Question

I want to define a class inside a class.

example:

private class newClient
{
    public int ID { get; set; }
    public string Name{ get; set; }        

    private class ClientExtraData
    {
       public string ExtraField1 { get; set; }
       public string ExtraField2 { get; set; }
    }
}

now i want to access the ExtraField1 in such way:

newClient nclnt= new newClient();
string s=nclnt.ClientExtraData.ExtraField1;

Can this be done?

Answer 1

No you can’t access the internal class in this way nclnt.ClientExtraData.ExtraField1; because you must have an instance of that object if you want to access its properties.
Then you can’t use the private access modifier but you have to use internal in this way:

class newClient
{
    public int ID { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public ClientExtraData clientExtraData{ get; set; }

    public newClient()
    {
        clientExtraData = new ClientExtraData();
    }

    internal class ClientExtraData
    {
        public string ExtraField1 { get; set; }
        public string ExtraField2 { get; set; }
    }
}

Or you can make ClientExtraData public instead of internal if you want to make it accessible outside newClient in this way:

newClient.ClientExtraData clientExtraData = new newClient.ClientExtraData();

---

So then you can do:

newClient nclnt= new newClient();
string s = nclnt.clientExtraData.ExtraField1;