Can private class be inherited???

thanks

Actually, Kavita, it struck we later when I was working with some nested classes that we were both wrong - you CAN inherit from a private class!

The following compiles  and works fine:

Only nested classes can be private.


'Top level' classes are either internal (by default) or public.


So, this is OK:


class A // internal if no modifier 
{


  public int MemberA; // accessible only within current assembly


  private Class N  // not accessible outside A
  {
    public int MemberN; // not accessible outside A    
  }


}




class B : A
{
  // can't access A.N
}
As Shirsendu said, private classes can't be inherited but the enclosing class can be (unless it's sealed).


Accessibility to members of a class (strictly speaking a nested class is a static member) is controlled by the access modifier which (in C#) can be public, protected internal, internal, protected or private. If you don't use a modifier, then a member is private by default.


However, a member's accessibility may be limited by the accessibility of the class itself because a member cannot be more accessible than its class. So, for example, if you declare public members of an internal class, then those members will also effectively be internal. Similarly, if you declare public members of a private class, then those members (like the nested class itself)  will not be accessible outside the enclosing class.


If a class implements an interface, then all the implemented members must be declared public. The only exception to this is where a member is implemented explicitly:


IFace 
{
  void MethodI();  // access modifier not allowed but implicitly public
  void MethodE(); // ditto
}


class C : IFace 
{
  public void MethodI(){}  // public needed here
  void IFace.MethodE(){} // implemented explicitly so no access modifier allowed
}


The only way to access IFace.MethodE is through an IFace reference:


C c = new C();
c.MethodI(); // OK
c.MethodE(); // not allowed
((IFace)c).MethodE(); // OK


So in a sense IFace.MethodE() is both public and private :)