What are access specifiers in inheritance?

What are access specifiers in inheritance?

Access specifiers are keywords in object-oriented programming that define the visibility of class members. They control how the members of a class can be accessed in derived classes.

Can you explain the different types of access specifiers?

Sure! The main access specifiers are public, protected, and private. Public members are accessible from anywhere, protected members are accessible within the class and its derived classes, and private members are only accessible within the class itself.

How do these specifiers affect inheritance?

In inheritance, the access specifiers determine how the base class members can be accessed in the derived class. For example, a public member of a base class remains public in the derived class, while a private member cannot be accessed directly.

Can you give an example of each access specifier in a code snippet?

Certainly! Here's a simple example:

class Base {
public:
    int pubVar;
protected:
    int protVar;
private:
    int privVar;
};

class Derived : public Base {
    void accessMembers() {
        pubVar = 1;  // Accessible
        protVar = 2; // Accessible
        // privVar = 3; // Not accessible
    }
};