depending on where do you declare this variable?
if you declare this variable within a method, then this variable is only available for the specific method. If you declare this variable within the class without declaring public or private, I think the default in Java will automatically declare it as proctected, meaning that it will be available for the whole package. Let me know if i'm wrong, you probably want to double check... I don't remember this on the top of my head haha...

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