Protected - access modifier

[Kamil Wojcik]

Hi,
I have one problem in understand one thing about protected modifier, here examples:

    
package pl.parent;
public class Parent {
	protected int x = 100;
}

    
package pl.child;
import pl.parent.Parent;
public class Child extends Parent {
	public void test() {
		System.out.println(x);
		Parent pp = new Parent();
		System.out.println(pp.x); // won't work!
	}
}

When I add static to variable x in the first class everything is fine, why? I don't get it.
Thanks for help!


Source: SCJP K. Sierra, B. Bates

[Abhi vijay]

That is because If you mark it static then you dont need a reference to access it.

[anand-k jha]

A protected member can not access through instance of superclass, which is in another package.

[Ruben Soto]

When you do pp.x and x is a static member of pp's class (Parent) this is interpreted by the compiler as Parent.x. Notice that you still have the access control restrictions imposed by the protected access modifier. That means that when a member is both static and protected, it can be accessed by any class in the same package as the class where the member is declared, and in any subclass of the class where the member is declared. Like Abhi said, in this case you don't need an instance of the superclass to access the member, because the member is static (remember that pp.x is just notation for Parent.x.)