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1. There is not point in making a non-inner class private. If there was a non-inner private class it means that the class can be used only by itself and none other. No use of a such an isolated self service class.<br />
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2. Protected means access within the package and also by sub-classes. Protected is primarily for inheritence. So it makes sense to have members of a class as protected not the class itself. <br />
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here is the accessor hierarchy in Java<br />
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Private - within the class<br />
Package - within the package<br />
Protected - within package and sub-classess<br />
Public - every where
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1. There is not point in making a non-inner class private. If there was a non-inner private class it means that the class can be used only by itself and none other. No use of a such an isolated self service class.

2. Protected means access within the package and also by sub-classes. Protected is primarily for inheritence. So it makes sense to have members of a class as protected not the class itself.

here is the accessor hierarchy in Java

Private - within the class
Package - within the package
Protected - within package and sub-classess
Public - every where

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With regards to the following statement:<br />
Normal (non-inner) classes cannot be made private or protected; they may only be given public or package access.<br />
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1)Is this because otherwise no other classes could be derived from it? Are there other reasons?<br />
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2) I thought &quot;protected&quot; meant only package access???<br />

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With regards to the following statement:
Normal (non-inner) classes cannot be made private or protected; they may only be given public or package access.

1)Is this because otherwise no other classes could be derived from it? Are there other reasons?

2) I thought "protected" meant only package access???


Java class visibility

Java is a platform-independent, object-oriented programming language and run-time environment, designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible such that developers can write one set of code across all platforms using libraries. Most devices will not run Java natively, and require a run-time component to be installed in order to execute a Java program.