Categories: Core JAVATutorial

Basic Modifier Types in Java

Access modifiers specifies who can access them. There are four access modifiers used in java. They are public, private, protected, no modifier (declaring without an access modifier). Using ‘no modifier’ is also sometimes referred as ‘package-private’ or ‘default’ or ‘friendly’ access. Usage of these access modifiers is restricted to two levels. The two levels are class level access modifiers and member level access modifiers.

I) Class level access modifiers (java classes only)

Only two access modifiers is allowed, public and no modifier
  • If a class is ‘public’, then it CAN be accessed from ANYWHERE.
  • If a class has ‘no modifier’, then it CAN ONLY be accessed from ‘same package’.


II) Member level access modifiers (java variables and java methods)

All the four public, private, protected and no modifier is allowed.

  • public and no modifier – the same way as used in class level.
  • private – members CAN ONLY access.
  • protected – CAN be accessed from ‘same package’ and a subclass existing in any package can access.

For better understanding, member level access is formulated as a table:



Access Modifiers

Same Class Same Package Subclass Other packages
public Y Y Y Y
protected Y Y Y N
no access modifier Y Y N N
private Y N N N

First row {public Y Y Y Y} should be interpreted as:

  • Y – A member declared with ‘public’ access modifier CAN be accessed by the members of the ‘same class’.
  • Y – A member declared with ‘public’ access modifier CAN be accessed by the members of the ‘same package’.
  • Y – A member declared with ‘public’ access modifier CAN be accessed by the members of the ‘subclass’.
  • Y – A member declared as ‘public’ CAN be accessed from ‘Other packages’.

Second row {protected Y Y Y N} should be interpreted as:

  • Y – A member declared with ‘protected’ access modifier CAN be accessed by the members of the ‘same class’.
  • Y – A member declared with ‘protected’ access modifier CAN be accessed by the members of the ‘same package’.
  • Y – A member declared with ‘protected’ access modifier CAN be accessed by the members of the ‘subclass’.
  • N – A member declared with ‘protected’ access modifier CANNOT be accessed by the members of the ‘Other package’.

similarly interpret the access modifiers table for the third (no access modifier) and fourth (private access modifier) records.

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Dinesh Rajput

Dinesh Rajput is the chief editor of a website Dineshonjava, a technical blog dedicated to the Spring and Java technologies. It has a series of articles related to Java technologies. Dinesh has been a Spring enthusiast since 2008 and is a Pivotal Certified Spring Professional, an author of a book Spring 5 Design Pattern, and a blogger. He has more than 10 years of experience with different aspects of Spring and Java design and development. His core expertise lies in the latest version of Spring Framework, Spring Boot, Spring Security, creating REST APIs, Microservice Architecture, Reactive Pattern, Spring AOP, Design Patterns, Struts, Hibernate, Web Services, Spring Batch, Cassandra, MongoDB, and Web Application Design and Architecture. He is currently working as a technology manager at a leading product and web development company. He worked as a developer and tech lead at the Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd and was the first developer in his previous company, Paytm. Dinesh is passionate about the latest Java technologies and loves to write technical blogs related to it. He is a very active member of the Java and Spring community on different forums. When it comes to the Spring Framework and Java, Dinesh tops the list!

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