AP® Computer Science A glossary
Access modifier
Also called: public, private
Course: AP® Computer Science A Shows up in: Unit 3: Class Creation
The keywords public and private, which control whether classes, data, constructors and methods can be used from outside the declaring class.
Appears in the course and exam description (CED): 3.3.A.13.3.A.23.3.A.33.3.A.6
In AP® code, classes and constructors are public, instance variables are private unless the specification says otherwise, and methods are public or private. Local variables and parameters can never have an access modifier.
public class Safe
{
private int code; // only Safe's own code can use it
public Safe(int c) // anyone can create a Safe
{
code = c;
}
public boolean opens(int guess)
{
return guess == code;
}
}