Access Modifiers in Java

→ Access modifiers are used to set the accessibility of classes, interfaces, variables, methods, constructors, data members, and the setter methods.

Types of Access Modifiers

There are two types of access modifiers

Understanding all java access modifiers

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

Access Modifier	within class	within package	outside package by subclass only	outside package
Public	Y	Y	Y	Y
Private	Y	N	N	N
Protected	Y	Y	Y	N
Default	Y	Y	N	N

1) public access modifier

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

Example :-

 package pack;  
 public class A{  
 public void msg(){System.out.println("Hello Public Access Modifier");}  
}  

 package mypack;  
 import pack.*;    
 class B{  
  public static void main(String args[]){  
  A obj = new A();  
   obj.msg();  
  } }  

Output

2) Private access modifier

→ Private access modifier they cannot be accessed outside of the class When declared variables and methods are private .

→ The private access modifier is accessible only within class.

Example :-

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  
  } }  

Compile time Error

Output

3) Protected access modifier

→ Protected Access Modifier can access within the same package as well as from subclasses, when methods and data members are declared protected

→ Protected Access Modifier can be applied on the data member, method and constructor. It can't be applied on the class.

Example 1 :-

//save by A.java  
 package pack;  
 public class A{  
 protected void msg(){System.out.println("Hello Protected Access Modifire");
 } }  

//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

Example 2 :-

  class Student {
    // protected method
    protected void display() {
        System.out.println("I am a Student");
    }}
  class Teacher extends Student {
    public static void main(String[] args) {        
        Teacher t = new Teacher();
         // access protected method
        t.display();
    }}
 

Output

4) Default access modifier

→ If you don't use any modifier, it is treated as default by default. The default modifier is accessible only within package. It cannot be accessed from outside the package.

Example :-

//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.

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OOPs Concepts

Access Modifiers in Java

Types of Access Modifiers

Understanding all java access modifiers

1) public access modifier

Example :-

2) Private access modifier

Example :-

3) Protected access modifier

Example 1 :-

Example 2 :-

4) Default access modifier

Example :-