Access Specifier or Visibility Modifiers

What are access specifiers in Java?

Access specifiers in Java are the keywords that are used for controlling the use of the methods, constructors, fields, and methods in a class.

Types of access specifiers :

public

The public access modifier is specified using the keyword public. The public access modifier has the widest scope among all other access modifiers. Classes, methods, or data members that are declared as public are accessible from everywhere in the program. There is no restriction on the scope of public data members. Public methods are also called service methods that are created simply to assist a service method is called a support method.

private

The private access modifier is specified using the keyword private. The methods or data members declared as private are accessible only within the class in which they are declared.

protected

The protected access modifier is specified using the keyword protected. The methods or data members declared as protected are accessible within the same package or subclasses in different packages.

default

(nothing)i.e.,friendly(not a keyword).When no access modifier is specified for a class, method, or data member – It is said to be having the default access modifier by default. The data members, classes, or methods that are not declared using any access modifiers i.e. having default access modifiers are accessible only within the same package.

Access Modifiers	Within Class	Within Package	Outside the package but through child class only	Outside the package
private	yes	no	no	no
default	yes	yes	no	no
protected	yes	yes	yes	no
public	yes	yes	yes	yes