Modifiers in Java

Access Modifiers

For fields in classes, the access level determines who can get or set the value of the field. For methods, the access level determines who can call the method. The access level of a class member is determined by an access modifier.

We’ve encountered access modifiers so far in our code. In our examples, you frequently see the keyword, public. public makes the field or method to be accessible by anyone working with our code. Another common access modifier is private, which restricts access to fields or methods so they can only be used within the class. Two additional access modifiers are available in Java, though they are used much less often than public and private.

Example

Let’s take another look at our HelloWorld class from the last section, but with one small change.

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2
3
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5
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public class HelloWorld {

   String message = "Hello World";

   void sayHello() {
      System.out.println(message);
   }

}

In this HelloWorld class, we omit the public access modifier in lines 3 and 5. Doing this implicitly gives the message field and the sayHello method default access.

We should avoid giving everything default access when creating classes in Java and instead think carefully about what level of access each field and method should have.

The table below details whether or not information can be accessed at different levels based on the access modifier. For example, a field with the private access modifier can be accessed within the class, but cannot be accessed outside the class at the world-level. In Java, world-level is the level of the whole application and contains all of the packages and classes. While we will discuss later how to decide which access modifier to use for different scenarios, you should save this table now as reference for those conversations.

Modifier	Class	Package	World
`public`	Yes	Yes	Yes
`protected`	Yes	Yes	No
(no modifier, aka package-private or default)	Yes	Yes	No
`private`	Yes	No	No

Note

If you would like to learn more about access modifiers, you should check out the Oracle documentation on the subject.

Let’s take a look at our HelloWorld class again and add some access modifiers.

Example

public class HelloWorld {

   private String message = "Hello World";

   public void sayHello() {
      System.out.println(message);
   }

}

Since message only needs to be used by sayHello, we declare it to be private. Since we want sayHello to be usable by anybody else, we declare it to be public.

Note

In Java, you should always use the most restrictive access modifier possible. Minimizing access to class members allows code to be refactored more easily in the future, and hides details of how you implement your classes from others.

This makes your code more modular and modifiable. Each public member that you expose is another field or property that can be referenced directly elsewhere in any program using your class. Thus, changing any such field in your code could potentially break any code referencing such members. The fewer public members, the more you can change your code without breaking stuff elsewhere.

Note

If you want to learn more about controlling access to members of a class, check out this information from Oracle .

Check Your Understanding

Question

For this question, refer to the code block below.

public class Greeting {

   String name = "Jess";

   public void sayHello() {
      System.out.println("Hello " + this.name + "!");
   }
}

What access modifier would you give name?

no access modifier
public
private
protected