Why can I access TypeScript private members when I shouldn't be able to?

Solution 1:

Just as with the type checking, the privacy of members are only enforced within the compiler.

A private property is implemented as a regular property, and code outside the class is not allowed to access it.

To make something truly private inside the class, it can't be a member of the class, it would be a local variable created inside a function scope inside the code that creates the object. That would mean that you can't access it like a member of the class, i.e. using the this keyword.

Solution 2:

JavaScript does support private variables.

function MyClass() {
    var myPrivateVar = 3;

    this.doSomething = function() {
        return myPrivateVar++;        
    }
}

In TypeScript this would be expressed like so:

class MyClass {

    doSomething: () => number;

    constructor() {
        var myPrivateVar = 3;

        this.doSomething = function () {
            return myPrivateVar++;
        }
    }
}

EDIT

This approach should only be used SPARINGLY where it is absolutely needed. For example if you need to cache a password temporarily.

There are performance costs to using this pattern (irrelevant of Javascript or Typescript) and should only be used where absolutely necessary.