Differences between Private Fields and Private Properties

Question

What is the difference between using Private Properties instead of Private Fields

private String MyValue { get; set; }

// instead of

private String _myValu         


        

Answer 1

The big gain you can get from a property (private, public, ...) is that it can produce a calculated value vs. a set value. For example

class Person { 
  private DateTime _birthday;
  private int _age { get { return (DateTime.Now - _birthday).TotalYears; }
}

The advantage of this pattern is that only one value must be updated for N other values to reflect the change. This is true of properties regardless of accessibility. There is no specific advantage of a private property vs non-private property (other than it being private of course)