.NET for Java Developers: Migrating to C#

17.1. Properties

An object's attributes can be accessed directly (if they are declared public) or through get and set methods (accessors and mutators). These methods provide a single point of access to the attributes. You can change the implementation of these methods without affecting the code that calls them. C# provides the property construct, which makes the calling of these get and set methods transparent to the end user.

A property is typically used to model simple attributes. For example, you can set or get the color of a car (an object) using both properties and methods, as shown next. Using properties:

1) car.Color = "red";
2) string color = car.Color;

Using method calls:

 3) car.SetColor ("red"); 4) string color = car.GetColor(); ...