private property in Objective C

Question

Is there a way to declare a private property in Objective C? The goal is to benefit from synthesized getters and setters implementing a certain memory management scheme, yet not exposed to public.

An attempt to declare a property within a category leads to an error:

@interface MyClass : NSObject {
    NSArray *_someArray;
}

...

@end

@interface MyClass (private)

@property (nonatomic, retain) NSArray   *someArray;

@end

@implementation MyClass (private)

@synthesize someArray = _someArray;
// ^^^ error here: @synthesize not allowed in a category's implementation

@end

@implementation MyClass

...

@end

Answer 1

I implement my private properties like this.

MyClass.m

@interface MyClass ()

@property (nonatomic, retain) NSArray *someArray;

@end

@implementation MyClass

@synthesize someArray;

...

That's all you need.