---
title: categoryBitMask
framework: spritekit
role: symbol
role_heading: Instance Property
path: spritekit/sklightnode/categorybitmask
---

# categoryBitMask

A mask that defines which categories this light belongs to.

## Declaration

```swift
var categoryBitMask: UInt32 { get set }
```

## Mentioned in

Lighting a Sprite with Light Nodes

## Discussion

Discussion Every light in a scene can be assigned to up to 32 different categories, each corresponding to a bit in the bit mask. SpriteKit does not predefine any lighting categories, so it is up to you to define which values are used in your game. When a scene is rendered, a light’s categoryBitMask property is compared to each sprite node’s lightingBitMask, shadowCastBitMask, and shadowedBitMask properties to determine whether that sprite interacts with the light. The default value is 0x00000001.

## See Also

### Determining Whether a Light Node Is Active

- [isEnabled](spritekit/sklightnode/isenabled.md)