Protected access modifier in C Sharp (C#) - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Understanding the Protected Access Modifier in C#

📖 Scenario: Imagine you are creating a simple program to manage vehicles. You want to keep some details safe inside the vehicle class but still allow special access to classes that inherit from it.

🎯 Goal: Build a small C# program that uses the protected access modifier to allow a child class to access a parent's protected member.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a base class called Vehicle with a protected string variable brand set to "Toyota"

Create a derived class called Car that inherits from Vehicle

Inside Car, create a method ShowBrand that returns the brand value

In the Main method, create an object of Car and print the result of ShowBrand()

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Protected members help keep important data safe inside a class but still allow child classes to use or modify it. This is common in software that models real-world objects with inheritance.

💼 Career

Understanding access modifiers like protected is essential for writing clean, secure, and maintainable object-oriented code in professional C# development.

1

Create the base class with a protected member

Create a class called Vehicle with a protected string variable brand set to "Toyota".

C Sharp (C#)

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the keyword protected before the variable brand inside the Vehicle class.

2

Create a derived class that inherits Vehicle

Create a class called Car that inherits from Vehicle. Inside Car, create a method ShowBrand that returns the brand variable.

C Sharp (C#)

class Vehicle
{
    protected string brand = "Toyota";
}
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use class Car : Vehicle to inherit. The method ShowBrand should return the protected brand variable.

3

Create the Main method and instantiate Car

Create a Main method inside a Program class. Inside Main, create an object of Car called myCar.

C Sharp (C#)

class Vehicle
{
    protected string brand = "Toyota";
}

class Car : Vehicle
{
    public string ShowBrand()
    {
        return brand;
    }
}

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Define a Program class with a Main method. Inside Main, create myCar as a new Car object.

4

Print the brand using ShowBrand method

Inside the Main method, use Console.WriteLine to print the result of myCar.ShowBrand().

C Sharp (C#)

class Vehicle
{
    protected string brand = "Toyota";
}

class Car : Vehicle
{
    public string ShowBrand()
    {
        return brand;
    }
}

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        Car myCar = new Car();
        // Your code here
    }
}

Need a hint?

Use Console.WriteLine(myCar.ShowBrand()); to print the brand.