Private properties in JavaScript ES6 classes

Question

Is it possible to create private properties in ES6 classes   Here s an example  How can I prevent access to instance property   class Something     constructor        this property    test          var instance   new Something    console log instance property       gt   test

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I believe it is possible to get  best of both worlds  using closures inside constructors  There are two variations   All data members are private   x000D   x000D  function myFunc     x000D     console log  Value of x      this x   x000D     this myPrivateFunc    x000D    x000D   x000D  function myPrivateFunc     x000D     console log  Enhanced value of x       this x   1    x000D    x000D   x000D  class Test   x000D     constructor     x000D   x000D        let internal     x000D           x   2  x000D           x000D         x000D        internal myPrivateFunc   myPrivateFunc bind internal   x000D         x000D        this myFunc   myFunc bind internal   x000D       x000D     x000D   x000D   x000D    Some members are private  NOTE  This is admittedly ugly  If you know a better solution  please edit this response    x000D   x000D  function myFunc priv  pub    x000D     pub y   3     The Test object now gets a member  y  with value 3  x000D     console log  Value of x      priv x   x000D     this myPrivateFunc    x000D    x000D   x000D  function myPrivateFunc     x000D     pub z   5     The Test object now gets a member  z  with value 3  x000D     console log  Enhanced value of x       priv x   1    x000D    x000D   x000D  class Test   x000D     constructor     x000D         x000D        let self   this  x000D   x000D        let internal     x000D           x   2  x000D           x000D         x000D        internal myPrivateFunc   myPrivateFunc bind null  internal  self   x000D         x000D        this myFunc   myFunc bind null  internal  self   x000D       x000D     x000D   x000D   x000D

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This code demonstrates private and public  static and non-static  instance and class-level  variables  methods  and properties   https   codesandbox io s class-demo-837bj   x000D   x000D  class Animal   x000D      static count   0    class static public x000D      static  ClassPriVar   3    class static private x000D   x000D      constructor kind    x000D          this kind   kind    instance public property x000D          Animal count   x000D          let InstancePriVar    InstancePriVar      kind    instance private constructor-var x000D          log InstancePriVar  x000D          Animal  ClassPriVar    3 x000D          this adhoc    adhoc     instance public property w out constructor- parameter x000D        x000D   x000D       PawCount   4    instance private var x000D   x000D      set Paws newPawCount    x000D             instance public prop x000D          this  PawCount   newPawCount x000D        x000D   x000D      get Paws     x000D             instance public prop x000D          return this  PawCount x000D        x000D   x000D      get GetPriVar     x000D             instance public prop x000D          return Animal  ClassPriVar x000D        x000D   x000D      static get GetPriVarStat     x000D             class public prop x000D          return Animal  ClassPriVar x000D        x000D   x000D      PrintKind     x000D             instance public method x000D          log  kind      this kind  x000D        x000D   x000D      ReturnKind     x000D             instance public function x000D          return this kind x000D        x000D   x000D         May be unsupported x000D   x000D      get  PrivMeth        instance private prop x000D          return Animal  ClassPriVar     Private Method  x000D        x000D   x000D      static get  PrivMeth        class private prop x000D          return Animal  ClassPriVar     Private Method  x000D        x000D         x000D    x000D   x000D  function log str    x000D      console log str  x000D    x000D   x000D     TESTING x000D   x000D  log Animal count     static  avail w out instance x000D  log Animal GetPriVarStat     static  avail w out instance x000D   x000D  let A   new Animal  Cat   x000D  log Animal count          A kind  x000D  log A GetPriVar  x000D  A PrintKind   x000D  A Paws   6 x000D  log  Paws      A Paws  x000D  log  ReturnKind      A ReturnKind    x000D  log A adhoc  x000D   x000D  let B   new Animal  Dog   x000D  log Animal count          B kind  x000D  log B GetPriVar  x000D  log A GetPriVar     returns same as B GetPriVar  Acts like a class-level property  but called like an instance-level property  It s cuz non-stat fx requires instance  x000D   x000D  log  class      Animal GetPriVarStat  x000D   x000D     undefined x000D  log  instance      B GetPriVarStat     static class fx x000D  log Animal GetPriVar     non-stat instance fx x000D  log A InstancePriVar     private x000D  log Animal InstancePriVar     private instance var x000D  log  PawCount      A PawCount     private  Use getter x000D     log  PawCount      A  PawCount     private  Use getter x000D  log  PawCount      Animal  PawCount     Instance and private  Use getter    x000D   x000D   x000D

