Protected Class?

[Charlie Swanson]

In general, why can't we declare a protected class (that is not including inner classes)?

[Jane Griscti]

Hi Charlie,
A 'protected' class can only be accessed by other classes within the same package or by any subclass. These conditions, for a top-level class, can all be met using the existing top-level class modifiers: 'abstract' and package (no modifier); which makes 'protected' redundant as a top-level modifier.

Hope that helps.

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Jane Griscti
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform

[Charlie Swanson]

Jane,
Thank you for the answer. Could you give a short sample of how to declare it with abstract and package?