private variable scope

[Salil Vverma]

The code attached below works fine and prints true which is fine but I could not understand why there was no compilation error on the equals function while it was trying to access the private member of another object. Could you please help me understanding this,

 
class Profile {

	private final int a;

	public Profile(int a) {
		this.a = a;
	}

	public Boolean equals(Profile p) {
		return p.a == this.a;
	}

}

public class Usage {

	public static void main(String args[]) {
		Profile pf1 = new Profile(4);
		Profile pf2 = new Profile(4);
		Object ob = pf1.equals(pf2);
		System.out.print(ob);
	}

}

[Ankit Garg]

The equals method is accessing private member on an instance of its own class. This is allowed. The members of the class have access to private members of objects of their own class...

[suman mitragupta]

private varibale with object instance is ok.

[Atwal Usha]

Well, the private member is used within the class and it is allowed. There would have been compiler error if it would have been used outside the class.