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A different approach to  private   Instead of fighting against the fact that private visibility is currently unavailable in ES6  I decided to take a more practical approach that does just fine if your IDE supports JSDoc  e g   Webstorm   The idea is to use the  private tag  As far as development goes  the IDE will prevent you from accessing any private member from outside its class  Works pretty well for me and it s been really useful for hiding internal methods so the auto-complete feature shows me just what the class really meant to expose  Here s an example

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Depends on whom you ask  -   No private property modifier is included in the Maximally minimal classes proposal which seems to have made it into the current draft   However  there might be support for private names  which does allow private properties - and they probably could be used in class definitions as well

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To expand on  loganfsmyth s answer   The only truly private data in JavaScript is still scoped variables  You can t have private properties in the sense of properties accessed internally the same way as public properties  but you can use scoped variables to store private data   Scoped variables  The approach here is to use the scope of the constructor function  which is private  to store private data  For methods to have access to this private data they must be created within the constructor as well  meaning you re recreating them with every instance  This is a performance and memory penalty  but some believe the penalty is acceptable  The penalty can be avoided for methods that do not need access to private data by adding them to the prototype as usual   Example   function Person name      let age   20     this is private   this name   name     this is public    this greet   function             here we can access both name and age     console log  name    this name   age    age             let joe   new Person  Joe    joe greet        here we can access name but not age   Scoped WeakMap  A WeakMap can be used to avoid the previous approach s performance and memory penalty  WeakMaps associate data with Objects  here  instances  in such a way that it can only be accessed using that WeakMap  So  we use the scoped variables method to create a private WeakMap  then use that WeakMap to retrieve private data associated with this  This is faster than the scoped variables method because all your instances can share a single WeakMap  so you don t need to recreate methods just to make them access their own WeakMaps   Example   let Person    function        let privateProps   new WeakMap       class Person       constructor name          this name   name     this is public       privateProps set this   age  20       this is private            greet              Here we can access both name and age       console log  name    this name   age    privateProps get this  age                  return Person         let joe   new Person  Joe    joe greet        here we can access joe s name but not age   This example uses an Object to use one WeakMap for multiple private properties  you could also use multiple WeakMaps and use them like age set this  20   or write a small wrapper and use it another way  like privateProps set this   age   0    The privacy of this approach could theoretically be breached by tampering with the global WeakMap object  That said  all JavaScript can be broken by mangled globals  Our code is already built on the assumption that this isn t happening    This method could also be done with Map  but WeakMap is better because Map will create memory leaks unless you re very careful  and for this purpose the two aren t otherwise different    Half-Answer  Scoped Symbols  A Symbol is a type of primitive value that can serve as a property name  You can use the scoped variable method to create a private Symbol  then store private data at this mySymbol    The privacy of this method can be breached using Object getOwnPropertySymbols  but is somewhat awkward to do   Example   let Person    function        let ageKey   Symbol       class Person       constructor name          this name   name     this is public       this ageKey    20     this is intended to be private            greet              Here we can access both name and age       console log  name    this name   age    this ageKey                   return Person         let joe   new Person  Joe    joe greet        Here we can access joe s name and  with a little effort  age  ageKey is    not in scope  but we can obtain it by listing all Symbol properties on    joe with  Object getOwnPropertySymbols joe      Half-Answer  Underscores  The old default  just use a public property with an underscore prefix  Though not a private property in any way  this convention is prevalent enough that it does a good job communicating that readers should treat the property as private  which often gets the job done  In exchange for this lapse  we get an approach that s easier to read  easier to type  and faster   Example   class Person     constructor name        this name   name     this is public     this  age   20     this is intended to be private        greet            Here we can access both name and age     console log  name    this name   age    this  age            let joe   new Person  Joe    joe greet        Here we can access both joe s name and age  But we know we aren t    supposed to access his age  which just might stop us    Conclusion  As of ES2017  there s still no perfect way to do private properties  Various approaches have pros and cons  Scoped variables are truly private  scoped WeakMaps are very private and more practical than scoped variables  scoped Symbols are reasonably private and reasonably practical  underscores are often private enough and very practical

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Another way similar to the last two posted   class Example     constructor foo            privates     const self   this      this foo   foo          public interface     return self public         public            empty data     nodata    data               noop     noop       gt                everything else private   bar   10    const test   new Example  FOO    console log test foo      undefined console log test noop        data       console log test bar      undefined

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You can try this https   www npmjs com package private-members  This package will save the members by instance   const pvt   require  private-members    const     pvt     let Exemplo    function              function Exemplo               this  msg    Minha Mensagem                  mensagem   function             return   this  msg             Exemplo prototype showMsg   function              let msg     this  mensagem            console log msg               return Exemplo         module exports   Exemplo

