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The hide combinator is a namespace-control modifier applied to import or export directives in Dart. It acts as an exclusion filter, preventing specific top-level identifiers from a target library from being introduced into the current library’s namespace, while allowing all other public identifiers to be resolved.

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Syntax

The combinator is appended to the end of an import or export statement, followed by a comma-separated list of the identifiers to be excluded. 
// Import all public members except ClassA and topLevelFunction
import 'package:example/example.dart' hide ClassA, topLevelFunction;

// Re-export all public members except InternalMixin
export 'package:example/example.dart' hide InternalMixin;

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Mechanics and Behavior

  • Target Scope: The hide combinator strictly operates on top-level declarations (e.g., class, mixin, typedef, top-level variables, and top-level functions). It cannot be used to filter out specific instance members, static methods, or properties encapsulated within a class.
  • Namespace Resolution: When the Dart analyzer processes a directive with hide, it constructs the symbol table for the imported/exported library but explicitly drops the symbols listed in the hide clause. Attempting to reference a hidden identifier results in a compile-time Undefined name error, exactly as if the target library did not contain that declaration.
  • Export Propagation: When applied to an export directive, hide prevents the specified identifiers from being re-exported. This modifies the public API surface of the aggregating library by omitting the hidden symbols from the exported namespace.
  • Combinator Chaining: Dart allows multiple combinators (show and hide) to be chained on a single directive. When chained, the Dart compiler evaluates them sequentially from left to right.
// Evaluates left-to-right: 
// 1. Shows only ClassA, ClassB, and ClassC
// 2. Hides ClassC from that filtered subset
import 'package:example/example.dart' show ClassA, ClassB, ClassC hide ClassC;
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