Question

I have an question which comes under multilevel inheritance in Java. All Three Classes are in Same package

I have class A :

public class A {
   protected int x;
}

public class B extends A {
   public void doSomething {
      // x is visible.agreed, as it is a direct subclass of A
   }  
}


public class C extends B {
   public void doSomething {
      // x is still visible, how come? I mean it is at the 2nd level 
     //  I am confused why?
   }  
}

does it like have any significance? or it is behavior which we have to take it by default?

Answer 1

variable/methods marked with protected modifier are visible to all the classes in the same pacakage and only to subclasses in different packages.
below are the example cases.

package a;
class A{
protected int x;
}
class B extends A{
//x can be accessed from this class
} 

class C extends B {
//x can be accessed from this class
}
class D{
//x can be accesed this class but you will have to create A's instance 
}

package B 
class One {
//cannot access x from this class
}
class Two extends A {
//can access x from this class
}