Properties C# 2.0 – Not Elegant Enough !!!

Jun 3, 2006 · 3 min read

Prior to .NET 2.0, there wasn’t the facility in C# to opt the visibility level for the get and set property or indexers. And i take my comment in my previous post that C# does not provide the facility of having different visibility levels for the get and set accessors. While that is partly correct, it is no more in C# 2.0.

And obviously it isn’t in the easy and elegant way. Take a look at this code snippet:-

public bool LogToStdError
{
get
{
   return _log2StdError;
}
protected set
{
   _log2StdError = value;
}
}

I do not have to explain the code except there are some restrictions while having different visibility levels for the get/set accessors of a property.

1. You can provide an explicit visibility either for get or set. Hence the following code will throw an error:-

public bool LogToStdError
{
protected get
{
return _log2StdError;
}
protected set
{
_log2StdError = value;
}
}

2. The visibility thus explicitly specified must be a subset [restrictive than] of the property declaration.
For example, if the property declaration is protected, then the get/set accessor cannot be like say public. So the following code throws an error:-

<p>
  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;">protected bool LogToStdError</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;">{</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> get</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> {</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> return _log2StdError;</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> }</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> public set</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> {</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> _log2StdError = value;</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> }</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;">}</span>
</p>

<p>
  </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"></span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">I feel that these restrictions are stupid, and this resulted because of the syntax. I just thought of some ideas for a bit elegant syntax for the property definition.</p>

  <p>
    1. The get and set accessors individually have to specify the visibility level.
  </p>

  <p>
    </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;">bool LogToStdError</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;">{</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> public get</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> {</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> return _log2StdError;</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> }</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> property set</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> {</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> _log2StdError = value;</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> }</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;">}</span>
  </p>

  <p>
    </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">2. The property declaration syntax must not bear any visibility level unless the associated get/set accessors do not bear any. For example, in the property definition below, the get/set accessors are public:-</span></p>

    <p>
      <span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;">public bool LogToStdError</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;">{</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> get</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> {</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> return _log2StdError;</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> }</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> set</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> {</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> _log2StdError = value;</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> }</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;">}</span>
    </p>

    <p>
      </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">and as per this property definition, the get/set accessors are protected:-</span></p>

      <p>
        <span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;">protected bool LogToStdError</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;">{</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> get</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> {</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> return _log2StdError;</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> }</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> set</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> {</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> _log2StdError = value;</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> }</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;">}</span><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><span style="font-family:Georgia;">3. If there are visibility levels specified neither in the property definition nor in the accessors, then the default visibility level as specified for C# [I guess internal] will be applied for the property accessors. Hence the get/set accessors are internal for the following property:-<br /></span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;">bool LogToStdError</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;">{</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> get</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> {</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> return _log2StdError;</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> }</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> set</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> {</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> _log2StdError = value;</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;"> }</span><br /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:Courier New,Courier,Monospace;">}</span><br /></span>
      </p>