I created an automated property:
public int Foo { get; }
This is getter only.
But when I build a constructor, I can change the value:
public MyClass(string name)
{
Foo = 5;
}
Why is it possible, even though this is get-only?
This is a new C# 6 feature, "Getter-only auto-properties", also known as "Auto-Property Initializers for Read-Only Properties" as discussed in this MSDN magazine article 'C# : The New and Improved C# 6.0' by Mark Michaelis and in the C# 6.0 draft Language Specification.
The read-only field's setter is only accessible in the constructor, in all other scenarios the field is still read only and behaves as before.
This is a convenience syntax to reduce the amount of code you need to type and to remove the need to explicitly declare a private module level variable to hold the value.
This feature was seen as important as, since the introduction of Auto-Implemented Properties in C#3, mutable properties (those with a getter and setter) had become quicker to write than immutable ones (those with only a getter), meaning people were being tempted to use mutable properties to avoid having to type the code for a backing field usually required for read-only properties. There is more discussion of Auto-Implemented properties in the relevant section of the Microsoft C# Programming Guide.
This blog post, '#1,207 – C# 6.0 – Auto-Property Initializers for Read-Only Properties' by Sean Sexton Has a good explanation and example as follows:
Prior to C# 6.0, if you wanted a read-only (immutable) property, you’d
typically use a read-only backing field that is initialized in the
constructor, as shown below.
public class Dog
{
public string Name { get; set; }
// DogCreationTime is immutable
private readonly DateTime creTime;
public DateTime DogCreationTime
{
get { return creTime; }
}
public Dog(string name)
{
Name = name;
creTime = DateTime.Now;
}
}
In C# 6.0, you can use auto-implemented properties to implement a
read-only property. You do this by using an auto-property
initializer. The result is much cleaner than the above example, where
we had to explicitly declare a backing field.
public class Dog
{
public string Name { get; set; }
// DogCreationTime is immutable
public DateTime DogCreationTime { get; } = DateTime.Now;
public Dog(string name)
{
Name = name;
}
}
More details can also be found in the dotnet Roslyn repo on GitHub:
Auto-properties can now be declared without a setter.
The backing field of a getter-only auto-property is implicitly
declared as readonly (though this matters only for reflection
purposes). It can be initialized through an initializer on the
property as in the example above. Also, a getter-only property can be
assigned to in the declaring type’s constructor body, which causes the
value to be assigned directly to the underlying field:
This is about expressing types more concisely, but note that it also
removes an important difference in the language between mutable and
immutable types: auto-properties were a shorthand available only if
you were willing to make your class mutable, and so the temptation to
default to that was great. Now, with getter-only auto-properties, the
playing field has been leveled between mutable and immutable.
and in the C# 6.0 draft Language Specification (NB: The language specification is final as far as Microsoft are concerned, but it is yet to be approved as a EMCA/ISO standard, hence the 'draft'):
Automatically implemented properties
An automatically implemented property (or auto-property for short), is
a non-abstract non-extern property with semicolon-only accessor
bodies. Auto-properties must have a get accessor and can optionally
have a set accessor.
When a property is specified as an automatically implemented property,
a hidden backing field is automatically available for the property,
and the accessors are implemented to read from and write to that
backing field. If the auto-property has no set accessor, the backing
field is considered readonly (Readonly fields). Just like a readonly
field, a getter-only auto-property can also be assigned to in the body
of a constructor of the enclosing class. Such an assignment assigns
directly to the readonly backing field of the property.
An auto-property may optionally have a property_initializer, which is
applied directly to the backing field as a variable_initializer
(Variable initializers).
This is a new feature in C#6 that allows you to create read-only properties and initialize their values from the constructor (or inline when you declare them).
If you try to change the value of this property outside the constructor, it would give you a compile error.
It is read-only in the sense that once you initialize its value (inline or inside the constructor), you cannot change its value.
If it were not possible to initialize the read-only property from the constructor (or an auto-property initializer), then it would be useless, since it would always return the default value for its type (0 for numerics, null for reference types). The same semantics applied to readonly fields in all C# versions.
