I'm confused about protected access - any insight ?

Question

I'm trying to understand how the protected access modifier works. I have tried to compile some example code and I'm seeing behavior which appears to go against what the text I'm using claims should happen. To wit:
My understanding is that any subclass and any class in the same package has access to the protected member of a class. Default access (when no access modifier is used at all) allows access only to classes in the same package.
I have the following two classes:
//--------  Parent.java ---------------
package testpkg.p1;
public class Parent
    public int x = 7;
    protected int getXValue ()
        return x;
//--------- Child.java --------------
package testpkg.p2;
import testpkg.p1.Parent;
public class Child
    extends Parent
    public static void main (String[] args)
        Child child = new Child();
        System.out.println("Child X: " + child.getXValue() + "\n");
        System.out.println("Parent X: " + child.testParent());
    public int testParent ()
        Parent parent = new Parent();
        return parent.getXValue();
}I get the following compilation error:
$ javac -d ../lib Parent.java Child.java
Child.java:18: getXValue() has protected access in testpkg.p1.Parent
return parent.getXValue();
^
1 error
Now it seems to me that everything should compile fine since the Child class is a subclass of the Parent class, and as such should have access to the protected member method getXValue(). However this obviously isn't the case. It seems that the behavior is more like what is described for default access, i.e. no access by any class outside of the package, no matter if it is a subclass or not.
Can anyone enlighten me on this ? Am I missing something obvious ?
Thanks in advance for any feedback.
-James

Answer 1

You know that you don't have to use the "protected"
modifier.Yes you do.
In fact, when I learned Java, it was called
"package" scope, not protected. But the same
principle applies.No, the principles outlined above and in the Java Language Spec apply.
"protected" or "package" means that only classes
within the package itself can have access. You do not
actually have to place any modifier at all since this
is the default scope.No, protected adds the ability to access ex-package super class members from a child class instance. Try compiling the above example without specifying protected access.
Pete