Chapter    11

Access Control

Access control is a feature of programming languages that restricts access to code based on where it’s defined. You can apply access control to the following items:

  • Classes
  • Structures
  • Enumerations
  • Properties
  • Initializers
  • Methods

Some limited support for access control is available for:

  • Protocols
  • Global functions
  • Global constants and variables

Most of the time, you won’t have to specify the access level. Swift provides a default access level that works in most cases.

Modules and Source Files

First, I’m going to introduce a few terms, because to some extent the access control you get depends on how the code is structured. Access control applies at the module and source file level.

A source file in Swift is a single ...

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