To define a true getter-only property (that cannot be initialized from the constructor), you need to specify what it returns as part of the definition:
public int Foo { get { return 5; } }
Or, more concisely in C# 6:
public int Foo => 5;
“readonly automatically implemented properties”
First of all I want to clarify that the property like
public string FirstName { get; }
Is known as “readonly automatically implemented properties”
To verify this you can run & check the above code with Visual Studio. If you change the language version from C#6.0 to C#5.0 then compiler will throw the following exception
Feature 'readonly automatically implemented properties' is not available in C# 5. Please use language version 6 or greater.
to change C# language version visit here
Now I am coming to your second question
“This is getter only. But when I build a constructor, I can change the value”
Microsoft introduces the “readonly automatically implemented properties” on the logic of read only. As we know that the keyword “readonly” is available from C#1.0. we use “readonly” keyword as modifier on a field and that field can be assigned in 2 ways either at the time of declaration or in a constructor in the same class.
In the same way value of “readonly automatically implemented properties” can be assigned in 2 ways
Way1 (at the time of declaration):
public string FirstName { get; } = "Banketeshvar";
Way2 (in a constructor in the same class)
Person()
{
FirstName = "Banketeshvar";
}
Purely ReadOnly Property
If you are looking for purely Readonly property then go for this
public string FullName => "Manish Sharma";
now you cannot assign value of “FullName” propery from constructor.
If you try to do that it will throw the following exceptions
“Property or indexer 'Person.FullName' cannot be assigned to -- it is read only”
Auto property feature was added to the language during C# 3.0 release. It allows you to define a property without any backing field, however you still need to use constructor to initialize these auto properties to non-default value. C# 6.0 introduces a new feature called auto property initializer which allows you to initialize these properties without a constructor like Below:
Previously, a constructor is required if you want to create objects
using an auto-property and initialize an auto-property to a
non-default value like below:
public class MyClass
{
public int Foo { get; }
public Foo(int foo)
{
Foo = foo;
}
}
Now in C# 6.0, the ability to use an initializer with the auto-property
means no explicit constructor code is required.
public string Foo { get; } = "SomeString";
public List<string> Genres { get; } = new List<string> { "Comedy", "Drama" };
You can find more information on this here
A variable declared readonly can be written within a constructor, but in languages which honor the attribute, cannot be modified after the constructor returns. That qualifier was provided as a language feature because it is often necessary for fields whose values will vary based upon constructor parameters (meaning they can't be initialized before the constructor starts) but won't have to change after constructors return, but it was only usable for variables exposed as fields. The semantics of readonly-qualified fields would in many cases have been perfect for public members except that it's often better for classes to expose members--even immutable ones--as properties rather than fields.
Just as read-write auto-properties exist to allow classes to expose mutable properties as easily as ordinary fields, read-only auto-properties exist to allow classes to expose immutable properties as easily as readonly-qualified fields. Just as readonly-qualified fields can be written in a constructor, so too with get-only properties.
(or "Using LocationInterceptionAspect and IInstanceScopedAspect together")
Using Postsharp I'm trying to inject a property into a target class using 'IntroduceMember' and then using the 'OnGetValue' functionality of LocationInterceptionAspect dynamically give it a value on inspection.
Originally I thought that I'd need two separate aspects, one for the field injection and one for the location interception but managed to combine the two by implementing the IInstanceScopedAspect interface and inheriting from LocationInterceptionAspect.
The problem is that if I set a breakpoint I will see the property that's been injected, but if I set another breakpoint in the OnGetValue method (that gets fired for each property on the class) I can't see it...
Here's some sample code:
[Serializable]
class DALDecoratorWrapper : LocationInterceptionAspect, IInstanceScopedAspect
{
public override void OnGetValue(LocationInterceptionArgs args)
{
if (args.LocationName == "Type")
{
args.Value = "computed value here";
}
args.ProceedGetValue();
}
[IntroduceMember(OverrideAction = MemberOverrideAction.OverrideOrFail)]
public String Type { get; set; }
I was also hoping there was a better way of doing this than overriding OnGetValue as that's called for each getter where really I want to only target the getter of the property that's been injected
Cheers
I have a base class ReportElement which has type property:
public abstract class ReportElement {
private ReportElementType type;
public ReportElementType getType() {
return type;
}
public void setType(ReportElementType type) {
this.type = type;
}
}
ReportElementType is just an enum with specified code and i18nKey properties for each element. I have a couple of subclasses of ReportElement, each of them introducing their own properties. One of them is Plot:
public class Plot extends ReportElement {
public Plot() {
setType(ReportElementType.PLOT);
}
private Collection<Parameter> parameters = new ArrayList<Parameter>();
public Collection<Parameter> getParameters() {
return parameters;
}
}
On some page I needed to display a collection of different ReportElement instances, so I just used struts2 select tag:
<s:select list="myElements" listKey="type.code" listValue="type.i18nKey" size="20"/>
This worked like a charm for every element except for Plot instaces. Instead of invoking getType().getCode() or getType().getI18nKey() plain toString() was invoked on every instance of Plot! After several hours of fun debugging I noticed that during tag evaluation Plot's getParameters() method is called! So it seems struts was trying to evaluate type.code and type.i18nKey using getParameters() method! Failing to do that it ignored the existence of the properties, that I have clearly specified for usage!
