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

Getters and Setters are the public interface that other classes interact with. In complex systems you usually end up doing validation and other work inside the getter and setter.

The private field is for internal use. If you need to change the value from inside the class but bypass all the extra work you would change the private variable.