PRIVATE (statement and attribute)

Prevents access to module entities by use association.

Syntax

The syntax of a type declaration statement with the PRIVATE attribute is:

type, attrib-list :: access-id-list

The syntax of the PRIVATE statement is:

PRIVATE [[::] access-id-list]

Description

The PRIVATE attribute may appear only in the specification part of a module. The default accessibility in a module is PUBLIC; it can be changed to PRIVATE using a statement without a list. However, only one PRIVATE accessibility statement without a list is permitted in a module.

The PRIVATE attribute in a type statement or in an accessibility statement restricts the accessibility of entities such as module variables, type definitions, functions, and named constants. USE statements may restrict accessibility further.

A derived type may contain a PRIVATE attribute or an internal PRIVATE statement, if it is defined in a module. The internal PRIVATE statement in a type definition makes the components unavailable outside the module even though the type itself might be available.

The PRIVATE statement may also be used to restrict access to subroutines, generic specifiers, and namelist groups.

The PRIVATE specification for a generic name, operator, or assignment does not apply to any specific name unless the specific name is the same as the generic name.

Examples

MODULE fourier
   REAL :: x, y, z  ! PUBLIC (default)
   COMPLEX, PRIVATE :: fft  ! PRIVATE, accessible only in module
   TYPE (structure_name), PRIVATE ::  structure_a, structure_b
   ! a, b and c are accessible only within this module
   PRIVATE  a, b, c
   ! r, s, and t are accessible outside the module
   PUBLIC  r, s, t
END MODULE fourier
 
MODULE place
   PRIVATE   ! Change default accessibility to PRIVATE
   INTERFACE OPERATOR (.st.)
      MODULE PROCEDURE xst
   END INTERFACE
 
   ! make .st. public; everything else is private
   PUBLIC OPERATOR (.st.)
   LOGICAL, DIMENSION (100) :: lt
   CHARACTER(20) :: name
   INTEGER ix, iy
END MODULE place

Related statements

PUBLIC and USE

Related concepts

For related information, see the following: