Controlling Access to Members (see Fig. 12)

• Access modes
  • private
    • Default access mode
    • Accessible to member functions and friends
  • public
    • Accessible to any function in program with handle to class object
    • protected ; (discuss later)

  Figure 12: private members of a class are not accessible outside the class.

  

  
• Class member access
  • Default private
  • Explicitly set to private, public, protected
• struct member access
  • Default public
  • Explicitly set to private, public, protected
• Access to class's private data
  • Controlled with access functions (accessor methods)
    • Get function; Read private data
    • Set function; Modify private data