Thanks everybody for help ! I understood now. Object class is not the
same package as other classes that extend it. Also protected members
have package access and are also inherited by subclasses where they
can be referenced using super. Cool !!!

Thanks for your help everybody !

Ravi,

I am using eclipse with these examples:
All three classes are in their own java files and in default package.

public class SuperClass {
       private int j;
       protected void messageinsuper()
       {
               System.out.printf("This is superclass\n");
       }

}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

public class SubClass extends SuperClass{

               private int g;
               public void messageinsub()

               {
                       System.out.printf("This is a subclass\n");
               }

}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

public class TestClass {

       public static void main(String[] args) {

               SubClass obj = new SubClass();
               obj.messageinsub();
               obj.messageinsuper();
       }

}

This works perfectly ie obj can call both messageinsub() and
messageinsuper()

Now I don't understand why this does not work:

public class Sample implements Cloneable {
       private int j;

       public Sample(int h)
       {
               j = h;
       }
       public void display()
       {
               System.out.printf("The value of private variable is %d
\n", j);
       }

}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

public class TestSample{

       /**
        * @param args
        */
       public static void main(String[] args) {
               Sample obj = new Sample(78);
               obj.clone();

       }

}

After all Sample extends object by default and just like the earlier
example I am trying to access protected method of superclass Object
which is clone() in a TestSample class. All are in the default package
in eclipse.

Uhh, yeah, that was my point.

Except that you *can* call a protected method from a subclass; that's the
purpose of 'protected'.

Please do not top-post.

Yes, and as I pointed out, Sub, Super and Checkit are also in the same
package.  Object is not.