What is the purpose of access modifiers?

Question

I know this applies to many languages, and not just Java, but that is the language I\'m most familiar with.

I understand what the modifiers do, and how to use them.

Answer 1

Explanations

A private member is only accessible within the same class as it is declared. A member with no access modifier is only accessible within classes in the same package.

or

If a variable is set to protected inside a Class, it will be accessible from its sub classes defined in the same classes or different package only via Inheritance.

A protected member is accessible within all classes in the same package and within subclasses in other packages.

A public member is accessible to all classes (unless it resides in a module that does not export the package it is declared in Here's a better version of the table. (Future proof with a column for modules.)