copy constructors; why can access private data?

[thomas]

guys, I defined a copy constructor like this.

--code--
FiveTuple::FiveTuple(const FiveTuple &fv_tuple){
source_ip_ = fv_tuple.source_ip_;
dest_ip_ = fv_tuple.dest_ip_;
source_port_ = fv_tuple.source_port_;
dest_port_ = fv_tuple.dest_port_;
ip_protocol_ = fv_tuple.ip_protocol_;
}
--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]

thomas wrote:

guys, I defined a copy constructor like this.

--code--
FiveTuple::FiveTuple(const FiveTuple &fv_tuple){
source_ip_ = fv_tuple.source_ip_;
dest_ip_ = fv_tuple.dest_ip_;
source_port_ = fv_tuple.source_port_;
dest_port_ = fv_tuple.dest_port_;
ip_protocol_ = fv_tuple.ip_protocol_;
}
--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.