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Access Modifiers in Java

There are four types of access modifiers in Java: private, default, protected, and public. Private access is only within the class, default is within the package, protected is within the package and subclasses outside the package, and public is everywhere. The access modifier specifies the scope and accessibility of classes, methods, and other members.

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346 views6 pages

Access Modifiers in Java

There are four types of access modifiers in Java: private, default, protected, and public. Private access is only within the class, default is within the package, protected is within the package and subclasses outside the package, and public is everywhere. The access modifier specifies the scope and accessibility of classes, methods, and other members.

Uploaded by

imjd2
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Access Modifiers in java

There are two types of modifiers in java: access modifiers and non-access modifiers.
The access modifiers in java specifies accessibility (scope) of a data member, method,
constructor or class.
There are 4 types of java access modifiers:

1 private

2 default

3 protected

4 public
There are many non-access modifiers such as static, abstract, synchronized, native, volatile,
transient etc. Here, we will learn access modifiers.

1) private access modifier


The private access modifier is accessible only within
class.

Simple example of private access modifier


In this example, we have created two classes A and Simple. A class contains private
data member and private method. We are accessing these private members from
outside the class, so there is compile time error.

class A{

private int data=40;

private void msg(){System.out.println("Hello java");}

public class Simple{

public static void main(String args[]){

A obj=new A();

System.out.println(obj.data);//Compile Time Error

obj.msg();//Compile Time Error

}
Role of Private Constructor

If you make any class constructor private, you cannot create the instance of that class
from outside the class. For example:

class A{

private A(){}//private constructor

void msg(){System.out.println("Hello java");}

public class Simple{

public static void main(String args[]){

A obj=new A();//Compile Time Error

Note: A class cannot be private or protected except nested class.

2) default access modifier


If you don't use any modifier, it is treated as default bydefault. The default modifier is
accessible only within package.

Example of default access modifier


In this example, we have created two packages pack and mypack. We are accessing
the A class from outside its package, since A class is not public, so it cannot be
accessed from outside the package.

//save by A.java

package pack;

class A{

void msg(){System.out.println("Hello");}

}
//save by B.java

package mypack;

import pack.*;

class B{

public static void main(String args[]){

A obj = new A();//Compile Time Error

obj.msg();//Compile Time Error

}
In the above example, the scope of class A and its method msg() is default so it cannot be
accessed from outside the package.

3) protected access modifier


The protected access modifier is accessible within package and outside the package but
through inheritance only.
The protected access modifier can be applied on the data member, method and constructor.
It can't be applied on the class.

Example of protected access modifier


In this example, we have created the two packages pack and mypack. The A class of pack
package is public, so can be accessed from outside the package. But msg method of this
package is declared as protected, so it can be accessed from outside the class only through
inheritance.

//save by A.java

package pack;

public class A{

protected void msg(){System.out.println("Hello");}

//save by B.java

package mypack;

import pack.*;

class B extends A{
public static void main(String args[]){

B obj = new B();

obj.msg();

}
Output:Hello

4) public access modifier


The public access modifier is accessible everywhere. It has the widest scope among
all other modifiers.

Example of public access modifier


//save by A.java

package pack;

public class A{

public void msg(){System.out.println("Hello");}

//save by B.java

package mypack;

import pack.*;

class B{
public static void main(String args[]){

A obj = new A();

obj.msg();

}
Output:Hello

Understanding all java access modifiers


Let's understand the access modifiers by a simple table.

Access within within outside package by outside


Modifier class package subclass only package

Private Y N N N

Default Y Y N N

Protecte Y Y Y N
d

Public Y Y Y Y

Java access modifiers with method overriding


If you are overriding any method, overridden method (i.e. declared in subclass) must not be
more restrictive.

class A{

protected void msg(){System.out.println("Hello java");}

public class Simple extends A{

void msg(){System.out.println("Hello java");}//C.T.Error

public static void main(String args[]){

Simple obj=new Simple();


obj.msg();

}
The default modifier is more restrictive than protected. That is why there is compile
time error.

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