Public, Private, Protected - EduardoMSU/OOP-2143 GitHub Wiki

Public/Private/Protected in Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)

In object-oriented programming (OOP), access modifiers are used to define the visibility or accessibility of members (variables and methods) of a class. The primary access modifiers in most programming languages (including C++) are public, private, and protected.

Key Access Modifiers

Access Modifier Description Access Level
public Members declared as public are accessible from anywhere, both inside and outside the class. Open to everyone
private Members declared as private can only be accessed from within the class itself. They cannot be accessed from outside the class. Restricted to the class only
protected Members declared as protected are accessible within the class and by derived (child) classes. However, they are not accessible from outside the class. Accessible in derived classes

Public Access Modifier

Definition:

The public access modifier allows members (variables and methods) to be accessed from anywhere, meaning they can be accessed by code outside of the class, such as in the main() function or other objects.

Example in C++

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class MyClass {
public:
    int x;  // Public variable

    // Public method
    void display() {
        cout << "Value of x: " << x << endl;
    }
};

int main() {
    MyClass obj;
    obj.x = 10;  // Direct access to public variable
    obj.display();  // Call to public method

    return 0;
}
⚠️ **GitHub.com Fallback** ⚠️