5

I want something similar to protected, where only a class which implements the protected field and anything that subclasses it can access it.

So, I want to be able to declare a variable in the base class as private, but still be able to access it from a subclass.

Perhaps this is against the very nature of subclassing, private, and/or protected.

Does something like this exist in Java?

Improve this question
2
  • as a general rule, exposing variables is a bad idea - even to sub-classes. There are exceptions, but I'd encourage you to think real hard about why you want to do this. (I realize that the same question would apply to a getter method call - just wanted to point out a potential problem) Commented Sep 14, 2009 at 5:36
  • This functionality (although not this syntax) can be achieved through use of a protected getter method. Commented Feb 8, 2019 at 23:16

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
10

There are only four access levels for fields in Java:

  • private
  • package-private (default; no access modifier)
  • protected
  • public

protected will allow subclasses, other classes in the same package, and members in the class itself to access the protected member.

The short answer is, there is no way to achieve exactly what is desired.

For a description of those four access modifiers, Controlling Access to Members of a Class from The Java Tutorials has more specific information.

Improve this answer
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

3

If you control the codebase, you can always control what goes into the package with the baseclass - if it's alone in its package, only subclasses can access the member you want to keep private except for subclasses.

Improve this answer

1 Comment

This is quite a good workaround. Al-thou it does not answer the question of is there a modifier like that (which is there is not) but does provide required functionality.
1

No, there's no access modifier to do exactly that. The protected modifier is the closest thing, but that exposes the field to any class in the same package as well as to subclasses (in or out of the same package).

Improve this answer

Comments

0

Not possible. U can still declare your variables as private then declare public methods that modify the variables in the superclass. You then call the public method on the variable.

Improve this answer

Comments