What are the Differences Between Public, Private, Protected, and Other C# Access Modifiers?

Mastering C# Access Modifiers: Beyond public

While public access is commonly used, C# offers a richer set of access modifiers. This guide explores the nuances of public, private, protected, and other access levels.

Understanding Access Levels

C# access modifiers control the visibility and accessibility of types and members:

• public: Provides unrestricted access from any code within the same assembly or from other assemblies that reference it.
• private: Limits access exclusively to the containing class or struct.
• protected: Allows access within the declaring class/struct and its derived classes.
• private protected: (Introduced in C# 7.2) Restricts access to the declaring class/struct and its derived classes only within the same assembly.
• internal: Grants access to any code within the same assembly.
• protected internal: Combines protected and internal access, allowing access within the same assembly and from derived classes in other assemblies.

If no access modifier is specified, a default access level is applied.

Static Members and Classes

The static modifier, when used with a class, signifies:

• The class cannot be instantiated using the new keyword.
• All members of the class are implicitly static.
• Only one instance of each static member exists, regardless of how many instances of the class might exist.

Static classes often serve as utility classes, providing helper functions accessed directly through the class name:

<code class="language-csharp">MyStaticClass.UtilityMethod(...);</code>

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