Question

What is wrong with this?:

public abstract class EFNLBaseRepository:IDisposable
{

    NLSubscriberDBContext _dbContext;
    protected internal NLSubscriberDBContext dbContext
    {
     get
      {...}

    }
...
}


internal class NLSubscriberDBContext : DbContext
{
  ...
}

Of course, both classes are on the same assembly.
This is the compilation error I’m getting:

Error 1 Inconsistent accessibility: property type
‘NLSubscriber.Core.Service.Repository.EFDAL.NLSubscriberDBContext’ is
less accessible than property
‘NLSubscriber.Core.Service.Repository.EFDAL.EFNLBaseRepository.dbContext’ C:\Data\Projects\Neticon\TFS\NLSubscriber
– Newsletter\NLSubscriber-newsletter\NLSubscriber.Core\Service\Repository\EFDAL\EFNLBaseRepository.cs 12 50 NLSubscriber.Core

Answer 1

protected internal gives all subclasses access to the property, even when the subclass is outside the DLL. This is inconsistent with the type of the property being internal, because it would require a subclass from the outside to have access to the internal type.

Consider this example: I subclass EFNLBaseRepository from outside your DLL

public sealed EFNLSealedRepository : EFNLBaseRepository {
    public DoSomething() {
        // Access to dbContext should be allowed, because it is protected;
        // However, NLSubscriberDBContext should not be accessible.
        // This is an inconsistency flagged by the C# compiler.
        NLSubscriberDBContext context = dbContext;
    }
}