Editing Eiffel (programming language) (section)

====Scoping====
Unlike many object-oriented languages, but like [[Smalltalk]], Eiffel does not permit any assignment into attributes of objects, except within the features of an object, which is the practical application of the principle of [[information hiding]] or data abstraction, requiring formal interfaces for data mutation. To put it in the language of other object-oriented programming languages, all Eiffel attributes are "protected", and "setters" are needed for client objects to modify values. An upshot of this is that "setters" can and normally do, implement the invariants for which Eiffel provides syntax.

While Eiffel does not allow direct access to the features of a class by a client of the class, it does allow for the definition of an "assigner command", such as:

<syntaxhighlight lang="eiffel"> 
   some_attribute: SOME_TYPE assign set_some_attribute
    
   set_some_attribute (v: VALUE_TYPE)
                -- Set value of some_attribute to `v'.
            do
                some_attribute := v
            end
</syntaxhighlight>

While a slight bow to the overall developer community to allow something looking like direct access (e.g. thereby breaking the Information Hiding Principle), the practice is dangerous as it hides or obfuscates the reality of a "setter" being used. In practice, it is better to redirect the call to a setter rather than implying a direct access to a feature like <code>some_attribute</code> as in the example code above.{{Citation needed|reason=Working fine in Delphi (Object Pascal) for 25 years. In Eiffel, if a setter is the only way to set an attribute, this must obviously be what is going on. How is that 'obfuscated'?|date=March 2021}}

Unlike other languages, having notions of "public", "protected", "private" and so on, Eiffel uses an exporting technology to more precisely control the scoping between client and supplier classes. Feature visibility is checked statically at compile-time. For example, (below), the "{NONE}" is similar to "protected" in other languages. Scope applied this way to a "feature set" (e.g. everything below the 'feature' keyword to either the next feature set keyword or the end of the class) can be changed in descendant classes using the "export" keyword.

<syntaxhighlight lang="eiffel">
feature {NONE} -- Initialization
	default_create
			-- Initialize a new `zero' decimal instance.
		do
			make_zero
		end
</syntaxhighlight>

Alternatively, the lack of a {x} export declaration implies {ANY} and is similar to the "public" scoping of other languages.

<syntaxhighlight lang="eiffel">
feature -- Constants
</syntaxhighlight>

Finally, scoping can be selectively and precisely controlled to any class in the Eiffel project universe, such as:

<syntaxhighlight lang="eiffel">
feature {DECIMAL, DCM_MA_DECIMAL_PARSER, DCM_MA_DECIMAL_HANDLER} -- Access
</syntaxhighlight>

Here, the compiler will allow only the classes listed between the curly braces to access the features within the feature group (e.g. {{mono|DECIMAL, DCM_MA_DECIMAL_PARSER, DCM_MA_DECIMAL_HANDLER}}).