Access Modifiers in Salesforce

Access modifiers are used in apex class in salesforce. Similar to Java programming, Salesforce supports 4 different access modifiers in salesforce.

1. private
2. protected
3. public
4. global

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private

• This is default modifier, if no access modifiers are mentioned then it will be by default private.
• Method or variable is accessible ONLY within the Apex class in which it is defined.

protected

• The method or variable is visible to any inner classes in the defining Apex class.
• The method or variable is also visible to class that extend the defining Apex class.
• You can only use this access modifier for instance methods and member variables.
• It is strictly more permissive than the default (private) setting, just like Java.

public

• The method or variable can be used by any Apex in this application or namespace.
• The public access modifier is not the same as it is in Java.
• This was done to keep the code for each application separate.
• If you want Java kind of access modifiers, then User global access modifiers.

global

• The method or variable can be used by any Apex code that has access to the class.
• This is accessible to any application, including third party applications.
• If any method or variable is declared global, then its class should also be global.
• If any business logic should be allowed to be executed by any third-party application, then class and method should be defined as global. Like in SOAP API or Rest API or another apex class.
• global modifiers should be used rarely as its open to all kind of modifier.
• Cross-application dependencies are difficult to maintain.

Syntax: (Shown here as Access_Modifier)

[(none)|private|protected|public|global] declaration

Example:

// Public access modifier string variable.
public string a_String_Variable;

//private access modifier integer variable.
private integer a_Integer_Variable;

//protected access modifier double variable.
protected double a_Protected_Variable;

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Resource:

Salesforce: Access Modifiers