C# Fields to be or not

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In c#4.0 i can use accessers on properties and the compiler creates a field under the hood matching this.

C#

public string Name
{
    get;
    private set;
}

Isn't creating a field for name unnecessary?
Or have i missed out anything?

Thanks,
/Johan

Posted 5-Dec-11 4:11am

JohAhl

Updated 5-Dec-11 4:33am

fjdiewornncalwe

v2

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OriginalGriff · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-05T04:17:00

Solution 1

That is called an Automatic, or Auto-Implemented Property[^] - it is a way to declare a simple property that you do not intend to use any custom processing with. The compiler automatically creates the backing field for you.

Posted 5-Dec-11 4:17am

OriginalGriff

Comments

Wonde Tadesse 5-Dec-11 11:29am

5+

Andrew Rissing · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-05T04:19:00

It isn't unnecessary if you understand that properties never store any values by themselves. To be able to store anything, properties must have a field to do so. Properties are really just syntactic sugar for combining two common operations (get and set) into one clean interface.

For automatic properties, .NET has done the legwork for you of creating a field to back this property. If it didn't, you couldn't store any values on your object.

#realJSOP · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-05T04:21:00

Solution 3

That's a perfectly reasonable construct for a property. You may only want a consumer object to be able to get a property's value, but not necessarily be able to set the property's value from an external source.

Many .Net classes have properties defined in just such a way.

Posted 5-Dec-11 4:21am

#realJSOP

Updated 5-Dec-11 5:33am

v2