How Do Private, Protected, and Public Access Specifiers Impact Inheritance in C ?

Access Specifiers in Inheritance: Understanding Private, Protected, and Public Access

Understanding the impact of access specifiers on inheritance in programming is crucial. In C , you have three main access specifiers: private, protected, and public. Each specifier controls the accessibility of class members to derived classes.

Public Inheritance: What it Means

When you inherit publicly, all public members of the base class become public members of the derived class, and all protected members become protected members. This means the derived class retains the same accessibility levels for those members.

Protected Inheritance: Understanding the Details

Protected inheritance follows similar rules to public inheritance, but with a slight difference. All public and protected members of the base class become protected members of the derived class. This limits accessibility within the derived class and any further derived classes.

Private Inheritance: When Accessibility is Restricted

Private inheritance takes the most restrictive approach. All public and protected members of the base class become private members of the derived class. This means they are only accessible within the derived class itself and not to any further derived classes.

Important Considerations

• Access Specifiers Apply Per Class: Access specifiers are defined at the class level, not at the object level.
• Protected Members Accessible Only to Derived Classes: Derived classes can only access protected members from their immediate base class, not from other base classes in an inheritance hierarchy.
• Friend Classes/Functions: Declaring a class/function as a friend of another class overrides access specifiers. The friend class/function gains complete access to all members of that class.

Choosing Between Access Specifiers:

The choice of access specifier depends on the specific requirements of your design. Here are some guidelines:

• Private: Use private access for members that should only be accessible within the class itself.
• Protected: Use protected access for members that should be accessible to derived classes but not to the outside world.
• Public: Use public access for members that should be accessible to the outside world as well as derived classes.

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