Looking for a short & simple example of getters/setters in C#

Question

I am having trouble understanding the concept of getters and setters in the C# language. In languages like Objective-C, they seem an integral part of the system, bu

Answer 1

In C#, Properties represent your Getters and Setters.

Here's an example:

public class PropertyExample
{
    private int myIntField = 0;

    public int MyInt
    {
        // This is your getter.
        // it uses the accessibility of the property (public)
        get
        {
            return myIntField;
        }
        // this is your setter
        // Note: you can specify different accessibility
        // for your getter and setter.
        protected set
        {
            // You can put logic into your getters and setters
            // since they actually map to functions behind the scenes
            DoSomeValidation(value)
            {
                // The input of the setter is always called "value"
                // and is of the same type as your property definition
                myIntField = value;
            }
        }
    }
}

You would access this property just like a field. For example:

PropertyExample example = new PropertyExample();
example.MyInt = 4; // sets myIntField to 4
Console.WriteLine( example.MyInt ); // prints 4

A few other things to note:

1. You don't have to specifiy both a getter and a setter, you can omit either one.
2. Properties are just "syntactic sugar" for your traditional getter and setter. The compiler will actually build get_ and set_ functions behind the scenes (in the compiled IL) and map all references to your property to those functions.