Access Modifiers
Access
modifiers control the accessibility of types (including enumerations,
structures, classes, standard modules, and delegates) and type
members (including methods, constructors, events, constants, fields
[data members], and properties) to other program elements. They are
part of the declarations of types and type members. In the following
code fragment, for example, the keywords Public
and Private
are access modifiers:
Public Class SomeClass Public Sub DoSomething( ) ' ... End Sub Private Sub InternalHelperSub( ) ' ... End Sub End Class
The complete list of access modifiers and their meanings is shown in Table 2-5.
Table 2-5. Access modifiers
Access modifier |
Description |
---|---|
|
Defines a type that is accessible only from within the program in which it is declared. |
|
Defines a type that is accessible only from within the context in which it is declared. For instance, a Private variable declared within a class module is accessible only from within that class module. A Private class is accessible only from classes within which it is nested. |
|
Applies to class members only. Defines a type that is accessible only from within its own class or from a derived class. |
|
Defines a type that is accessible from within the program in which it is declared as well as from derived classes. |
|
Defines a type that is publicly accessible. For example, a public method of a class can be accessed from any program that instantiates ... |
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