Access Modifiers in C#

What is an access modifier?

Access modifiers are keywords in object-oriented languages that set the accessibility of classes, methods, and other members. Access modifiers are a specific part of programming language syntax used to facilitate the encapsulation of components.

Which are the access modifiers in C#?

There are 6 types of C# modifiers:

• public – Fully accessible.
• internal – Accessible only within the containing assembly or friend assemblies.
• private – Accessible only within the containing type.
• protected – Accessible only within the containing type or subclasses.
• protected internal – Accessible in two ways.
• private protected – Access is limited to the containing class or types derived from the containing class within the current assembly.

Examples:

ClassA is accessible only in current assembly; ClassB is accessible outside of assembly:

class ClassA {} // ClassA is internal (default)
public class ClassB {} // ClassB is public

In ClassA “y” is private by default, in ClassB “y” is internal so it is accessible only for this assembly; “x” is public but the class is internal by default so “x” is accessible only in this assembly.

class ClassA { int y; } // y is private (default)
class ClassB { internal int y; public int x;} //y is internal and can be accsesible only in the current assembly
//x is public, but the class is internal