Anand Narayanaswamy (view profile) September 27, 2002

By Anand Narayanaswamy

A class is the fundamental topic to be discussed in any Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) language. This also is true with C#. Basically, we have to discuss the meaning of class with reference to an object also. This is because these two words are more or less interrelated. A class is a combination of related objects whereas each object is an instance or a copy of the corresponding class.

Classname objectname = new Constructor();

Telephone T= new Telephone();

Click here for a larger image.

Figure 1 - Structure of a Class

To access any variable by using the above object name, we use the dot operator as shown in Listing 3:

Listing 3

using System;
class Access
{
  //Variables declared outside the main.
  int x = 100;
  int y = 200;

  public static void Main()
  {
    //Object created
    Access a = new Access();

    //Instance variables called
    Console.WriteLine(a.x);
    Console.WriteLine(a.y);
  }
}

In Listing 3, the variables are declared outside the main method. Hence, they are called Instance Variables. You have to create an object only for accessing an Instance variable. The additional memory created out of the object creation are automatically destroyed by the C# Garbage Collector.

Methods

In this session, we will deal with Methods. The various types of methods will be discussed in detail.

Methods are blocks of code that perform some kind of action, or carry out functions such as printing, opening a dialog box, and so forth. There are two kinds of methods in C#, as there are in Java. They are:

• Instance Method
• Static Method

Let's discuss each of these in detail. Instance Methods are methods declared outside the main method and can be accessed only by creating an object of the corresponding class, as shown in Listing 4:

Listing 4

using System;
class Instmethod
{
  //Method declared outside the main.
  void show()
  {
    int x = 100;
    int y = 200;
    Console.WriteLine(x);
    Console.WriteLine(y);
  }

  public static void Main()
  {
    //Object created
    Instmethod a = new Instmethod ();

    //Instance method called
    a.show();
  }
}

Class methods also are declared outside the main method but can be accessed without creating an object of the class. They should be declared with the keyword static and can be accessed using the classname.methodname syntax. This is illustrated in Listing 5. Similarly, you also can create class variables.

Listing 5

using System;
class Statmethod
{
  //A class method declared
  static void show()
  {
    int x = 100;
    int y = 200;
    Console.WriteLine(x);
    Console.WriteLine(y);
  }

  public static void Main()
  {
    // Class method called without creating an object of the class
    Statmethod.show();
  }
}

Declaring Methods with Parameters

You can declare methods with a variable name or names as a parameter, as shown in Listing 6:

Listing 6

void display(int x) { }

At the time you access the method, you should pass a value to the same, as in the code snippet shown in Listing 7:

Listing 7

//object S created
S.display(50);

The complete code to illustrate the above concept is shown in Listing 8:

Listing 8

using System;
class Pmethod
{
  //Method declared with two parameters x and y of type integer
  void show(int x , int y)
  {
    Console.WriteLine(x);
    Console.WriteLine(y);
  }

  public static void Main()
  {
    //Object created
    Pmethod a = new Pmethod ();

    //Method called by passing two integer values
    a.show(200,250);
  }
}

Method Overloading

In the preceding example, we declared a single method with a single parameter. But you can declare the signature of the same method once again in the same class but with different parameters. The parameters should be different. If not, the C# compiler would show errors. Listing 9 clearly explains this concept.

Listing 9

using System;
class Overloadmethod
{

  //Method declared with one integer parameter
  void show(int x)
  {
    Console.WriteLine(x);
  }

  //Method declared with two integer parameters
  void show(int a, int b)
  {
    Console.WriteLine(a);
    Console.WriteLine(b);
  }

  public static void Main()
  {
    //Object created
    Overloadmethod a = new Overloadmethod ();

    //Methods called by passing respective values
    a.show(100);
    a.show(300,500);
  }
}

Properties

Properties provide added functionality to the .NET Framework. Normally, we use accessor methods to modify and retrieve values in C++ and Visual Basic. If you have programmed using Visual Basic's ActiveX technology, this concept is not new to you. Visual Basic extensively uses accessor methods such as getXXX() and setXXX() to create user-defined properties.

A C# property consists of:

• Field declaration
• Accessor Methods (getter and setter methods)

Getter methods are used to retrieve the field's value and setter methods are used to modify the field's value. C# uses a special Value keyword to achieve this. Listing 10 declares a single field named zipcode and shows how to apply the field in a property.

Listing 10

using System;
class Propertiesexample
{

  //Field "idValue" declared
  public string idValue;

  //Property declared
  public string IdValue
  {

    get
    {
      return idValue;
    }
    set
    {
      idValue = value;
    }
  }

  public static void Main(string[] args)
  {

    Propertiesexample pe = new Propertiesexample();
    pe.IdValue = "009878";
    string p = pe.IdValue;
    Console.WriteLine("The Value is {0}",p);
  }
}

If you look at the MSIL generated by the code in Listing 10, you can view two methods, as shown in Listing 11:

Listing 11

Address::get_Zip() and Address::set_Zip().

We have reproduced the code for your reference. On careful scrutiny, you can see that the set_zip() method takes a string argument. This is because we have passed a string value while accessing the property. It's illegal to call these methods directly in a C# program.

In the preceding code, the Address.zipcode property is considered a read and write property because both getter and setter methods are defined. If you want to make the property read-only, omit the set block and to make it write only, omit the get block.

About the Author

Anand Narayanaswamy works as a freelance Web/Software developer and technical writer. He runs and maintains learnxpress.com, and provides free technical support to users. His areas of interest include Web development, software development using Visual Basic, and in the design and preparation of courseware, technical articles, and tutorials. He can be reached at anand@learnxpress.com.

About the Author

Anand Narayanaswamy (Microsoft MVP) is a freelance writer for Developer.com and Codeguru.com. He works as an independent consultant and runs NetAns Technologies (http://www.netans.com)which provides affordable web hosting services. He is the author of Community Server Quickly (http://www.packtpub.com/community-server/book). Anand also runs LearnXpress.com (http://www.learnXpress.com) and Dotnetalbum.com (http://www.dotnetalbum.com) and regularly contributes product and book reviews for various websites. He can be reached at ananddotnet@yahoo.co.in

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