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swiftaccess-modifiers

What is behavior of private access control for swift class?

I tried this with storyboard with Xcode 7 GM Seed:

import UIKit

public class C {
    let _secret = arc4random_uniform(1000)

    private func secret() -> String {
        return "\(_secret) is a secret"
    }

}
let c1 = C()
c1.secret()

This compiled and gave me the "secret". So this upsets my understanding of access control for Swift class and object. Why is this happening?

Solution

  • In Swift private means accessible only within the same source file which is what you're doing. If the code in your question was contained in a file C.swift and you would try to access the secret method from another Swift file you would get a compile-time error.

    You can read more about the different access modifiers in the official documentation.