PHP Quick Scripting Reference

CHAPTER 11

Access Levels

Every class member has an accessibility level that determines where the member will be visible. There are three of them available in PHP: public, protected and private.

class MyClass{  public    $myPublic;    // unrestricted access  protected $myProtected; // enclosing or child class  private   $myPrivate;   // enclosing class only}

Private access

All members regardless of access level are accessible in the class in which they are declared, the enclosing class. This is the only place where a private member can be accessed.

class MyClass{  public    $myPublic    = 'public';  protected $myProtected = 'protected';  private   ...