private access specifier

private access specifier

Restricts member access to the class

---

  access-specifier  := private 

The private keyword can be used within a class definition (followed by a colon ) to mark subsequent member declarations as private or before a base-class name in the class header to mark the inheritance as private. The default access level of a class is private, both for members and base classes.

Private members can be used by the class itself or by friends .

Private inheritance means all public and protected members in the base class are private to the derived class.

Example

 class rational {  public  :   rational(int n, int d) : num_(n), den_(d) { reduce(  ); }   rational(  ) : num_(0), den_(1) {}   int num(  ) const { return num_; }   int den(  ) const { return den_; }  protected  :   void reduce(  ); // Reduce num_ and den_ by gcd. private:   int num_, den_; }; class derived :  public  rational {}; class myrational :  private  rational {  public  :   using rational::num;   using rational::den; }; 

See Also

class , protected , public , struct , Chapter 6