4.4.1 Visibility

Fields are by default private, meaning that only the class and its sub-classes may access them. They can be made public by using the public access modifier, allowing access from anywhere.

class MyClass {
  static public function available() {
    unavailable();
  }

  static private function unavailable() {}
}

class Main {
  static public function main() {
    MyClass.available();
    // Cannot access private field unavailable
    MyClass.unavailable();
  }
}

Access to field available of class MyClass is allowed from within Main because it is denoted as being public. However, while access to field unavailable is allowed from within class MyClass, it is not allowed from within class Main because it is private (explicitly, although this identifier is redundant here).

The example demonstrates visibility through static fields, but the rules for member fields are equivalent. The following example demonstrates visibility behavior for when inheritance is involved.

class Base {
  public function new() {}

  private function baseField() {}
}

class Child1 extends Base {
  private function child1Field() {}
}

class Child2 extends Base {
  public function child2Field() {
    var child1 = new Child1();
    child1.baseField();
    // Cannot access private field child1Field
    child1.child1Field();
  }
}

class Main {
  static public function main() {}
}

We can see that access to child1.baseField() is allowed from within Child2 even though child1 is of a different type, Child1. This is because the field is defined on their common ancestor class Base, contrary to field child1Field which can not be accessed from within Child2.

Omitting the visibility modifier usually defaults the visibility to private, but there are exceptions where it becomes public instead:

1. If the class is declared as extern.
2. If the field is declared on an interface.
3. If the field overrides a public field.
4. If the class has metadata @:publicFields, which forces all class fields of inheriting classes to be public.

Trivia: Protected

Haxe does not support the protected keyword known from many other object-oriented programming languages like Java and C++. However, Haxe's private behaves similarly to protected in other languages, but does not allow access from non-inheriting classes in the same package.

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