Why can I use auto on a private type?

Question

I was somehow surprised that the following code compiles and runs (vc2012 & gcc4.7.2)

class Foo {
    struct Bar { int i; };
public:
    Bar Baz() { retu         


        

Answer 1

Access control is applied to names. Compare to this example from the standard:

class A {
  class B { };
public:
  typedef B BB;
};

void f() {
  A::BB x; // OK, typedef name A::BB is public
  A::B y; // access error, A::B is private
}