copy constructors; why can access private data?

[thomas]

guys, I defined a copy constructor like this.

--code--
FiveTuple::Five Tuple(const FiveTuple &fv_tuple){
source_ip_ = fv_tuple.source _ip_;
dest_ip_ = fv_tuple.dest_i p_;
source_port_ = fv_tuple.source _port_;
dest_port_ = fv_tuple.dest_p ort_;
ip_protocol_ = fv_tuple.ip_pro tocol_;
}
--code--

It works.

but the source_ip_, dest_ip_, etc are all private;
How can the copy constructor access private data of fv_tuple directly?

[Jeff Schwab]

Re: copy constructors; why can access private data?

thomas wrote:

guys, I defined a copy constructor like this.
>
--code--
FiveTuple::Five Tuple(const FiveTuple &fv_tuple){
source_ip_ = fv_tuple.source _ip_;
dest_ip_ = fv_tuple.dest_i p_;
source_port_ = fv_tuple.source _port_;
dest_port_ = fv_tuple.dest_p ort_;
ip_protocol_ = fv_tuple.ip_pro tocol_;
}
--code--
>
It works.
>
but the source_ip_, dest_ip_, etc are all private;
How can the copy constructor access private data of fv_tuple directly?

Private to the type, not the object.