Question

I have an object that needs a test if the object data is valid. The validation itself would be called from the thread that instatiated the object, it looks like this:

 {   if (_step.Equals(string.Empty)) return false;   if (_type.Equals(string.Empty)) return false;   if (_setup.Equals(string.Empty)) return false;   return true; } 

Would it be better to implement this as a property, or as a method, and why? I have read the answers to a related question, but I don’t think this specific question is covered there.

Answer 1

My personal opinion here would be:

• If the ‘validate’ method mutates the object in any way (which your example doesn’t) then make it a method.
• If the object remains un-changed after validation, make it a property.