Question

Would following the table below be the best way of determining the access type of member variables of a class that I’m creating (sorry if this table is hard to see; it’s the same table shown http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/inheritance/)?

Access                        public    protected    private
members of the same class     yes       yes          yes
members of derived classes    yes       yes          no
not members                   yes       no           no

Answer 1

The table is correct, if that’s what you’re asking.

What it’s saying in words is that you can always access member variables of the class your method is in. If the member variable is defined in a parent class then you can only access it if the member variable is protected or public. If you’re outside the class then you can only access public member variables.

There is no “best way” — these are the rules presented in a reasonable fashion.