List readonly with a private set

Question

How can I expose a List so that it is readonly, but can be set privately?

This doesn\'t work:

public List myList          


        

Answer 1

In the .NET 4.5 framework you can expose only the IReadOnlyList interface. Something like:

private List _mylist;
public IReadOnlyList myList { get {return _myList;} }

or if you want to prevent unwanted casting to IList

private List _mylist;
public IReadOnlyList myList { get {return new List(_myList);} }