Can objects of sam class can access each others private variables?if yes then how ?

[Waez Ali]

I got this question when i was playing that roundup game
It is (#80)th question & it says yes it is possible.
please somebody make me understand this concept with some example i m new to javaranch....

[Steven Bell]

Yes, and a common example would be the equals method.

public class Foo{
  private int someVal;
  public Foo(){
    someVal = 5;
  }
  public void setVal(int otherVal){
    someVal = otherVal;
  }
  
  //important method for your question here
  //standard equals method, I'll point out the relavent parts
  public boolean equals(Object o){
    if(o == null){
      return false;
    }
    if(!(o instanceof Foo)){
      return false;
    }
    //at this point we know we have another Foo object
    Foo other = (Foo)o; //cast o to Foo object
    //now we will compare the private variables
    if(this.someVal == other.someVal){
      return true;
    }
    return false;
  }
}

This is a common example. Because we are in the same class, even though it is different instances, we can access the private fields.