access specifiers in C# and VB.Net

Public, Private, Protected, Friend, Internal, Default


1. PUBLIC
As the name specifies, it can be accessed from anywhere. If a member of a class is defined as public then it can be accessed anywhere in the class as well as outside the class. This means that objects can access and modify public fields, properties, methods.

2. PRIVATE
As the name suggests, it can't be accessed outside the class. Its the private property of the class and can be accessed only by the members of the class.

3. FRIEND/INTERNAL
Friend & Internal mean the same. Friend is used in VB.NET. Internal is used in C#. Friends can be accessed by all classes within an assembly but not from outside the assembly.

4. PROTECTED
Protected variables can be used within the class as well as the classes that inherites this class.

5. PROTECTED FRIEND/PROTECTED INTERNAL
The Protected Friend can be accessed by Members of the Assembly or the inheriting class, and ofcourse, within the class itself.

6. DEFAULT
A Default property is a single property of a class that can be set as the default. This allows developers that use your class to work more easily with your default property because they do not need to make a direct reference to the property. Default properties cannot be initialized as Shared/Static or Private and all must be accepted at least on argument or parameter. Default properties do not promote good code readability, so use this option sparingly.