Auto Property Initializer: A New Feature of C# 6.0

To make the set accessor available only to code within the class, we can use the private access modifier. The property will appear to be read-only when accessed from outside of the defined (where the property is defined with a private set accessor) class.

• When the declaration and assignment of the get accessor and set accessor are in a single class, we can easily initialize the values using the setter accessor in that class.

  using System;
  namespace CSharpFeatures
  {
      public class AutoProperty
      {
          public string Name { get; private set; } = "Amit Sharma";
  
          public static void Main(string[] args)
          {
              AutoProperty ap = new AutoProperty();
              ap.Name = "Abhishek Arora";
              Console.WriteLine("Name= {ap.Name}"); // prints Abhishek Arora
              Console.ReadKey();
          }
      }
  }
  

• When the declaration and assignment of the get accessor and set accessor are in a different class we are unable to initialize the values using a setter accessor in another class except where they are declared.

  using System;
  namespace CSharpFeatures
  {
      public class AutoProperty
      {
          public string Name { get; private set; } = "Amit Sharma";
      }
  
      public class exec
      {
          public static void Main(string[] args)
          {
              AutoProperty ap = new AutoProperty();
              ap.Name = "Abhishek Arora";                  // Error   
              Console.WriteLine("Name= \{ap.Name}");
              Console.ReadKey();
          }
      }
  }
  

  

Demo Application using Visual Studio 2013.

using System;
namespace CSharpFeatures
{
    public class Studentdetails
    {
        private string _name;

        public string Name
        {
            get { return this._name; }
            set { this._name = value; }
        }
        private string _address;
        public string Address
        {
            get { return this._address; }
            set { this._address = value; }
        }
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Studentdetails Student1 = new Studentdetails();
            Student1.Name = "Amit Sharma";
            Student1.Address = "Delhi";
            Console.WriteLine("\n Student1");
            Console.WriteLine(" Name= {0}", Student1.Name);
            Console.WriteLine(" Address= {0}", Student1.Address);
            Studentdetails Student2 = new Studentdetails
            {
                Name = "Vijay Verma",
                Address = "New Delhi"
            };

            Console.WriteLine("\n Student2");
            Console.WriteLine(" Name= {0}", Student2.Name);
            Console.WriteLine(" Address= {0}", Student2.Address);
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

Output

Demo Application using Visual Studio 2015 Preview.

using System;
namespace CSharpFeatures
{
    public class Studentdetails
    {
        public string Name { get; set; } = "Amit Sharma";
        public string Address { get; set; } = "Delhi";

        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Studentdetails Student1 = new Studentdetails();
            Console.WriteLine(nameof(Student1));
            Console.WriteLine(" Name= \{Student1.Name}");
            Console.WriteLine(" Address= \{Student1.Address} ");
            Studentdetails Student2 = new Studentdetails
            { Name = "Vijay Verma", Address = "New Delhi" };
            Console.WriteLine("\n");
            Console.WriteLine(nameof(Student2));
            Console.WriteLine(" Name= \{ Student2.Name}");
            Console.WriteLine(" Address= \{ Student2.Address} ");
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

Output

Summary

In this article, we learned how to initialize the Auto Property Initializer without using a constructor and can be initialized where they are declared. I hope you liked this feature of C# 6.0. Don't forget to read my other articles on the series " A new feature of C# 6.0". Share your opinion about this feature and how will you use it in your project. Your comments are most welcome. Happy Coding!