Classes and Inheritance - Illustrated C# 2005 - page 164

Summary of Member Access Modifiers
The following two tables summarize the characteristics of the five member access levels.
Table 7-1 lists the modifiers and gives an intuitive summary of the effects of the modifier.

Table 7-1. Member Access Modifiers

Modifier Meaning

private

Accessible only within the class

internal

Accessible to all classes within this assembly

protected Accessible to all classes derived from this class

protected internal

Accessible to all classes that are either derived from this class or are
declared within this assembly

public

Accessible to any class

Table 7-2 lists the access modifiers down the left side of the table, and the categories of
classes across the top. Derived refers to classes derived from the class declaring the member.
Non-derived means classes not derived from the class declaring the member. A check in a cell
means that that category of class can access members with the corresponding modifier.

Table 7-2. Summary of Member Accessibility

Classes in Same Assembly Classes in Different Assembly

Non-derived Derived Non-derived Derived

private
internal

✓ ✓

protected ✓ ✓

protected internal

✓ ✓ ✓

public ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