After renaming getParameters to a kind of odd name like getParamms the problem gone. Also the problem hasn't occured when using iterator tag together with property tag instead of select tag.
Does anyone have an idea WHY struts select tag uses parameters property of my bean, when I have clearly specified what property should be used? Is it some "cool" feature or a bug?
P.S. I use struts 2.2.3.1
The argument used in all the FreeMarker templates representing a tag's parameters is called parameters. By providing a parameters property that takes precedence, S2 was unable to get to the object on the stack containing the tag's parameters.
It's neither a cool feature nor a bug, it's just how the templates are implemented. Checking the template source may have saved the few hours of debugging.
Found corresponding issue in struts JIRA: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/WW-3268
2.3 is specified as fix version.
I have the following class definition whereby the attribute field is hydrated via reflection by NHibernate. The field is not exposed as an object but instead I want to hide it's implementation and just provide properties that reference the properties of the attribute field.
public class CustomerAttribute : ICustomerAttribute
{
private IAttribute attribute;
public string DisplayName
{
get { return attribute.DisplayName;}
}
}
I'm trying to mock this object with RhinoMocks but I'm not sure how to hydrate the attribute field for testing. I've tried setting the attribute field manually via reflection but I get a proxy error from RhinoMocks (which makes sense).
So how do I hydrate the attribute field to I can test the properties of the CustomerAttribute object?
Here is my test right now...
[Test]
public void PropertiesTest()
{
MockRepository mock = new MockRepository();
ICustomerAttribute attribute = mock.StrictMock<ICustomerAttribute>();
//Set the attribute field
FieldInfo fieldInfo = typeof(CustomerAttribute).GetField("attribute",
BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.SetField |
BindingFlags.NonPublic);
fieldInfo.SetValue(attribute, new Domain.Attribute()); //This does not work
Expect.Call(attribute.DisplayName).Return("Postal Code");
mock.ReplayAll();
Assert.AreEqual(true, attribute.DisplayName);
mock.VerifyAll();
}
If CustomerAttribute is your subject under test (SUT) and IAttribute is a dependency that needs to be mocked for testing, IAttribute more than likely needs to be injectable into CustomerAttribute. This should be done either via constructor (usually preferred) or property injection. Look into "Inversion of Control" if you're not familiar with it already.
Also, ICustomerAttribute should NOT be created as a mock--the concrete type should be created explicitly (i.e. "new CustomerAttribute"). After all, CustomerAttribute (the implentation!) is the what you are trying to test.
I am not sure what you are trying to test here. If you want to test your CustomerAttribute class than you need to create an instance of it (instead of mocking ICustomerAttribute).
In order to set the attribute on your CustomerAttribute you could either
Use dependency injection to inject the correct attribute and use it during testing
Use reflection of the real CustomerAttribute instance you created for testing
I have a very simple class called person.
public class Person{
[DataMember(Name="MyName")]
public string Name { get;set;}
}
If I try to serialize or de-serialize, everything works great. In the XML I can see a tag called "MyName" and in the object I see with the VS Intellisense a property called Name.
What I need now is to access, from the object, the serialized name of the property.
For example, I can do object.GetType().GetProperty("Name"); but if I try to do object.GetType().GetProperty("MyName"), the reflection says that the property does not exist. How I can read the serialized name of the property? Is there a way?
It seems that the only way is to access, using reflection, the attributes of the property in this way:
var att = myProperty.GetType().GetAttributes();
var attribute = property.GetCustomAttributes(false)[0] as DataMemberAttribute;
Console.WriteLine(attribute.Name);
This works on both, client and server, without the need of serialize and deserialize the object.