CSharp Properties Basics Naming

C# Properties: Basics and Naming

This lesson introduces properties in C#, plus some basic naming conventions. Properties are the idiomatic way to expose data from classes in .NET.

Related wiki pages:

• General C# overview: CSharpBible.md
• Libraries and data structures: CSharpBible-Libraries.md

Official docs:

• Properties: https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/classes-and-structs/properties

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1. Auto-properties

The most common property form is the auto-property:

public class Product
{
    public string Name { get; set; }   // nullable reference type depending on project settings
    public decimal Price { get; set; }
}

Usage:

var product = new Product
{
    Name = "Example Product",
    Price = 9.99m
};

Console.WriteLine($"Product Name: {product.Name}");
Console.WriteLine($"Product Price: {product.Price}");

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2. Properties with get and set

You can add logic to get/set instead of using auto-properties:

public class Person
{
    private int _age;

    public string Name { get; set; } = string.Empty;

    public int Age
    {
        get => _age;
        set
        {
            if (value < 0)
                throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(value));

            _age = value;
        }
    }
}

This pattern allows validation and encapsulation of internal state.

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3. Read-only and init-only properties

Read-only:

public class Configuration
{
    public string Environment { get; } = "Production";
}

Init-only (C# 9+):

public class User
{
    public string Name { get; init; } = string.Empty;
}

var user = new User { Name = "Alice" }; // ok
// user.Name = "Bob"; // compile error: init-only

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4. Naming conventions (brief)

• Types and properties: PascalCase (e.g. ProductName, CustomerAddress)
• Local variables and parameters: camelCase (e.g. productName, customerAddress)

These follow the .NET naming guidelines and match the rest of this wiki (see also CSharpBible.md).

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5. Next steps

• Explore properties in context of classes and records in CSharpBible.md.
• Look for examples that use properties in MVVM view models in CSharpBible-MVVM-Basics.md and CSharpBible-MVVM-Standard.md.
• Continue with object initialization patterns in CSharp-Properties-Init.md (once created) and nullable handling in CSharp-Nullability-Basics.md (once created)