Question

If the method iAmPrivate is Private then how does the following execute it? If I try to run PrivateMethod’s myPrivateMethod it is encapsulated why doesn’t the same apply to iAmPrivate ?

class PrivateMethod {
    private int myPrivateMethod() {
        return 1;
    }
}

static void Main(string[] args) {

    Program myProgram = new Program();

    myProgram.iAmPrivate("private");
    myProgram.iAmPublic("public");

    PrivateMethod pm = new PrivateMethod();
    //Console.WriteLine("this won't run {0}", pm.myPrivateMethod);  //not possible          

    Console.WriteLine("press [enter] to exit");
    Console.ReadLine();
}

public void iAmPublic(string s) {
    Console.WriteLine("I am {0}", s);
}

private void iAmPrivate(string s) {
    Console.WriteLine("I am {0}", s);
}

Answer 1

[Thanks for the help… Now I get it!]

Changing the class PrivateMethod to the following helped me understand what is going on:

class PrivateMethod {
    public int pretendMain() {
        PrivateMethod x = new PrivateMethod();
        return x.myPrivateMethod();
    }
    private int myPrivateMethod() {
        return 1;
    }
}

class Program {
    static void Main(string[] args) {

        Program myProgram = new Program();

        myProgram.iAmPrivate("private");
        myProgram.iAmPublic("public");

        PrivateMethod pm = new PrivateMethod();
        Console.WriteLine("this will now run {0}", pm.pretendMain()); //now possible !
        //Console.WriteLine("this won't run {0}", pm.myPrivateMethod);  //not possible          

        Console.WriteLine("press [enter] to exit");
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    public void iAmPublic(string s) {
        Console.WriteLine("I am {0}", s);
    }
    private void iAmPrivate(string s) {
        Console.WriteLine("I am {0}", s);
    }
}

The fact that I was missing is that myProgram.iAmPrivate("private"); was being run from within Main so of course it is accessible.