Access Modifiers

Access Modifiers

Access modifiers control what can access class members. Java has the following access modifiers:

Specifier	Class	Package	Subclass	Everything
public	✓	✓	✓	✓
protected	✓	✓	✓	X
default	✓	✓	X	X
private	✓	X	X	X

Any public member can be referenced anywhere in the code.

Any protected member can be referenced anywhere in the package it belongs to.

Any member without a modifier can be seen anywhere in the package it belongs to other than subclasses.

Any private member can be referenced only within the class it belongs to.