Can I force abstract methods to be protected when someone overrides them?

Question

In my abstract class, I have something like this:

public Object methodIWantToExpose(){   // ...    methodIDontWantExposed()   // ... }  protected abstract void methodIDontWantExposed(); 

The thing is, I want to force the person that extends methodIDontWantExposed() to make it protected, because I don't want the extending class to have both methodIDontWantExposed and methodIWantToExpose exposed.

Is there a way to do this (or a different approach which might avoid my problem)?

Answer 1

No. A subclass can always make a method more public.

Even if they couldn't do this with the method you have in your class, they could always write:

public void callsMethodIDontWantExposed() {     methodIDontWantExposed(); } 

... so you'd be in the same situation.