PHP Protected vs Private: Key Differences

In PHP, both protected and private are access control modifiers used to restrict access to a class’s member properties and methods.

1. safeguarded:

1. Members and methods that are marked as protected can only be accessed within the current class and its subclasses, meaning that protected members can be inherited and accessed in subclasses.
2. Other classes cannot directly access protected members, but can access them through an instance of a subclass.

1. restricted access

1. Members and methods that are declared as private can only be accessed within the current class, and are not allowed to be accessed in subclasses.
2. Other classes cannot directly access private members; they must be accessed through public methods within the class.

Therefore, protected members are visible to subclasses, while private members are not visible to subclasses. When designing a class, it is necessary to choose between using protected or private to restrict access to members based on requirements and design purposes.