Subclasses and Method Privacy

Java specifies that methods may not be overridden to be more private.

Legal overridden method access

  Private -> Default -> Protected -> Public
  

• A private method may be overridden by a private, default, protected, or public method.
• A default method may be overridden by a default, protected, or public method.
• A protected method may be overridden by a protected or public method.
• A public method may be overridden only by a public method.

class BaseClass {
  protected void methodA() {
  }
}

class SubClass extends BaseClass{
  void methodA(){}
}

The output when compiling the code above:

Cannot reduce the visibility of the inherited method from BaseClass