Question

Possible Duplicate:
C#: Public Fields versus Automatic Properties
Do I need to use { get; set; } with c# fields that have no special actions when getting and setting

Consider these two options:

public int Foo { get; set; }

public int Foo;

They seem to be semantically equivalent, and I believe they will even compile to the same IL. So what is the advantage of using the property? Seeing a public field makes me feel uneasy, but I can’t think of any concrete advantage to using the property syntax instead. If an explicit getter and setter are required in the future, public int Foo; can be replaced by public int Foo { ... } with no other changes necessary. The best I can come up with is that the property syntax just feels better, but I can hardly use this reason to convince someone else.

What is the advantage (if any) of using the property syntax in this case?

Answer 1

The main advantages are:

1. Future-proofing your API – If you later need logic in the getter or setter, your public API doesn’t change.
2. Data binding – Most data binding frameworks only work against Properties, not Fields.