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copied!<p>To answer that question, I'd like to describe member's accessors first in my own words. If you already know this, skip to the heading "next:".</p> <p>There are three accessors that I'm aware of: <code>public</code>, <code>protected</code> and <code>private</code>. </p> <p>Let:</p> <pre><code>class Base { public: int publicMember; protected: int protectedMember; private: int privateMember; }; </code></pre> <ul> <li>Everything that is aware of <code>Base</code> is also aware that <code>Base</code> contains <code>publicMember</code>.</li> <li>Only the children (and their children) are aware that <code>Base</code> contains <code>protectedMember</code>.</li> <li>No one but <code>Base</code> is aware of <code>privateMember</code>.</li> </ul> <p>By "is aware of", I mean "acknowledge the existence of, and thus be able to access".</p> <h2>next:</h2> <p>The same happens with public, private and protected inheritance. Let's consider a class <code>Base</code> and a class <code>Child</code> that inherits from <code>Base</code>.</p> <ul> <li>If the inheritance is <code>public</code>, everything that is aware of <code>Base</code> and <code>Child</code> is also aware that <code>Child</code> inherits from <code>Base</code>.</li> <li>If the inheritance is <code>protected</code>, only <code>Child</code>, and its children, are aware that they inherit from <code>Base</code>.</li> <li>If the inheritance is <code>private</code>, no one other than <code>Child</code> is aware of the inheritance.</li> </ul>

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