how the member function can access private variable

[vivekbasappa]

Hi I have a strange question. consider the following example.
I understand that private variable can be accessed only by private or public member functions.


class MyClass
{
private:
int value;
public:
void assign(const MyClass & x) {
value = x.value;
}
...
};



But in the above example function assign takes a reference parameter of type MYclass. we can also access x.value in the assign function. How can this be possible?. because when we are accessing the "x" x is a outside class to assign function and Assign function should not be allowed to access the private variable of x. Right??

[helios]

Private members can only be accessed by member functions of the same class.

Since *this and x are instances of MyClass, MyClass::assign() can freely access their members.
It's very important to understand the difference between class (or type) and instance.