What is the difference between protected and private?

Question

I don't understand the difference between protected and private members or methods, as I assumed both will hide the member or the function to access from outside the class.

What is the difference between the protected and the private keywords?

Solution 1

private - only available to be accessed within the class that defines them.

protected - accessible in the class that defines them and in other classes which inherit from that class.

Solution 2

Things that are private are only visible within the class itself.

Things that are protected are visible in the class itself and in subclasses.

Solution 3

The difference is who can access those functions.

• Private = only members of the same class can access the function.

• Protected = Same as private but derived classes can also access.

Solution 4

Private members can only be used by that classes members and its friends; protected members can be inherited by other classes, and can be used by the classes members and friends.

Solution 5

Private methods are usually visible to class instances (internal implementations), protected methods are visible to subclasses and classes in the same package (inheritance and restricted usage).

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