Access Specifiers in C++ Example

Type of access specifiers in C++

• Public
• Private
• Protected

Public

• Members declared as public are accessible from anywhere, both within and outside the class.
• Public members can be accessed using object instances of the class, regardless of whether the code is inside or outside the class definition.
• Public members are often used for the interface of the class, providing a way for external code to interact with the class. for example

1class MyClass {
2public:
3    int publicVar;
4
5    void publicFunction() {
6        // Code here
7    }
8};

Private

• Private members can only be accessed from within the class where they are declared.
• Private members cannot be accessed directly by external code or derived classes.
• Private members are typically used for internal implementation details of the class, encapsulating data and behaviors that should not be exposed.

1class MyClass {
2private:
3    int privateVar;
4
5    void privateFunction() {
6        // Code here
7    }
8};

Protected

• Members declared as protected are similar to private members but have one key difference: they can be accessed by derived classes.
• Protected members are used when you want to allow derived classes to access certain internals of the base class while still preventing external code from accessing them directly.

1class MyBaseClass {
2protected:
3    int protectedVar;
4
5    void protectedFunction() {
6        // Code here
7    }
8};
9
10class MyDerivedClass : public MyBaseClass {
11public:
12    void accessProtectedMember() {
13        protectedVar = 42;  // Accessing protectedVar from the derived class
14        protectedFunction(); // Accessing protectedFunction from the derived class
15    }
16};

Conclusion