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Here  the myThing variable is private and is part of the closure   class Person     constructor          var myThing    Hello World        return         thing  myThing        sayThing  this sayThing              sayThing         console log this thing          var person   new Person     console log person

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The answer is  No   But you can create private access to properties like this    Use modules  Everything in a module is private unless it s made public by using the export keyword  Inside modules  use function closure  http   www kirupa com html5 closures in javascript htm    The suggestion that Symbols could be used to ensure privacy was true in an earlier version of the ES6 spec but is no longer the case https   mail mozilla org pipermail es-discuss 2014-January 035604 html and https   stackoverflow com a 22280202 1282216  For a longer discussion about Symbols and privacy see  https   curiosity-driven org private-properties-in-javascript

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See this answer for a a clean  amp  simple  class  solution with a private and public interface and support for composition

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For future reference of other on lookers  I m hearing now that the recommendation is to use WeakMaps to hold private data   Here is a more clear  working example   function storePrivateProperties a  b  c  d      let privateData   new WeakMap       unique object as key  weak map can only accept object as key  when key is no longer referened  garbage collector claims the key-value    let keyA       keyB       keyC       keyD          privateData set keyA  a     privateData set keyB  b     privateData set keyC  c     privateData set keyD  d      return       logPrivateKey key          switch key          case  a           console log privateData get keyA            break        case  b           console log privateData get keyB            break        case  c           console log privateData get keyC            break        case  d           console log privateData set keyD            break        default          console log  There is no value for   key

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I realize there are dozens of answers here  I want to share my solution  which ensures true private variables in ES6 classes and in older JS  var MyClass    function         var     new WeakMap        function priv self           var r     get self          if   r    set self  r             return r             return class      use   this  prop inside your class             Privacy is ensured by the fact that the outside world don t get access to    When the instance goes away  the WeakMap will release the data  This definitely works in plain Javascript  and I believe they work in ES6 classes but I haven t tested that   will be available inside the scope of member methods

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Actually it is possible  1  First  create the class and in the constructor return the called  public function  2  In the called  public function pass the this reference  to get the access to all private methods and props   and all arguments from constructor  that will be passed in new Names    3  In the  public function scope there is also the Names class with the access to this   this  reference of the private Names class   class Names     constructor         this privateProperty    John       return  public this  arguments         privateMethod          const names   new Names 1 2 3   console log names somePublicMethod      Function  console log names publicProperty      Jasmine  console log names privateMethod     undefined console log names privateProperty     undefind  function  public  this   arguments      class Names       constructor           this publicProperty    Jasmine          this privateProperty     John          this privateMethod     Function             somePublicMethod            this privateProperty     John          this privateMethod     Function               return new Names     arguments

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I came across this post when looking for the best practice for  private data for classes    It was mentioned that a few of the patterns would have performance issues   I put together a few jsperf tests based on the 4 main patterns from the online book  Exploring ES6    http   exploringjs com es6 ch classes html sec private-data-for-classes  The tests can be found here   https   jsperf com private-data-for-classes  In Chrome 63 0 3239   Mac OS X 10 11 6  the best performing patterns were  Private data via constructor environments  and  Private data via a naming convention    For me Safari performed well for WeakMap but Chrome not so well   I don t know the memory impact  but the pattern for  constructor environments  which some had warned would be a performance issue was very performant   The 4 basic patterns are   Private data via constructor environments  class Countdown       constructor counter  action            Object assign this                dec                     if  counter  lt  1  return                  counter--                  if  counter     0                        action                                                        const c   new Countdown 2       gt       c dec    c dec      Private data via constructor environments 2  class Countdown       constructor counter  action            this dec   function dec                 if  counter  lt  1  return              counter--              if  counter     0                    action                                    const c   new Countdown 2       gt       c dec    c dec      Private data via a naming convention  class Countdown       constructor counter  action            this  counter   counter          this  action   action            dec             if  this  counter  lt  1  return          this  counter--          if  this  counter     0                this  action                      const c   new Countdown 2       gt       c dec    c dec      Private data via WeakMaps  const  counter   new WeakMap    const  action   new WeakMap    class Countdown       constructor counter  action             counter set this  counter            action set this  action             dec             let counter    counter get this           if  counter  lt  1  return          counter--           counter set this  counter           if  counter     0                 action get this                       const c   new Countdown 2       gt       c dec    c dec      Private data via symbols  const  counter   Symbol  counter    const  action   Symbol  action     class Countdown       constructor counter  action            this  counter    counter          this  action    action            dec             if  this  counter   lt  1  return          this  counter --          if  this  counter      0                this  action                       const c   new Countdown 2       gt       c dec    c dec

