C# accessing protected member in derived class [duplicate]

Answer 1

You could do

public class B : A                           
{
    public void CallHowdy()
    {
        Console.WriteLine(Howdy);
    }
}

In your code, you're trying to access Howdy from outside an A, not from within a B. Here, you are inside a B, and can therefore access the protected member in A.

Answer 2

A protected member of a base class is accessible in a derived class only if the access takes place through the derived class type.

You are getting error because because A is not derived from B.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bcd5672a(v=vs.90).aspx

Answer 3

A protected member is only visible to itself and derived members. In your case, the declaration of A implies that only public members are accessible, just as if you instantiated an A from any other class. You could, however, simply write this.Howdy, because, due to the derivation chain, Howdy is available from inside of class B.

Answer 4

You're not accessing it from inside the class, you're trying to access the variable as though it were public. You would not expect this to compile, and this is pretty much what you are trying to do:

public class SomethingElse
{
    public void CallHowdy()
    {
        A a = new A();
        Console.WriteLine(a.Howdy);
    }
}

There is no relationship, and it sounds like you are confused why that field is not public.

Now, you could do this, if you wanted to:

public class B : A
{
    public void CallHowdy()
    {
        Console.Writeline(Howdy);
    }
}

Because B has inherited the data from A in this instance.