Question

When I write a class I always expose private fields through a public property like this:

private int _MyField; public int MyField { get{return _MyField; } 

When is it ok to just expose a public field like this:

public int MyField; 

I am creating a structure called Result and my intention is do this:

public Result(bool result, string message) {    Result = result;    Message = message; }  public readonly int Result; public readonly int Message; 

What is the best practice? Is it ever ok to do this?

Answer 1

I only ever expose public fields when they’re (static) constants – and even then I’d usually use a property.

By ‘constant’ I mean any readonly, immutable value, not just one which may be expressed as a ‘const’ in C#.

Even readonly instance variables (like Result and Message) should be encapsulated in a property in my view.

See this article for more details.