Why protected member is accessed by subclass of subclass of a class which are placed in different packages

Question

Why this code runs fine??

package certification;
public class Parent {
    protected int x = 9; // protected access
    protected void z(){System.out.println(5);}
}


package other;
import certification.Parent;
class C extends Parent{}
public class Child extends C {
    public void testIt() {
        System.out.println("x is " + x);
        this.z();
    }

}

import other.Child;
class Test extends Child{
    public static void main(String args[]){
        new Child().testIt();
    }
}

This gives output:

x is 9

5

But how can subclass(Child) of subclass(C) can access protected member of class Parent.

Possible duplicate of [What does the protected modifier mean?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8637781/what-does-the-protected-modifier-mean) — khelwood, Jan 19 '17 at 17:06
Another link that might help you understand the difference between access modifiers in java. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/215497/in-java-difference-between-default-public-protected-and-private — dnapierata, Jan 19 '17 at 17:07
Possible duplicate of [In Java, difference between default, public, protected, and private](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/215497/in-java-difference-between-default-public-protected-and-private) — dnapierata, Jan 19 '17 at 17:09

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 19 '17 at 17:15

In your example class Child extends C and class C extends Parent. This means Child is a subclass of Parent. Protected fields are visible both to all subclasses and to classes in the same package. https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/javaOO/accesscontrol.html

Why protected member is accessed by subclass of subclass of a class which are placed in different packages

1 Answers1