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As we know there is no native support for private properties with ES6 classes   Below is just what I use  might be helpful   Basically I m wrapping a class inside the factory   function Animal name        const privateData    NO experiments on animals have been done         class Animal           constructor  name                this name    name                    getName                 return this name                   getDisclamer                 return    privateData  Including   this name                       return new Animal name      I m a beginner so happy to hear if this is a bad approach

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I have a workaround that works woo and it pretty simple    although performance is prob not the pest    but it works and works well   The trick is that until private properties and functions are established and standardized adopted work arounds are required and this is another workaround     class ClassPrivateProperties       constructor instance            const  this   instance          let properties               this prop    key  value   undefined    gt                if   value                    return properties key                 else                   properties key    value                                   this clear   instance   gt                if   this     instance                    properties                       return true                else                   return false                                    This is a sample usage that can be what ever  also if you use the above feel free to make it better   class Test       constructor             this  privateProps   new ClassPrivateProperties this             property key  value   undefined            if   value                return this  privateProps prop key             else               this  privateProps prop key  value                       clear     return this  privateProps clear this       const test   new test  test property  myKey   some value here    console log test property  myKey       Like I mentioned that this prob not the best of the best but it works and makes properties truly private

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Coming very late to this party but I hit the OP question in a search so    Yes  you can have private properties by wrapping the class declaration in a closure  There is an example of how I have private methods in this codepen  In the snippet below  the Subscribable class has two  private  functions process and processCallbacks  Any properties can be added in this manner and they are kept private through the use of the closure  IMO Privacy is a rare need if concerns are well separated and Javascript does not need to become bloated by adding more syntax when a closure neatly does the job   const Subscribable    function       const process    self  eventName  args    gt        self processing set eventName  setTimeout      gt  processCallbacks self  eventName  args         const processCallbacks    self  eventName  args    gt        if  self callingBack get eventName  length  gt  0         const  nextCallback     callingBack    self callingBack get eventName         self callingBack set eventName  callingBack         process self  eventName  args         nextCallback    args       else         delete self processing delete eventName        return class       constructor          this callingBack   new Map          this processing   new Map          this toCallbacks   new Map         subscribe eventName  callback         const callbacks   this unsubscribe eventName  callback         this toCallbacks set eventName       callbacks  callback          return      gt  this unsubscribe eventName  callback       callable to unsubscribe for convenience      unsubscribe eventName  callback         let callbacks   this toCallbacks get eventName               callbacks   callbacks filter subscribedCallback   gt  subscribedCallback     callback         if  callbacks length  gt  0            this toCallbacks set eventName  callbacks         else           this toCallbacks delete eventName         return callbacks       emit eventName     args         this callingBack set eventName  this toCallbacks get eventName                if   this processing has eventName            process this  eventName  args            I like this approach because it separates concerns nicely and keeps things truly private  The only downside is the need to use  self   or something similar  to refer to  this  in the private content

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In fact it is possible using Symbols and Proxies  You use the symbols in the class scope and set two traps in a proxy  one for the class prototype so that the Reflect ownKeys instance  or Object getOwnPropertySymbols doesn t give your symbols away  the other one is for the constructor itself so when new ClassName attrs  is called  the instance returned will be intercepted and have the own properties symbols blocked  Here s the code    x000D   x000D  const Human    function     x000D    const pet   Symbol    x000D    const greet   Symbol    x000D   x000D    const Human   privatizeSymbolsInFn function name    x000D      this name   name     public x000D      this pet     dog      private  x000D        x000D   x000D    Human prototype   privatizeSymbolsInObj   x000D       greet         private x000D        return  Hi there    x000D         x000D      revealSecrets     x000D        console log this greet        The pet is a   this pet      x000D        x000D        x000D   x000D    return Human  x000D        x000D   x000D  const bob   new Human  Bob    x000D   x000D  console assert bob instanceof Human   x000D  console assert Reflect ownKeys bob  length     1     only   name   x000D  console assert Reflect ownKeys Human prototype  length     1      only   revealSecrets   x000D   x000D   x000D     Setting up the traps inside proxies  x000D  function privatizeSymbolsInObj target     x000D    return new Proxy target    ownKeys  Object getOwnPropertyNames     x000D    x000D   x000D  function privatizeSymbolsInFn Class    x000D    function construct TargetClass  argsList    x000D      const instance   new TargetClass    argsList   x000D      return privatizeSymbolsInObj instance   x000D      x000D    return new Proxy Class    construct     x000D    x000D   x000D   x000D    Reflect ownKeys   works like so  Object getOwnPropertyNames myObj  concat Object getOwnPropertySymbols myObj   that s why we need a trap for these objects

