Question

I have a public class

 public class Interview
{
    public int InterviewId;
    public string ApplicantName;
    ...
    public List<AnsweredQuestions> AnsweredQuestions;
    public Questionnaire questionnaire;

}

and use it in a main program like this:

 Interview interview = new Interview();
 interview.InterviewId = 1;

and a Questionnaire class

public class Questionnaire
{
    public int questionnaireId;
    public string outputFile;
    ...
}

How can I prevent modifying the attribute int the main program:

interview.questionnaire.outputFile

I found I was able to use the DocumentManager class in the main program like this:

interview = documentManager.GetInterviewSession();
interview.questionnaire = documentManager.GetQuestionnaireManagement();
interview.AnsweredQuestions = documentManager.GetInterviewAnsweredQuestions();

by using this

public class DocumentManager
{
    private readonly Interview _interview;

…

public DocumentManager(Interview interview)
    {
        _interview = interview;

    }

I’m sure I should be encapsulating, but I’m not sure how. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Answer 1

I’m not sure I entirely get the question, but this is the usual method for read-only encapsulation:

public class Questionnaire
{
    public string OutputFile { get; private set; }
}

This creates a property named OutputFile that can be read publically, but only written by the Questionnaire class.

Alternatively, you may want to use protected set; if you want classes deriving from Questionnaire to be able to set OutputFile.