inherited protected member

[sai donthneni]

What I am trying to say is that, if there is class A in package 'a' and it has a protected member variable.

package a;
class A
{
protected int a;
}

I have one more class B which is in a differnt package called b and it extends class A in package a. The proected member of class A, does it become private member to class B when it is extended or it remains protected?

Now can a class C in package b can access it without subcalling it?

[Paul Sturrock]

I have one more class B which is in a differnt package called b and it extends class A in package a. The proected member of class A, does it become private member to class B when it is extended or it remains protected?

No. Your protected variable is visible to all classes that extend the class it was defined in.

Now can a class C in package b can access it without subcalling it?

No. Protected variables are only visible to classes that extend the class where they are defined and any class in the same package.

[sai donthneni]

what I am asking is, can i access the proected member in class C in package b without extending class B?

[Garrett Rowe]

Originally posted by sai donthneni:
what I am asking is, can i access the proected member in class C in package b without extending class B?

No.

[sai donthneni]

why not?

[Garrett Rowe]

Originally posted by Paul Sturrock:

Protected variables are only visible to classes that extend the class where they are defined and any class in the same package.

[sai donthneni]

what I am asking is, can i access the proected member in class C in package b without extending class B?

what if i make class C extend class B? Will i be able access the protected member of class A which inturn is extended by class B?

[Ken Blair]

Originally posted by sai donthneni:
what I am asking is, can i access the proected member in class C in package b without extending class B?

No.

A protected member of class A is only visible to classes in the same package as A or in the body of a subclass of A. If class C is not in the same package as class A and is not a subclass of class A then it does not have access to any protected member of class A.

Originally posted by sai donthneni:
what if i make class C extend class B? Will i be able access the protected member of class A which inturn is extended by class B?

Yes. In this case class C would be a subclass of class A and therefore have access to any protected member of class A.
[ April 12, 2006: Message edited by: Ken Blair ]

[Garrett Rowe]

what I am asking is, can i access the proected member in class C in package b without extending class B?

No, only the class which actually extends A can access its protected content.

what if i make class C extend class B? Will i be able access the protected member of class A which inturn is extended by class B?

Yes if C extends B and B extends A then C can access protected content in A.