Question

and sorry in advance if this question has been solved previously.

I am creating a small library in C# and am hoping to have class A be able to modify the data members of class B, where class A and B exist in the same namespace, C.D. This is not a problem to accomplish though I would like class E, in namespace C, to not be able to access the data members of B.

namespace C.D
{
    class B
    {
        modifier int
            a,
            b;

        public B()
        {
        }
    }

    class A
    {
        public A() {}

        public B DoStuff()
        {
            B b = new B();
            b.a = 1; b.b = 2;
            return b;
        }
    }
}

namespace C
{
    class E
    {
        static void Main(String[] args)
        {
            A a = new A();
            B b = a.DoStuff();
        }
    }
}

In my main method above I would like every class in the namespace C.D to be able to alter the data members of a class B object though nothing outside of the C.D namespace to be able to modify class B object data members.

Is there any way to do this by changing the namespace structure, modifiers, or implementing specific design patterns?

Thank you all in advance. : )

Answer 1

You can use the “internal” access modifier if you’re willing to move the relevant classes in C.D to a separate assembly.

namespace C.D
{
    class B
    {
        internal int a;
        internal int b;

        public B()
        {
        }
    }
}