Question

I found the following syntax as a VB.NET property and I’m trying to convert it to c#, but I’m not sure how to accomplish that.

Public Property SomeText(ByVal someEnumThing as SomeEnum) As String
    Get
        Select Case someEnumThing
            //figure out what string to return
        End Select
    End Get
    Set(ByVal Value as String)
        Select Case someEnumThing
            //figure out what string to set
        End Select
    End Set
End Property

I’ve never seen a property done like this before, any ideas?

Answer 1

I guess you’re referring to the arguments for the property. Well, as far as I know, C# only supports them for indexers, which cannot have a name (e.g. this[SomeEnum someEnumThing] {}).

If you want to get a similar behavior, you can create a helper class with an indexer property and use it to expose the “name” of the property:

public class YourClass {
    public struct SomeTextProperty {
        private readonly YourClass owner;

        internal SomeTextProperty(YourClass owner) {
            this.owner = owner;
        }

        public string this[SomeEnum someEnumThing] {
            get {
                return owner.GetSomeText(someEnumThing);
            }
            set {
                owner.SetSomeText(someEnumThing, value);
            }
        }
    }

    public SomeTextProperty SomeText {
        get {
            return new SomeTextProperty(this);
        }
    }

    private string GetSomeText(SomeEnum someEnumThing) {
        // implementation to get it
    }

    private void SetSomeText(SomeEnum someEnumThing, string value) {
        // implementation to set it
    }
}