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Completing  d13 and the comments by  johnny-oshika and  DanyalAytekin   I guess in the example provided by  johnny-oshika we could use normal functions instead of arrow functions and then  bind them with the current object plus a  privates object as a curried parameter   something js  function  greet  privates      return  Hello      privates message     function  updateMessage  privates  newMessage       privates message   newMessage     export default class Something     constructor message        const  privates           message             this say    greet bind this   privates       this updateMessage    updateMessage bind this   privates           main js  import Something from    something js    const something   new Something  Sunny day      const message1   something say    something updateMessage  Cloudy day     const message2   something say     console log message1      Hello Sunny day         true console log message2      Hello Cloudy day         true     the followings are not public console log something  greet     undefined       true console log something  privates     undefined       true console log something  updateMessage     undefined       true     another instance which doesn t share the  privates const something2   new Something  another Sunny day      const message3   something2 say     console log message3      Hello another Sunny day        true   Benefits I can think of      we can have private methods   greet and  updateMessage act like private methods as long as we don t export the references    although they re not on the prototype  the above mentioned methods will save memory because the instances are created once  outside the class  as opposed to defining them in the constructor    we don t leak any globals since we re inside a module   we can also have private properties using the binded  privates object   Some drawbacks I can think of      less intuitive   mixed usage of class syntax and old school patterns  object bindings  module function scoped variables    hard bindings - we can t rebind the public methods  although we can improve this by using soft bindings  https   github com getify You-Dont-Know-JS blob master this 20 26 20object 20prototypes ch2 md softening-binding     A running snippet can be found here  http   www webpackbin com NJgI5J8lZ

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Using ES6 modules  initially proposed by  d13  works well for me  It doesn t mimic private properties perfectly  but at least you can be confident that properties that should be private won t leak outside of your class  Here s an example   something js  let  message   null  const  greet   name   gt      console log  Hello     name       export default class Something     constructor message         message   message         say         console log  message        greet  Bob             Then the consuming code can look like this   import Something from    something js    const something   new Something  Sunny day     something say    something  message     undefined something  greet       exception   Update  Important    As  DanyalAytekin outlined in the comments  these private properties are static  so therefore global in scope   They will work well when working with Singletons  but care must be taken for Transient objects   Extending the example above   import Something from    something js   import Something2 from    something js    const a   new Something  a    a say       a  const b   new Something  b    b say       b  const c   new Something2  c    c say       c  a say       c b say       c c say       c

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The only way to get true privacy in JS is through scoping  so there is no way to have a property that is a member of this that will be accessible only inside the component  The best way to store truly private data in ES6 is with a WeakMap   const privateProp1   new WeakMap    const privateProp2   new WeakMap     class SomeClass     constructor         privateProp1 set this   I am Private1        privateProp2 set this   I am Private2         this publicVar    I am public       this publicMethod        gt          console log privateProp1 get this   privateProp2 get this                         printPrivate         console log privateProp1 get this            Obviously this is a probably slow  and definitely ugly  but it does provide privacy   Keep in mind that EVEN THIS isn t perfect  because Javascript is so dynamic  Someone could still do  var oldSet   WeakMap prototype set  WeakMap prototype set   function key  value          Store  this    key   and  value      return oldSet call this  key  value        to catch values as they are stored  so if you wanted to be extra careful  you d need to capture a local reference to  set and  get to use explicitly instead of relying on the overridable prototype   const  set  WMSet  get  WMGet    WeakMap prototype   const privateProp1   new WeakMap    const privateProp2   new WeakMap     class SomeClass     constructor         WMSet call privateProp1  this   I am Private1        WMSet call privateProp2  this   I am Private2         this publicVar    I am public       this publicMethod        gt          console log WMGet call privateProp1  this   WMGet call privateProp2  this                         printPrivate         console log WMGet call privateProp1  this

