Property vs Function (specifically .NET)

Question

I\'ve read some discussions about this subject, and there\'s something I just don\'t understand.

The most common answer seems to be this: use a ReadOnly Property to

Answer 1

There is more to properties than auto properties. If you do:

public int MyProp { public get; public set; }

Then it's really no different from

public int MyProp;

But the big advantage of the former is that you can later change it to:

public int MyProp {
    get {
        // Do some processing
        return someValue;
    }

    set {
        // Do some processing
        DoMyProcess(value);
    }
}

And other code that uses your object would work without recompiling. If, instead, you had used a public field, client code would need to be recompiled if you ever want to change it from a field to a property.