2. Access specifiers in inheritance #

The protected access specifier #

We know public and private:

• Private: Nobody except the class can access it, not even the derived classes.
• Public: Anybody can access these members. Including derived classes.

Protected: Only child classes can access these members. Simply said, they are like private except that they can be inherited to a derived class.

Protected example: Only vehicles and it’s children can access the vehicle class’s protected parts.

Access specifier mode of inheritance #

As said [[1_Inheritance_-_Concept |earlier]], all members(other than selected exceptions) of the parent class are available in the derived class. But what is happens to their access specifier?

• This is where access specifier mode needs to be specified.
• So we need to specify the access specifier of the inherited members.

This is specified in the syntax.

The access mode specifies access specifier of the inherited members.

The rule is discussed [[3_Syntax |here]].

What happens to private members of parent class #

• Private members of the parent class become inacessible (directly) in the derived class.
• Private members of the parent class are still present and available to use via public functions of the parent class.