Question

Possible Duplicate:
An object reference is required for the non-static field, method, or property

I have a non-static field:

private IDictionary<string, string> _mappings = 
    new Dictionary<string, string>(StringComparer.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)

that I wnat to use inside of a action like this:

public static string GetMimeType(string extension)
{
    //...
    return _mappings.TryGetValue(extension, out mime) ? 
        mime : "application/octet-stream";
}

The compiler is complaining:

An object reference is required for non-static field, method, or
property in the return statement.

How can I reference this field?

Answer 1

You cannot access instance members from static members so you have 2 choices.

1. Make the method an instance method (remove the static keyword)
2. Make the field a static (add the static keyword)

The one you choose will depend on whether the field should be shared across all instances or not.