In simple terms they are referred as property accessors. Their implementation can be explained as below
1.get{ return name}
The code block in the get accessor is executed when the property is Read.
2.set{name = value}
The code block in the set accessor is executed when the property is Assigned a new value.
Eg.(Assuming you are using C#)
class Person
{
private string name; // the name field
public string Name // the Name property
{
get
{
return name;
}
set
{
name = value;
}
}
}
Now when you refer to this property as below
Person p = new Person();// Instantiating the class or creating object
'p' of class 'Person'
System.Console.Write(p.Name); //The get accessor is invoked here
The get accessor is invoked to Read the value of property i.e the compiler tries to read the value of string 'name'.
2.When you Assign a value(using an argument) to the 'Name' property as below
Person p = new Person();
p.Name = "Stack" // the set accessor is invoked here
Console.Writeline(p.Name) //invokes the get accessor
Console.ReadKey(); //Holds the output until a key is pressed
The set accessor Assigns the value 'Stack" to the 'Name property i.e 'Stack' is stored in the string 'name'.
Ouput:
Stack