#321 – Accessibility of Constants

As with other class members, you can apply access modifiers to constants defined in a class to define their accessibility.  Accessibility dictates what other code has access to the constant’s value.

• public – All code has access
• private – Only code in the defining class has access
• protected – Code in the defining class or derived classes has access
• internal – All code in the defining assembly has access
• protected internal – Code in the defining assembly or in derived classes has access

        // All code has access
        public const string PluralOfDog = "Dogs";

        // Only this class has access
        private const Breeds DefaultBreed = Breeds.Retriever;

        // Subclass has access
        protected const string DefaultDogName = "Bowser";

        // Code in same assembly has access
        internal const string TargetArchitecture = "x86";

        // Code in same assembly or subclass has access
        protected internal const int DeckSize = 52;