enclosing scope

Enclosing scope, also known as the containing scope or parent scope, is a fundamental concept in programming, particularly in languages with lexical scoping rules. In a programming context, it refers to the set of variables, functions, and other identifiers that are accessible within a particular block, function, class, or module.

- When you define a variable or a function inside another function or class, the outer (enclosing) function or class provides the scope for those inner declarations. You can access these inner elements only from within that outer context.
- The scope determines where an identifier is visible and whether it can be accessed by code at different parts of the program. For example, a local variable declared within a block is not accessible outside that block.

Here's a brief overview of the types of scopes:

1. Global scope: Variables defined outside any function or class are global and accessible everywhere in the code, unless shadowed by a local variable.
2. Function scope: Variables defined inside a function or method are only accessible within that function.
3. Class scope: Variables and functions defined within a class are accessible by instances of that class, as well as any methods within it.
4. Block scope: Some languages like JavaScript (ES6+) have block-level scopes, where variables declared with `let` or `const` are only accessible within the block they are defined.