What does exactly the protected access specifier means

Answer 1

It actually not assess by dot operator but can be inserted in another class

eg. class A
{
int a;
public:
A()
{a=2;}
protected:
int c;
};
class B: public A
{ int x;
public:
B()
{x=c;} //will not produce any error
//because c is a protected member
};

void main()
{ A obj;
obj.a=2;. //error because a is private
obj.c=3;. //error because c is protected
B obj1;
}

Answer 2

I hope these can help us learn:

http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/access-modifiers-in-c/

http://www.tutorialdost.com/Cpp-Programming-Tutorial/48-Cpp-Public-Private-Protected-Access-Modifiers.aspx

Hth, cmiiw

Answer 3

Thanks brother