C# Automatic Properties - Why Do I Have To Write “get; set;”?

Question

If both get and set are compulsory in C# automatic properties, why do I have to bother specifying \"get; set;\" at all?

Answer 1

Since no one mentioned it... you could make the auto-property virtual and override it:

public virtual int Property { get; set; }

If there was no get/set, how would it be overridden? Note that you are allowed to override the getter and not the setter:

public override int Property { get { return int.MinValue; } }

Answer 2

Because you need some way to distinguish it from plain fields.

It's also useful to have different access modifiers, e.g.

public int MyProperty { get; private set; }

Answer 3

Well, obviously you need a way of disambiguating between fields and properties. But are required keywords really necessary? For instance, it's clear that these two declarations are different:

public int Foo;
public int Bar { }

That could work. That is, it's a syntax that a compiler could conceivably make sense of.

But then you get to a situation where an empty block has semantic meaning. That seems precarious.