What is the difference between public, private, and protected in PHP?
Public, private and protected are called access modifiers. Just like C++, PHP also have three access modifiers such as public, private and protected. The visibility of a property, a method or a constant can be defined by prefixing the declaration with these keywords.
- If the class member declared as public then it can be accessed everywhere.
- If the class members declared as protected then it can be accessed only within the class itself and by inheriting child classes.
- If the class members declared as private then it may only be accessed by the class that defines the member.
Public Access modifier: This modifier is open to use inside as well as outside the class.
Example:
php
<?php
class pub {
public $tag_line = "A Computer Science Portal for Geeks!" ;
function display() {
echo $this ->tag_line. "<br/>" ;
}
}
class child extends pub {
function show(){
echo $this ->tag_line;
}
}
$obj = new child;
echo $obj ->tag_line. "<br/>" ;
$obj ->display();
$obj ->show();
?>
|
Output:
A Computer Science Portal for Geeks!
A Computer Science Portal for Geeks!
A Computer Science Portal for Geeks!
Protected Access modifier: This modifier is open to use within the class in which it is defined and its parent or inherited classes.
Example:
php
<?php
class pro {
protected $x = 500;
protected $y = 500;
function sub()
{
echo $sum = $this ->x- $this ->y . "<br/>" ;
}
}
class child extends pro {
function mul()
{
echo $sub = $this ->x* $this ->y;
}
}
$obj = new child;
$obj ->sub();
$obj ->mul();
?>
|
Output:
0
250000
Private Access modifier: This modifier is open to use within the class that defines it. ( it can’t be accessed outside the class means in inherited class).
Example:
php
<?php
class demo {
private $name = "A Computer Science Portal for Geeks!" ;
private function show()
{
echo "This is private method of base class" ;
}
}
class child extends demo {
function display()
{
echo $this ->name;
}
}
$obj = new child;
$obj ->show();
$obj ->display();
?>
|
Output:
It will display error because private class data can not be accessed outside the class
Miscellaneous example:
Example:
php
<?php
class BaseClass
{
public $public = 'Public' ;
protected $protected = 'Protected' ;
private $private = 'Private' ;
function Display()
{
echo $this -> public ;
echo $this -> protected ;
echo $this -> private ;
}
}
$obj = new BaseClass();
echo $obj -> public ;
echo $obj -> protected ;
echo $obj -> private ;
$obj ->Display();
class SubClass extends BaseClass
{
public $public = 'Public Sub Class' ;
protected $protected = 'Protected Sub Class' ;
function Display()
{
echo $this -> public ;
echo $this -> protected ;
echo $this -> private ;
}
}
$obj2 = new SubClass();
echo $obj2 -> public ;
echo $obj2 -> protected ;
echo $obj2 -> private ;
$obj2 ->Display();
?>
|
Output:
It will display error because private class data can not be accessed outside the class
PHP is a server-side scripting language designed specifically for web development. You can learn PHP from the ground up by following this PHP Tutorial and PHP Examples.
Last Updated :
06 Oct, 2021
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