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A: Private method access

Posted by John Largo on May 17, 2000 at 3:01 PM

The main method is not a class client, it's a top-level nested method, which is a member of the CountInstances. As such it has full access to all private members.

>
> In the following code, a private member function (getNumInstances) is being called by the class's
> client. I thought private member functions are
> only accessible to class's member functions and
> not the external world. Please explain.

>
> public class CountInstances {
> private static int numInstances = 0 ;
>
> private int getNumInstances() {
> return numInstances;
> }
>
> private static void addInstance() {
> numInstances++;
> }
>
> CountInstances() {
> CountInstances.addInstance();
> }
>
> public static void main(String args[]) {

> CountInstances ref = new CountInstances();
> System.out.println("Starting with " + ref.getNumInstances() + " Instances");
>
> }
> }

>