What is the difference between public, private, and protected inheritance in C++?

What is the difference between public, private, and protected inheritance in C++?

2 min read
c++
inheritance
encapsulation
access-specifier
c++-faq

What is the difference between public, private, and protected inheritance in C++?

All of the questions I've found on SO deal with specific cases.

Photo by Daniel o'dowd | Unsplash
2 posted solutions
1.7K

Kirill V. Lyadvinsky wrote:

class A 
{
    public:
       int x;
    protected:
       int y;
    private:
       int z;
};

class B : public A
{
    // x is public
    // y is protected
    // z is not accessible from B
};

class C : protected A
{
    // x is protected
    // y is protected
    // z is not accessible from C
};

class D : private A    // 'private' is default for classes
{
    // x is private
    // y is private
    // z is not accessible from D
};

IMPORTANT NOTE: Classes B, C and D all contain the variables x, y and z. It is just question of access.

About usage of protected and private inheritance you could read here.

1.2K

Anzurio wrote:

To answer that question, I'd like to describe member's accessors first in my own words. If you already know this, skip to the heading "next:".

There are three accessors that I'm aware of: public, protected and private.

Let:

class Base {
    public:
        int publicMember;
    protected:
        int protectedMember;
    private:
        int privateMember;
};
  • Everything that is aware of Base is also aware that Base contains publicMember.
  • Only the children (and their children) are aware that Base contains protectedMember.
  • No one but Base is aware of privateMember.

By "is aware of", I mean "acknowledge the existence of, and thus be able to access".

next:

The same happens with public, private and protected inheritance. Let's consider a class Base and a class Child that inherits from Base.

  • If the inheritance is public, everything that is aware of Base and Child is also aware that Child inherits from Base.
  • If the inheritance is protected, only Child, and its children, are aware that they inherit from Base.
  • If the inheritance is private, no one other than Child is aware of the inheritance.

Submit your solution

© 2023 Dev's Feed