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I use this pattern and it s always worked for me   x000D   x000D  class Test   x000D      constructor data    x000D          class Public   x000D              constructor prv    x000D   x000D                     public function  must be in constructor on order to access  prv  variable  x000D                  connectToDb ip    x000D                      prv  db ip  prv  err   x000D                     x000D                x000D   x000D                 public function w o access to  prv  variable x000D              log     x000D                  console log  I m logging    x000D                x000D            x000D   x000D             private variables x000D          this  data   data  x000D          this  err   function ip    x000D              console log  could not connect to   ip   x000D            x000D        x000D   x000D         private function x000D       db ip  err    x000D          if   ip    x000D        console log  connected to   ip    sending data    this data       x000D     return true  x000D      x000D          else err ip   x000D        x000D    x000D   x000D   x000D   x000D  var test   new Test 10   x000D    ip    185 167 210 49   x000D  test connectToDb ip      true x000D  test log       I m logging x000D  test  err ip      undefined x000D  test  db ip  function     console log  You have got hacked            undefined x000D   x000D   x000D

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Private fields  and methods  are being implemented in the ECMA standard  You can start using them today with babel 7 and stage 3 preset  class Something      property     constructor        this  property    quot test quot           privateMethod         return  hello world          getPrivateMessage           return this  property         const instance   new Something    console log instance property       gt  undefined console log instance privateMethod       gt  undefined console log instance getPrivateMessage         gt  test

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I have developed a module that helps you use the access restriction in the  JavaScript class called Capsulable   Private  amp  Protected Static   If you re interested  check out my package below  https   github com hmmhmmhm capsulable  const Capsulable   require  capsulable   const Field   Capsulable    class A       constructor  field              Configure data fields          Field this   field              The code below provides access to            the data fields when creating            functions within the class          Field this  private         Field this  protected         Field this  protectedStatic          module exports   A

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Yes - you can create encapsulated property  but it s not been done with access modifiers  public private  at least not with ES6   Here is a simple example how it can be done with ES6   1 Create class using class word  2 Inside it s constructor declare block-scoped variable using let OR const reserved words -  since they are block-scope they cannot be accessed from outside  encapsulated   3 To allow some access control  setters getters  to those variables you can declare instance method inside it s constructor using  this methodName function     syntax    use strict       class Something          constructor                  private property             let property  test                 private final  immutable  property             const property2  test2                 public getter             this getProperty2 function                    return property2                              public getter             this getProperty function                    return property                              public setter             this setProperty function prop                   property prop                                  Now lets check it   var s new Something        console log typeof s property    undefined      s setProperty  another     set to encapsulated  property      console log s getProperty      get encapsulated  property  value     console log s getProperty2      get encapsulated immutable  property2  value

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I found a very simple solution  just use Object freeze    Of course the problem is you can t add nothing to the object later   class Cat       constructor name  age            this name   name         this age   age         Object freeze this           let cat   new Cat  Garfield   5  cat age   6    doesn t work  even throws an error in strict mode

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we can emulate a private property of a class using getter and setter  eg 1 class FootballClub       constructor  cname  cstadium  ccurrentmanager            this name   cname          this  stadium    cstadium       we will treat this prop as private and give getter and setter for this          this currmanager   ccurrentmanager             get stadium              return this  stadium toUpperCase              let club   new FootballClub  quot Arsenal quot    quot Emirates quot     quot Arteta quot   console log club     FootballClub         name   Arsenal          stadium   Emirates         currmanager   Arteta        console log  club stadium       EMIRATES club stadium    quot Highbury quot      TypeError  Cannot set property stadium of   lt FootballClub gt  which has only a getter  In the above example we have not given a setter method for stadium and thus we are not able to set a new value for this  In the next eg a setter is added for stadium eg 2 class FootballClub       constructor  cname  cstadium  ccurrentmanager            this name   cname          this  stadium    cstadium       we will treat this prop as private and give getter and setter for this          this currmanager   ccurrentmanager             get stadium              return this  stadium toUpperCase               set stadium val           this  stadium   val           let club   new FootballClub  quot Arsenal quot    quot Emirates quot     quot Arteta quot   console log club stadium      EMIRATES club stadium    quot Emirates Stadium quot   console log club stadium      EMIRATES STADIUM

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Short answer  no  there is no native support for private properties with ES6 classes   But you could mimic that behaviour by not attaching the new properties to the object  but keeping them inside a class constructor  and use getters and setters to reach the hidden properties  Note that the getters and setters gets redefine on each new instance of the class   ES6  class Person       constructor name            var  name   name         this setName   function name     name   name            this getName   function     return  name              ES5  function Person name        var  name   name     this setName   function name     name   name        this getName   function     return  name

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Personally I like the proposal of the bind operator    and would then combine it with the solution  d13 mentioned but for now stick with  d13  s answer where you use the export keyword for your class and put the private functions in the module   there is one more solution tough which hasn t been mentioned here that follows are more functional approach and would allow it to have all the private props methods within the class   Private js  export const get   state   gt  key   gt  state key   export const set   state   gt   key value    gt    state key    value        Test js  import   get  set   from    utils Private  export default class Test     constructor initialState             const  set   this set   set initialState       const  get   this get   get initialState        this set  privateMethod        gt   get  propValue            showProp         return this get  privateMethod             let one   new Test   propValue  5    let two   new Test   propValue  8    two showProp       8 one showProp       5   comments on it would be appreciated

