Class Access
Note that a class cannot be private (that would make it inaccessible to anyone but the class) or protected. So you have only two choices for class access: package access or public. If you don’t want anyone else to have access to that class, you can make all the constructors private, thereby preventing anyone but you, inside a static member of the class, from creating an object of that class. Here’s an example:
//: access/Lunch.java
// Demonstrates class access specifiers. Make a class
// effectively private with private constructors:
class Soup1 {
private Soup1() {}
// (1) Allow creation via static method:
public static Soup1 makeSoup() {
return new Soup1();
}
}
class Soup2 {
private Soup2() {}
// (2) Create a static object and return a reference
// upon request.(The "Singleton" pattern):
private static Soup2 ps1 = new Soup2();
public static Soup2 access() {
return ps1;
}
public void f() {}
}
// Only one public class allowed per file:
public class Lunch {
void testPrivate() {
// Can't do this! Private constructor:
//! Soup1 soup = new Soup1();
}
void testStatic() {
Soup1 soup = Soup1.makeSoup();
}
void testSingleton() {
Soup2.access().f();
}
} ///:~
[Thinking in Java, 160]

