Java Projects - Second Edition

Modifiers

Methods, constructors, fields, interfaces, and classes can have access modifiers. The general rule is that in case there is no modifier, the scope of the method, constructor, and so on, is the package. Any code in the same package can access it.

When the private modifier is used, the scope is restricted to the so-called compilation unit. This means the class that is in one file. What is inside one file can see and use anything declared to be private. This way, inner and nested classes can have access to each other's private variables, which may not really be a good programming style, but Java permits that.

The private members are accessible from code that is in the same top-level class. If there are inner classes inside a top-level ...