Access Specifiers in .net

The main purpose of using access specifiers is to provide security to the applications. The availability (scope) of the member objects of a class may be controlled using access specifiers.


PUBLIC

As the name specifies, it can be accessed from anywhere. If a member of a class is defined as public then it can be accessed anywhere in the class as well as outside the class. This means that objects can access and modify public fields, properties, methods.


PRIVATE

As the name suggests, it can't be accessed outside the class. Its the private property of the class and can be accessed only by the members of the class.


INTERNAL

Friend & Internal mean the same. Internal is used in C#. Friends can be accessed by all classes within an assembly but not from outside the assembly.


PROTECTED

Protected variables can be used within the class as well as the classes that inherites this class.


PROTECTED INTERNAL

The Protected Internal can be accessed by Members of the Assembly or the inheriting class, and ofcourse, within the class itself.