Why do I need a private field that is exposed via public property?

Question

I\'m comming from Java world mainly. So, C# properties do look nice.

I know that with C# 3.0 or above I can use Automatic Properties. I like it even more :).

Answer 1

Maybe you want to change the behaviour of the setter or getter at a later point. e.g. log that the value was changed from outside. this would not be possible with a public field without properties

   private int age;

   public int Age {

     get { return age; }
     set { 
       age = value; 
       Log("value of age changed");
     }     
   }

With a public field age, you had to log this everywhere in the code where you change the value of age.