C# getter vs readonly

Question

Is there any difference between the following?

class C
{
    // One:
    public static readonly int ValueAsAMember = 42;

    // Two:
    public static int V         


        

Answer 1

The way I see it, using the first way describes the intention of the value better - which is that it is immutable. When a person is looking at the class' interface, he will see that the value is read-only, and won't have to wonder whether it can be changed later (since in the second case he can't see the property's implementation).

An important thing to note about const declarations (I don't believe it's true for readonly) is that changing the field's value constitutes an API change, even if you're just changing the value from 42 to 41. The reason is that for consts, the value is determined during compile time, which means that if I compile a module that uses your constant, and you later change it, I will still be using the old value until I recompile my module with your new version.