Implementing property with get and set?

Question

In 1 of my classes, I have an property ImageNames that I want to get and set. I tried adding set but it doesn't work. How do I make this property settable?

public string[] ImageNames
{
            get
            {
                return new string[] { };
            }

            //set; doesn't work
}

Answer 1

You typically would want a backing field:

private string[] imageNames = new string[] {};
public string[] ImageNames
{
        get
        {
            return imageNames;
        }

        set
        {
            imageNames = value;
        }
 }

Or use an auto-property:

 public string[] ImageNames { get; set; }

That being said, you may want to just expose a collection which allows people to add names, not replace the entire list of names, ie:

 private List<string> imageNames = new List<string>();
 public IList<string> ImageNames { get { return imageNames; } }

This would allow you to add names and remove them, but not change the collection itself.

Answer 2

You'll need a variable to set, if you want to set anything to your string[].

Like this:

   private string[] m_imageNames;

   public string[] ImageNames 
   {
       get {
           if (m_imageNames == null) {
                m_imageNames = new string[] { };
           } 
           return m_imageNames;
       }
       set {
           m_imageNames = value;
       }
   }

Also, these are called properties, not attributes. An attribute is something you can set on a method or class or property that will transform it in some way. Example:

 [DataMember]     // uses DataMemberAttribute
 public virtual int SomeVariable { get; set; }

Answer 3

Just use an auto property

public string[] ImageNames { get; set;}

Read here

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x9fsa0sw.aspx