Java ambiguous type for protected method

Question

I'm facing the following error-message by Eclipse:

The method getString(String, BasicNameValuePair[]) is ambiguous for the type Class1

for the following code:

public final class Class1 {
    public static void getString(String requiredArguments, BasicNameValuePair[] dataPairs) {

    }

    protected static void getString(String requiredArguments, byte[] dataBytes) {

    }
}

public final class Class2 {
    public static void callTest() {
        Class1.getString("This is a test", null);
    }
}

The code in callTest() will result in the error above.

It's clear that null can be converted to BasicNameValuePair[] aswell as to byte[], but note the protected modifier here. The method with byte[] as argument shouldn't be visible to Class2 at all and thus not be ambiguous.

Why is the protected method visible to other (not subclassed) classes and causing this error?

Answer 1

Because these classes are on the same package?

The protected modifier specifies that the member can only be accessed within its own package (as with package-private) and, in addition, by a subclass of its class in another package.

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/javaOO/accesscontrol.html