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Most answers either say it s impossible  or require you to use a WeakMap or Symbol  which are ES6 features that would probably require polyfills  There s however another way  Check out this out    x000D   x000D     1  Create closure x000D  var SomeClass   function     x000D       2  Create  key  inside a closure x000D    var key       x000D       Function to create private storage x000D    var private   function     x000D      var obj       x000D         return Function to access private storage using  key  x000D      return function testkey    x000D        if key     testkey  return obj  x000D           If  key  is wrong  then storage cannot be accessed x000D        console error  Cannot access private properties    x000D        return undefined  x000D         x000D       x000D    var SomeClass   function     x000D         3  Create private storage x000D      this     private    x000D         4  Access private storage using the  key  x000D      this   key  priv prop   200  x000D       x000D    SomeClass prototype test   function     x000D      console log this   key  priv prop      Using property from prototype x000D       x000D    return SomeClass  x000D       x000D   x000D     Can access private property from within prototype x000D  var instance   new SomeClass    x000D  instance test        200  logged x000D   x000D     Cannot access private property from outside of the closure x000D  var wrong key       x000D  instance   wrong key      undefined  error logged x000D   x000D   x000D    I call this method accessor pattern  The essential idea is that we have a closure  a key inside the closure  and we create a private object  in the constructor  that can only be accessed if you have the key   If you are interested  you can read more about this in my article  Using this method  you can create per object properties that cannot be accessed outside of the closure  Therefore  you can use them in constructor or prototype  but not anywhere else  I haven t seen this method used anywhere  but I think it s really powerful

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I think Benjamin s answer is probably the best for most cases until the language natively supports explicitly private variables   However  if for some reason you need to prevent access with Object getOwnPropertySymbols    a method I ve considered using is attaching a unique  non-configurable  non-enumerable  non-writable property that can be used as a property identifier to each object on construction  such as a unique Symbol  if you don t already have some other unique property like an id   Then just keep a map of each object s  private  variables using that identifier   const privateVars        class Something       constructor            Object defineProperty this    sym                 configurable  false              enumerable  false              writable  false              value  Symbol                        var myPrivateVars                 privateProperty   I m hidden                      privateVars this  sym    myPrivateVars           this property    I m public              getPrivateProperty             return privateVars this  sym  privateProperty                A clean up method of some kind is necessary since the        variables won t be cleaned up from memory automatically        when the object is garbage collected     destroy             delete privateVars this  sym            var instance   new Something    console log instance property       gt   I m public  console log instance privateProperty       gt  undefined console log instance getPrivateProperty         gt   I m hidden    The potential advantage of this approach over using a WeakMap is faster access time if performance becomes a concern

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Yes totally can  and pretty easily too  This is done by exposing your private variables and functions by returning the prototype object graph in the constructor  This is nothing new  but take a bit of js foo to understand the elegance of it  This way does not use global scoped  or weakmaps  It is a form of reflection built into the language  Depending on how you leverage this  one can either force an exception which interrupts the call stack  or bury the exception as an undefined  This is demonstarted below  and can read more about these features here   x000D   x000D  class Clazz   x000D    constructor     x000D      var  level   1 x000D   x000D      function  private x    x000D        return  level   x  x000D        x000D      return   x000D        level   level  x000D        public  this private  x000D        public2  function x    x000D          return  private x   x000D           x000D        public3  function x    x000D          return  private x    this public x   x000D           x000D         x000D      x000D   x000D    private x    x000D      return x   x  x000D      x000D    x000D   x000D  var clazz   new Clazz    x000D   x000D  console log clazz  level     undefined x000D  console log clazz  private      undefined x000D  console log clazz level      1 x000D  console log clazz public 1      1 x000D  console log clazz public2 2      2 x000D  console log clazz public3 3      27 x000D  console log clazz private 0      error x000D   x000D   x000D

