Access modifiers public vs. default

Question

Just to be sure: When the parameters or methods of the class are not assigned to a specific access, are they then public? Or it is a default access modifier only availible for the classes in the same package?
I don't quite understand where the use of an default access modifier is necessary.
Example:

class Student {
String name;
Student (String n) {
name = n;
}
}

Cheers.

Answer 1

Yes you are right, when you don't specify any specific access type for the members of a class, they belong to default access. They are not public.

You can use the default access specifier for members of classes which are internal to a particular package and not exposed anywhere outside that package. For example you are writing a private Utility class which has some useful methods required only for a particular package. You can leave the access specifier as empty. Making them public will inadvertently expose them to the outside.