What is the difference between public, private and protected in PHP?

public, protected and private are access modifiers (also called visibility). They decide who can use a property or a method of a class.

Keyword	Can be accessed from
public	Anywhere: inside the class, in child classes and outside the class
protected	Inside the class and in its child classes only
private	Inside the same class only

<?php
class Account {
    public $name = "Robin";
    protected $type = "Savings";
    private $pin = 1234;
}

$acc = new Account();

echo $acc->name;   // works, it is public
// echo $acc->pin; // Fatal error, private property can not be accessed outside
?>

Output:

If you try to read a private or protected property from outside the class, PHP stops with a fatal error. To give controlled access, we normally write public methods (getters and setters) inside the class.

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