What does it mean for a subclass-outside-the-package to have access to a superclass (parent) protected member?
It means the subclass inherits the member. It does not,however, mean the subclass-outside-the-package can access the member using a reference to an instance of the superclass. In other words, protected = inheritance. Protected does not mean that the subclass can treat the protected superclass member as though it were public.
So if the subclass-outside-the-package gets a reference to
the superclass the subclass cannot use the dot operator on the superclass
reference to access the protected member. To a subclass-outside-the-package, a protected member might as well be default (or even private), when the subclass is using a reference to the superclass. The subclass can see the protected member only through inheritance.
SUMMARY :
For a subclass outside the package, the protected member can be accessed only
through inheritance.
Once the subclass-outside-the-package inherits the protected member,
that member (as inherited by the subclass) becomes private to any code outside
the subclass, with the exception of subclasses of the subclass.
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