Access Modifiers in Dart
Access Modifiers in Dart Overview
Dart controls visibility through a simple but powerful privacy model based on library boundaries. Unlike many OOP languages, Dart uses implicit public access and explicit private access (with _
prefix) to manage encapsulation and API boundaries.
Key Concepts
1. Public and Private Members
- Default public visibility
_
prefix for private members- Applies to classes, variables, and functions
2. File-level Privacy
- Privacy within the same library
- Multiple files in the same library
- Part-of directives
3. Cross-library Privacy
- Private members in library exports
- Hiding implementation details
- Public-facing APIs
4. Best Practices
- When to use private members
- Library design principles
- Documentation conventions
- Testing private members