nonrelated class from trying to use it.

class Van{

    protected boolean speed(){

    }
}

class Car{
    boolean speed(){
    }

}

Answer 6

Public Protected Default and private are access modifiers.

They are meant for encapsulation, or hiding and showing contents of the class.

1. Class can be public or default
2. Class members can be public, protected, default or private.

Private is not accessible outside the class Default is accessible only in the package. Protected in package as well as any class which extends it. Public is open for all.

Normally, member variables are defined private, but member methods are public.