Accessibility in C#

Accessibility means controlling the visibility of the class or its members.

Accessibilities of class and its members is controlled using Access Modifiers.

 

There are five types of access modifiers in C# -

1. Public – It is applicable to type and member and has no access restriction.
2. Protected – It is applicable to member and is accessible from within the class or by derived class.
3. Internal – It is applicable to type and member and is accessible from within the files in the same assembly.
4. Protected Internal – It is applicable to member and it is accessible from within the class or derived class and also within the derived class from another assembly.
5. Private – It is applicable to member and is only accessible within the class.

Let’s see one example -

class Person

{

int Id;

string Name;

private string DOB;

internal string Age;

protected string FirstName;

protected string LastName;

protected internal void DisplayDetails()

{

}

public string Name

{

get { return FirstName + " " + LastName; }

}

}

Important points to be kept in mind related to access modifiers in C# -

• Class is internal if no access modifier is provided.
• Members are private if no access modifier is provided.
• Private access is the least permissive access level.
• By default, interfaces are internal.
• Interfaces can be public or internal.
• Access modifiers cannot be applied to interface members.