C# 6.0 - Auto-Property Changes

This is the second in a series of posts on the new features that are coming in C# 6.0. There have been a few small improvements to Auto-Properties.

Auto-Property Initializers

I hinted at this feature in my last post on Primary Constructors. Auto-Properties were introduced way back in C# 3.0, but unlike other members, you had to initialize their values in the constructor.

public class Product
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public decimal Price { get; set; }

    public Product()
    {
        Name = "Toy Car";
        Price = 9.99m;
    }
}

In C# 6.0, you can now initialize the properties where they are declared.

public class Product
{
    public string Name { get; set; } = "Toy Car";
    public decimal Price { get; set; } = 9.99m;
}

Getter Only Auto-Properties

You could always declare the setter of an auto-property private or protected to prevent it from being used outside of the class.

public decimal Price { get; private set; }

Now you can omit the setter and it makes the underlying field read-only, so you can only set it in the constructor. This is a great feature for creating and enforcing imutable classes.

public class Product
{
    public Product(string name, decimal price)
    {
        Name = name;
        Price = price;
    }

    public string Name { get; }
    public decimal Price { get; }
}

If you want to check out the code for this series of posts, it is on GitHub at https://github.com/rprouse/CSharp60.