Question

Suppose I have a Base class and its derived class Derived as follows:

class Base{
    private:
        _privateVar;

    protected:
        protectedVar;

    public:
        publicVar;

    void publicMethod(someValue, anotherValue)
    {
        protectedVar = someValue;
        publicVar = anotherValue;
    }
};

class Dervied: public Base{

    protected:
        protectedVar:
};

int main(void)
{
    Dervied d;
    d.publicMethod(valueA, valueB);
}

My question-

When I call d.publicMethod(...), does the protectedVar in Derived get set or the one in Base class?

Thanks

–A

Answer 1

When I call d.publicMethod(...), does the protectedVar in Derived get set or the one in Base class?

The method is a member of the Base class and hence it can access only the members of the Base class.

If the method belonged to your Derived class, then it would access Derived class member.
Because Derived class data members always hide Base class data members when accessed inside their own member functions.