C# Access Modifiers

C# Access Modifiers

Access modifiers are used to set the visibility level for classes, fields, methods and properties.

The most common access modifiers in C# are:

• public: The code is accessible for all classes
• private: The code is only accessible within the same class
• protected: The code is accessible within the same class, or in a class that is inherited from that class. You will learn more about inheritance in a later chapter
• internal: The code is only accessible within its own assembly, but not from another assembly. You will learn more about this in a later chapter

By default, all members of a class are private if you don't specify an access modifier:

using System;

class Car
{
  public string model = "Mustang";
  private string year = "1969";
  
  public void DisplayInfo() {
      // private members can be accessed here
     Console.WriteLine(model + " " + year);
  }
}

class Program
{
  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
    Car myCar = new Car();
    Console.WriteLine(myCar.model); // Allowed
    // Console.WriteLine(myCar.year); // Error: Inaccessible
    myCar.DisplayInfo(); // Allowed
  }
}

using System;

class Car
{
  string model = "Mustang"; // private by default

  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
    Car myObj = new Car();
    Console.WriteLine(myObj.model); // Valid because Main is inside Car class
  }
}