Property procedures vs. fields

[Andrew J. Marshall]

If I have a class Fool with an attribute Bark implemented as a field

Public Class Fool
Public Bark As Boolean
End Class

and I want to "upgrade" it to be implemented as a property procedure

Public Class Fool
Protected MyBark As Boolean
Public Property Bark() As Boolean
Get
Return Me.MyBark
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As Boolean)
Me.MyBark = Value
End Set
End Property
End Class

, will this cause any problems for consumers of my class?

--
Andrew J. Marshall
MCP (Visual Basic)
Fairfax, VA

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

* "Andrew J. Marshall" <An*************@ObjectVision.netANTISPAMDEVICE> scripsit:

Public Class Fool
Public Bark As Boolean
End Class

and I want to "upgrade" it to be implemented as a property procedure

Public Class Fool
Protected MyBark As Boolean
Public Property Bark() As Boolean
Get
Return Me.MyBark
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As Boolean)
Me.MyBark = Value
End Set
End Property
End Class

, will this cause any problems for consumers of my class?

What problems would you expect? Changing the interface of the class?

--
Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]
<http://www.mvps.org/dotnet>

[Rob Windsor [MVP]]

Andrew,

The "upgraded" (using property procedure) version is the preferred (best
practice) method. Also, in certain cases you cannot data bind to a public
field so you need to implement a property procedure.

Just a note, the suggested naming convention for your protected field would
be "_bark"

--
Rob Windsor [MVP-VB]
G6 Consulting
Toronto, Canada
"Andrew J. Marshall" <An*************@ObjectVision.netANTISPAMDEVICE> wrote
in message news:Ol**************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

If I have a class Fool with an attribute Bark implemented as a field

Public Class Fool
Public Bark As Boolean
End Class

and I want to "upgrade" it to be implemented as a property procedure

Public Class Fool
Protected MyBark As Boolean
Public Property Bark() As Boolean
Get
Return Me.MyBark
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As Boolean)
Me.MyBark = Value
End Set
End Property
End Class

, will this cause any problems for consumers of my class?

--
Andrew J. Marshall
MCP (Visual Basic)
Fairfax, VA

[Andrew J. Marshall]

Yes, an interface/binary compatibility issue. The object browser seems to
know if an attribute was coded as a field or a property, and that made me a
little nervous.
--
Andrew J. Marshall
MCP (Visual Basic)
Fairfax, VA

"Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]" <hi***************@gmx.at> wrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

* "Andrew J. Marshall" <An*************@ObjectVision.netANTISPAMDEVICE>

scripsit:

Public Class Fool
Public Bark As Boolean
End Class

and I want to "upgrade" it to be implemented as a property procedure

Public Class Fool
Protected MyBark As Boolean
Public Property Bark() As Boolean
Get
Return Me.MyBark
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As Boolean)
Me.MyBark = Value
End Set
End Property
End Class

, will this cause any problems for consumers of my class?

What problems would you expect? Changing the interface of the class?

--
Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]
<http://www.mvps.org/dotnet>