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Using Properties (C# Programming Guide)

Visual Studio 2012

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Properties combine aspects of both fields and methods. To the user of an object, a property appears to be a field, accessing the property requires the same syntax. To the implementer of a class, a property is one or two code blocks, representing a get accessor and/or a set accessor. The code block for the get accessor is executed when the property is read; the code block for the set accessor is executed when the property is assigned a new value. A property without a set accessor is considered read-only. A property without a get accessor is considered write-only. A property that has both accessors is read-write.

Unlike fields, properties are not classified as variables. Therefore, you cannot pass a property as a ref (C# Reference) or out (C# Reference) parameter.

Properties have many uses: they can validate data before allowing a change; they can transparently expose data on a class where that data is actually retrieved from some other source, such as a database; they can take an action when data is changed, such as raising an event, or changing the value of other fields.