Navigating C++ and Object-Oriented Design

11.9. Summary of Derivation Options

Table 11.1 summaries access levels for public, protected, and private derivation.

Table 11.1. Summary of access levels with inheritance

Base Class Member	Derivation Access Level	Derived Class Member	Users of Derived Class
private	private or	not accessible	not accessible
	protected or
	public
public or	private	private	not accessible
protected
protected	public or	protected	not accessible
	protected
public	protected	protected	not accessible
public	public	public	public

Public derivation is the most common form of inheritance. Public derivation creates a subtype of a base class and provides the foundations for polymorphism and dynamic binding with class hierarchies. With public derivation, you can reuse code from base ...