Difference between private, public, and protected inheritance

Question

What is the difference between public, private, and protected inheritance in C++?

Answer 1

Limiting the visibility of inheritance will make code not able to see that some class inherits another class: Implicit conversions from the derived to the base won't work, and static_cast from the base to the derived won't work either.

Only members/friends of a class can see private inheritance, and only members/friends and derived classes can see protected inheritance.

public inheritance

1. IS-A inheritance. A button is-a window, and anywhere where a window is needed, a button can be passed too.

   class button : public window { };
   

protected inheritance

1. Protected implemented-in-terms-of. Rarely useful. Used in boost::compressed_pair to derive from empty classes and save memory using empty base class optimization (example below doesn't use template to keep being at the point):

   struct empty_pair_impl : protected empty_class_1 
   { non_empty_class_2 second; };
   
   struct pair : private empty_pair_impl {
     non_empty_class_2 &second() {
       return this->second;
     }
   
     empty_class_1 &first() {
       return *this; // notice we return *this!
     }
   };
   

private inheritance

1. Implemented-in-terms-of. The usage of the base class is only for implementing the derived class. Useful with traits and if size matters (empty traits that only contain functions will make use of the empty base class optimization). Often containment is the better solution, though. The size for strings is critical, so it's an often seen usage here

   template<typename StorageModel>
   struct string : private StorageModel {
   public:
     void realloc() {
       // uses inherited function
       StorageModel::realloc();
     }
   };
   

---

public member

1. Aggregate

   class pair {
   public:
     First first;
     Second second;
   };
   

2. Accessors

   class window {
   public:
       int getWidth() const;
   };
   

protected member

1. Providing enhanced access for derived classes

   class stack {
   protected:
     vector<element> c;
   };
   
   class window {
   protected:
     void registerClass(window_descriptor w);
   };
   

private member

1. Keep implementation details

   class window {
   private:
     int width;
   };
   

---

Note that C-style casts purposely allows casting a derived class to a protected or private base class in a defined and safe manner and to cast into the other direction too. This should be avoided at all costs, because it can make code dependent on implementation details - but if necessary, you can make use of this technique.

Answer 2

Accessors    | Base Class | Derived Class | World
—————————————+————————————+———————————————+———————
public       |      y     |       y       |   y
—————————————+————————————+———————————————+———————
protected    |      y     |       y       |   n
—————————————+————————————+———————————————+———————
private      |            |               |    
  or         |      y     |       n       |   n
no accessor  |            |               |

y: accessible
n: not accessible

Based on this example for java... I think a little table worth a thousand words :)

Answer 3

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:".

There are three accessors that I'm aware of: public, protected and private.

Let:

class Base {
    public:
        int publicMember;
    protected:
        int protectedMember;
    private:
        int privateMember;
};

• Everything that is aware of Base is also aware that Base contains publicMember.
• Only the children (and their children) are aware that Base contains protectedMember.
• No one but Base is aware of privateMember.

By "is aware of", I mean "acknowledge the existence of, and thus be able to access".

next:

The same happens with public, private and protected inheritance. Let's consider a class Base and a class Child that inherits from Base.

• If the inheritance is public, everything that is aware of Base and Child is also aware that Child inherits from Base.
• If the inheritance is protected, only Child, and its children, are aware that they inherit from Base.
• If the inheritance is private, no one other than Child is aware of the inheritance.

Answer 4

Member in base class : Private   Protected   Public   

Inheritance type :             Object inherited as:

Private            :   Inaccessible   Private     Private   
Protected          :   Inaccessible   Protected   Protected  
Public             :   Inaccessible   Protected   Public

Answer 5

I found an easy answer and so thought of posting it for my future reference too.

Its from the links http://www.learncpp.com/cpp-tutorial/115-inheritance-and-access-specifiers/

class Base
{
public:
    int m_nPublic; // can be accessed by anybody
private:
    int m_nPrivate; // can only be accessed by Base member functions (but not derived classes)
protected:
    int m_nProtected; // can be accessed by Base member functions, or derived classes.
};

class Derived: public Base
{
public:
    Derived()
    {
        // Derived's access to Base members is not influenced by the type of inheritance used,
        // so the following is always true:

        m_nPublic = 1; // allowed: can access public base members from derived class
        m_nPrivate = 2; // not allowed: can not access private base members from derived class
        m_nProtected = 3; // allowed: can access protected base members from derived class
    }
};

int main()
{
    Base cBase;
    cBase.m_nPublic = 1; // allowed: can access public members from outside class
    cBase.m_nPrivate = 2; // not allowed: can not access private members from outside class
    cBase.m_nProtected = 3; // not allowed: can not access protected members from outside class
}

Answer 6

It's essentially the access protection of the public and protected members of the base class in the derived class. With public inheritance, the derived class can see public and protected members of the base. With private inheritance, it can't. With protected, the derived class and any classes derived from that can see them.