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It is possible to have private methods in classes using WeakMap  According to MDN web docs   The WeakMap object is a collection of key value pairs in which the keys are objects only and the values can be arbitrary values  The object references in the keys are held weakly  meaning that they are a target of garbage collection  GC  if there is no other reference to the object anymore   And this is an example of creating Queue data structure with a private member  items which holds an array  const  items   new WeakMap     class Queue           constructor              items set this                  enqueue  item             items get this  push item                  get count             return  items get this  length                     peek             const anArray    items get this           if  anArray length    0              throw new Error  There are no items in array              if  anArray length  gt  0              return anArray 0              dequeue                     const anArray    items get this           if  anArray length    0              throw new Error  There are no items in array              if  anArray length  gt  0              return anArray splice 0  1  0                An example of using  const c   new Queue    c enqueue  quot one quot    c enqueue  quot two quot    c enqueue  quot three quot    c enqueue  quot four quot    c enqueue  quot five quot    console log c    Private member  items is hided and cannot be seen in properties or methods of an Queue object   However  private member  items  in the Queue object can be reached using this way  const anArray    items get this

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Oh  so many exotic solutions  I usually don t care about privacy so I use  pseudo privacy  as it s said here  But if do care  if there are some special requirements for that  I use something like in this example   class jobImpl       public   constructor name       this name   name           public   do time       console log    this name  started at   time         this prepare        this execute            public   stop time       this finish        console log    this name  finished at   time              private   prepare    console log  prepare             private   execute    console log  execute             private   finish    console log  finish           function Job name     var impl   new jobImpl name     return       do  time   gt  impl do time       stop  time   gt  impl stop time             Test     create class  Job  var j   new Job  Digging a ditch       call public members   j do  08 00am    j stop  06 00pm        try to call private members or fields   console log j name      undefined j execute       error     Another possible implementation of function  constructor  Job   function Job name     var impl   new jobImpl name     this do   time   gt  impl do time     this stop   time   gt  impl stop time

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WeakMap   supported in IE11  Symbols are not  hard-private  props using Symbols are soft-private due to Object getOwnPropertySymbols  can look really clean  unlike closures which require all props and methods in the constructor    First  define a function to wrap WeakMap   function Private       const map   new WeakMap      return obj   gt        let props   map get obj       if   props          props             map set obj  props             return props           Then  construct a reference outside your class   const p   new Private     class Person     constructor name  age        this name   name      p this  age   age     it s easy to set a private variable        getAge         return p this  age     and get a private variable         Note  class isn t supported by IE11  but it looks cleaner in the example

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Update  A proposal with nicer syntax is on its way  Contributions are welcome   Yes  there is - for scoped access in objects - ES6 introduces Symbols  Symbols are unique  you can t gain access to one from the outside except with reflection  like privates in Java C   but anyone who has access to a symbol on the inside can use it for key access  var property   Symbol    class Something       constructor            this property     quot test quot            var instance   new Something     console log instance property       gt  undefined  can only access with access to the Symbol

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Reading the previous answer i thought that this example can summarise the above solutions const friend   Symbol  friend     const ClassName     hidden  hiddenShared   0    gt         class ClassName           constructor hiddenPropertyValue  prop               this hidden    hiddenPropertyValue     hiddenShared              this prop   prop                    get hidden                console log  getting hidden                return this hidden                      set  friend  v               console log  setting hiddenShared                hiddenShared   v                     get counter                console log  getting hiddenShared                return hiddenShared                     get privileged                console log  calling privileged method                return privileged bind this                        function privileged value           return this hidden    value             return ClassName     Symbol  hidden    0    const OtherClass         gt  class OtherClass extends ClassName       constructor v           super v  100           this friend    this counter - 1               UPDATE now is it possible to make true private properties and methods  at least on chrome based browsers for now   The syntax is pretty neat class MyClass        privateProperty   1      privateMethod     return 2       static  privateStatic   3     static  privateStaticMethod   return 4      static get  privateStaticGetter   return 5          also using is quite straightforward     method            return               this  privateMethod                 this  privateProperty               MyClass  privateStatic               MyClass  privateStaticMethod                 MyClass  privateStaticGetter                    new MyClass   method      returns 15  Note that for retrieving static references you wouldn t use this constructor  private  because it would brake its subclasses  You must use a reference to the proper class in order to retrieve its static private references  that are available only inside the methods of that class   ie MyClass  private

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Even Typescript can t do it  From their documentation       When a member is marked private  it cannot be accessed from outside of its containing class  For example   class Animal       private name  string      constructor theName  string    this name   theName       new Animal  Cat   name     Error   name  is private     But transpiled on their playground this gives   var Animal    function          function Animal theName            this name   theName            return Animal        console log new Animal  Cat   name     So their  private  keyword is ineffective

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class Something     constructor        var  property    test       Object defineProperty this   property             get  function    return  property                 var instance   new Something    console log instance property       gt   test  instance property    can read from outside  but can t write   console log instance property       gt   test

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