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C++ Access Specifiers
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Access Specifiers
By now, you are quite familiar with the public keyword that appears in all of our
class examples:
Example
class MyClass { // The class
public: // Access specifier
// class members goes here
};
Try it Yourself »
The public keyword is an access specifier. Access specifiers define how the
members (attributes and methods) of a class can be accessed. In the example above,
the members are public - which means that they can be accessed and modified
from outside the code.
However, what if we want members to be private and hidden from the outside world?
In C++, there are three access specifiers:
public - members are accessible from outside the class
private - members cannot be accessed (or viewed) from outside the class
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protected - members cannot be accessed from outside the class, however,
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they can be accessed in inherited classes. You will learn more about Inheritance
later.
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In the following example, we demonstrate the differences between public and
private members:
Example
class MyClass {
public: // Public access specifier
int x; // Public attribute
private: // Private access specifier
int y; // Private attribute
};
int main() {
MyClass myObj;
myObj.x = 25; // Allowed (public)
myObj.y = 50; // Not allowed (private)
return 0;
}
If you try to access a private member, an error occurs:
error: y is private
Try it Yourself »
Note: It is possible to access private members of a class using a public method inside
the same class. See the next chapter (Encapsulation) on how to do this.
Tip: It is considered good practice to declare your class attributes as private (as often
as you can). This will reduce the possibility of yourself (or others) to mess up the
code. This is also the main ingredient of the Encapsulation concept, which you will
learn more about in the next chapter.
Note: By default, all members of a class are private if you don't specify an access
specifier:
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class MyClass {
int x; // Private attribute
int y; // Private attribute
};
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