Access specifiers

Access specifiers are keywords used to identify access rights for the data and member functions of the class. These specifiers are used to denote the "power" of members(variables or methods) when they are accessed

from outside the class. Inside the class all members are "public", which means that all the methods have an access to them. If none of the access specifier is given the default specifier is "private".

A member of a class can be accessed from

a) Within a class

b) In the sub class

c) From a class object.

There are three main types of access specifiers in C++ programming language:

1. Private : A private member within a class denotes that only members of the same class have accessibility. The private member is inaccessible from outside the class. We can access the private members of the class from inside the xlass but not from an object or a sub class.
2. Public  : Public members are accessible from outside the class. Such members are available to all the child classes and objects of the class. A sub class can use the "public" members of the base class as its own whereas a class object can access them using the "object.member" syntax.
3. Protected : A protected access specifier is a combination of both "private" and "public" specifier.A protected member is accessible from a child class just like a public member but when it comes to accessing from an object a protected member acts like a private member and refuses to be accessed. The protected specifier comes into picture only when there is inheritance. If there is no need to inherit a class, the public and private specifiers are sufficient to describle the accessibility.

Look at the following table for a more clear understanding.

Access Specifier

Specifier	Own Class	Sub Class	Object Of The Class
Private	Accessible	Not Accessible	Not Accessible
Public	Accessible	Accessible	Accessible
Protected	Accessible	Accessible	Not Accessible