Question

If I will create a new object like the following, which access modifier will it have by default?

Object objectA = new Object();

Answer 1

Any member will always have the most restrictive one available – so in this case the accessibility of objectA is private. (Assuming it’s an instance variable. It makes no sense as a local variable, as they don’t have any access rules as such.)

So this:

class Foo
{
    Object objectA = new Object();
}

is equivalent to this:

internal class Foo
{
    private Object objectA = new Object();
}

The “default to most private” means that for types, the accessibility depends on the context. This:

class Outer
{
    class Nested
    {
    }
}

is equivalent to this:

internal class Outer
{
    private class Nested
    {
    }
}

… because you can’t have a private non-nested class.

There’s only one place where adding an explicit access modifier can make something more private than it is without, and that’s in property declarations:

public string Name { get; set; } // Both public

public string Name { get; private set; } // public get, private set