CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#c#-6.0
Alex KeySmith
Alex KeySmith

Reputation: 17111

Public readonly field v.s. get-only property

Are there cases when you would want a public readonly field v.s. a get-only auto-implemented property?

public class Foo
{
    public readonly string Hello;

    public string Hello2 { get; }
}

Both can only be set during the constructor and both offer readonly access outside of the class.. I'm a little tired so I might be missing something.

Upvotes: 49

Views: 13158

Answers (2)

pete the pagan-gerbil
pete the pagan-gerbil

Reputation: 3166

Making it a property rather than a field means it can be used on interfaces.

The exact implementation (although auto-properties don't really have much implementation...) is also abstracted, so you could in the future base it on a combination of fields without breaking (compile) compatibility.

Upvotes: 39

PaulF
PaulF

Reputation: 6773

One reason would be for data binding - .net implements binding to properties but not to public fields.

Some discussion here : Why can't we use public fields for data binding in C#?

Upvotes: 20

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