IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PUBLIC PROTECTION AND PRIVATE PROTECTION
Yes, there is a difference between public and private protection in the context of object-oriented programming. The terms "public" and "private" are access modifiers that control the visibility and accessibility of class members (such as attributes and methods) within a class and its derived classes.
Here's a breakdown of the differences between public and private access protection:
Public Access Protection:
Public members are accessible from anywhere in the program, including outside the class and its derived classes.
Public attributes and methods can be accessed and called by any code that has access to the object of the class.
Public members provide an interface to interact with the class and its objects.
Public members can be inherited by derived classes and can be accessed using the derived class objects.
Private Access Protection:
Private members are accessible only within the class where they are declared.
Private attributes and methods cannot be accessed or called directly from outside the class, including derived classes.
Private members are typically used to encapsulate implementation details and hide them from external code.
Private members cannot be inherited by derived classes.
In summary, public access protection allows unrestricted access to class members from anywhere in the program, while private access protection restricts access to only within the class itself. Public members provide an interface for interacting with the class, while private members encapsulate implementation details and ensure data integrity by preventing direct access from outside the class.
It's worth noting that there is another access protection level called "protected." Protected members are similar to private members but have additional access within derived classes. Protected members can be accessed by derived classes, but not by code outside the class hierarchy.