Correct use of C# properties

Question

private List _dates;

public List Dates
{
    get { return _dates; }
    set { _dates = value; }
}

OR

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Answer 1

Use the former if you need to add some kind of logic to your getter/setters.

Use the latter otherwise. It makes things much cleaner. You can also achieve read-only properties using auto properties:

public List Dates { get; private set; }

Or, if you don't want people to add any items to the list through the property you can resort to the former syntax:

private List _dates = new List();
private ReadOnlyCollection _readOnlyDates =
    new ReadOnlyCollection(_dates);

public ReadOnlyCollection Dates
{
    get { return _readOnlyDates; }
}