Access Specifiers
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
protected - members cannot be accessed from outside the class, however, they can be accessed in inherited classes. You will learn more about Inheritance later.
In the following example, we demonstrate the differences between public and private members:
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;
}
