#700 – Using a set Accessor To Enforce Casing

October 25, 2012 Leave a comment

A set accessor allows client code to give a property a new value.  You typically use the set accessor to do any required validation or conversion of the input value.  This is the point where you impose any business rules related to the value of the property being set.

For example, you might enforce a requirement that a particular string-based property always be uppercase.  Instead of throwing an exception if some calling code tries to set a property that is not uppercase, you can just automatically convert all values to uppercase.

    public class Car
    {
        private string licPlate;
        public string LicPlate
        {
            get { return licPlate; }
            set
            {
                if (value != licPlate)
                {
                    if (value.Length != 7)
                        throw new Exception("Invalid license plate number");
                    else
                        licPlate = value.ToUpper();
                }
            }
        }

    }

 

            Car c = new Car();
            c.LicPlate = "vpn 123";

            Console.WriteLine(c.LicPlate);

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#245 – Defining a Set Accessor for a Property

February 17, 2011 Leave a comment

A set accessor for a property is the code that executes when the client of an object tries to write the property’s value.

The set accessor is defined using the set keyword.  The new property value is accessible using the value keyword, which is treated as a local variable having the same type as the property.

It’s common to store the value of a property in an internal private variable, known as the backing field.

In the example below, the set accessor for a property stores the new property value in the internal backing field whenever the property is written.  Note that the private variable and the public property name differ only in their case (name vs. Name).

    // Backing field--where the property value is actually stored
    private string name;

    public string Name
    {
        // Set accessor allows the property to be written
        set
        {
            name = value;
        }
    }

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