Access control is a feature in Swift that allows you to control the access levels of properties, methods, and other types in your code. This means that you can specify which parts of your code can access a particular piece of functionality, and which parts cannot. Swift has five access levels: open
, public
, internal
, fileprivate
, and private
. The most permissive access level is open, which allows the symbol to be used by any code in your app, as well as by code in other apps that depend on your app. The least permissive access level is private, which allows the symbol to be used only within the source file where it is defined. Here’s an example of how access control works in Swift:
class SomeClass {
private var myPrivateProperty = 0
fileprivate var myFilePrivateProperty = 0
internal var myInternalProperty = 0
public var myPublicProperty = 0
open var myOpenProperty = 0
}
In this example, we have a SomeClass
with five properties, each with a different access level. The myPrivateProperty
property has the private access level, which means it can only be accessed within the source file where it is defined. The myFilePrivateProperty
property has the fileprivate
access level, which means it can be accessed within the source file where it is defined, but not in any other source files. The myInternalProperty
property has the internal access level, which means it can be accessed within the module (usually an app or framework) where it is defined, but not in any other modules. The myPublicProperty
property has the public access level, which means it can be accessed from any code within the module where it is defined, as well as from any other module that imports that module. And finally, the myOpenProperty
property has the open access level, which means it can be accessed from any code within the module where it is defined, as well as from any other module that imports that module and subclasses the SomeClass
class. Access control is an important part of Swift, because it allows you to control the visibility and accessibility of your code. By using the appropriate access levels for your properties, methods, and other types, you can make your code more modular, maintainable, and secure.