CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#immutability
user5078574
user5078574

Reputation:

C# Immutable Classes and Gaming Objects

I was doing some reading here about creating immutable object in java and I was wondering, is it okay to create a mutable object in certain situations?

For example, let's say we were creating a ping-pong game in C#, obviously, we would have a class that represents a ball, and the two paddles, would you write the ball class like this:

 class Ball
    {
        private readonly int xPosition;
        private readonly int yPosition;
        private readonly int ballSize;
        private readonly string ballColor;

        public Ball(int x, int y, int size, string color)
        {
            this.xPosition=x;
            this.yPosition=y;
            this.ballSize = size;
            this.ballColor = color;
        }

        public int getX
        {
            get
            {
                return this.xPosition;
            }
        }
        //left out rest of implementation.

or like this:

    class Ball
    {
        private int xPosition;
        private int yPosition;
        private int ballSize;
        private string ballColor;

        public Ball(int x, int y, int size, string color)
        {
            this.xPosition=x;
            this.yPosition=y;
            this.ballSize = size;
            this.ballColor = color;
        }

        public int getX
        {
            get
            {
                return this.xPosition;
            }

            set
            {
                this.xPosition = value;
            }
        }


    }
}

In a situation where our object(ball) can change position, size(smaller or larger depending on level) and color, wouldn't it be better to provide a setter property? In this case making it mutable makes sense? How would you approach this?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 324

Answers (1)

KnightFox
KnightFox

Reputation: 3252

If you are using c#, you do not need to go thru the overhead of creating separate fields to make objects immutable. Instead you can do something like this -

    class Ball
    {
         public Ball ( int x, int y, int size, string color) 
         { ... }
         public int XPos {get; private set; }
         public int YPos {get; private set; }
         public int Size {get; private set; }
         public string BallColor {get; private set; }
    }

This way, you can still write methods in the class to mutate the properties but nothing outside of the class can change their values.

Upvotes: 4

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