Java, A Beginner's Guide, 5th Edition, 5th Edition

Packages and Member Access

The preceding chapters have introduced the fundamentals of access control, including the private and public modifiers, but they have not told the entire story. The reason for this is that packages also participate in Java’s access control mechanism, and a complete discussion had to wait until packages were covered.

The visibility of an element is determined by its access specification—private, public, protected, or default—and the package in which it resides. Thus, the visibility of an element is determined by its visibility within a class and its visibility within a package. This multilayered approach to access control supports a rich assortment of access privileges. Table 8-1 summarizes the various access levels. ...