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Java Modifiers
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Modifiers
By now, you are quite familiar with the public keyword that appears in almost all of our examples:

public class Main

The public keyword is an access modifier, meaning that it is used to set the access level for classes,
attributes, methods and constructors.

We divide modifiers into two groups:

Access Modifiers - controls the access level

Non-Access Modifiers - do not control access level, but provides other functionality

Access Modifiers
For classes, you can use either public or default:

Modifier Description Try it

public The class is accessible by any other class Try it »

default The class is only accessible by classes in the same package. This is used Try it »
when you don't specify a modifier. You will learn more about packages in the
Packages chapter

For attributes, methods and constructors, you can use the one of the following:

Modifier Description Try it

public The code is accessible for all classes Try it »

private
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The code is only accessible within
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specify a modifier. You will learn more about packages in the Packages
chapter

protected The code is accessible in the same package and subclasses. You will learn Try it »
more about subclasses and superclasses in the Inheritance chapter

Non-Access Modifiers
For classes, you can use either final or abstract :

Modifier Description Try it

final The class cannot be inherited by other classes (You will learn more about Try it »
inheritance in the Inheritance chapter)

abstract The class cannot be used to create objects (To access an abstract class, it Try it »
must be inherited from another class. You will learn more about inheritance
and abstraction in the Inheritance and Abstraction chapters)

For attributes and methods, you can use the one of the following:

Modifier Description

final Attributes and methods cannot be overridden/modified

static Attributes and methods belongs to the class, rather than an object

abstract Can only be used in an abstract class, and can only be used on methods. The method
does not have a body, for example abstract void run();. The body is provided by the
subclass (inherited from). You will learn more about inheritance and abstraction in the
Inheritance and Abstraction chapters

transient Attributes and methods are skipped when serializing the object containing them

synchronized Methods can only be accessed by one thread at a time

volatile The value of an attribute is not cached thread-locally, and is always read from the "main
memory"

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Final
 If you don't want the ability to override existing attribute values, declare attributes as final :
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Example Get your own Java Server

public class Main {

final int x = 10;
final double PI = 3.14;

public static void main(String[] args) {

Main myObj = new Main();
myObj.x = 50; // will generate an error: cannot assign a value to a final variable
myObj.PI = 25; // will generate an error: cannot assign a value to a final variable
System.out.println(myObj.x);
}
}

Try it Yourself »

Static
A static method means that it can be accessed without creating an object of the class, unlike public :

Example
An example to demonstrate the differences between static and public methods:

public class Main {

// Static method
static void myStaticMethod() {
System.out.println("Static methods can be called without creating objects");
}

// Public method
public void myPublicMethod() {
System.out.println("Public methods must be called by creating objects");
}

// Main method
public static void main(String[ ] args) {
myStaticMethod(); // Call the static method
// myPublicMethod(); This would output an error

Main myObj = new Main(); // Create an object of Main

myObj.myPublicMethod(); // Call the public method
}
}
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Abstract
An abstract method belongs to an abstract class, and it does not have a body. The body is provided by the
subclass:

Example

// Code from filename: Main.java

// abstract class
abstract class Main {
public String fname = "John";
public int age = 24;
public abstract void study(); // abstract method
}

// Subclass (inherit from Main)

class Student extends Main {
public int graduationYear = 2018;
public void study() { // the body of the abstract method is provided here
System.out.println("Studying all day long");
}
}
// End code from filename: Main.java

// Code from filename: Second.java

class Second {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// create an object of the Student class (which inherits attributes and methods from Main)
Student myObj = new Student();

System.out.println("Name: " + myObj.fname);

System.out.println("Age: " + myObj.age);
System.out.println("Graduation Year: " + myObj.graduationYear);
myObj.study(); // call abstract method
}
}

Try it Yourself »

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