C# 3.0 Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition

Classes

A class is the most common kind of reference type. The simplest possible class declaration is as follows:

	class YourClassName
	{
	}

A more complex class optionally has:

preceding the keyword class	attributes and class modifiers. The non-nested class modifiers are public, internal, abstract, sealed, static, unsafe, and partial
following YourClassName	generic type parameters, a base class, and interfaces
within the braces	class members (these are methods, properties, indexers, events, fields, constructors, operator functions, nested types, and a finalizer)

Fields

A field is a variable that is a member of a class or struct. For example:

	class Octopus
	{
	  string name;
	  public int Age = 10;
	}

A field may have the readonly modifier to prevent it from being modified after construction. A read-only field can be assigned only in its declaration or within the enclosing type’s constructor.

Field initialization

Field initialization is optional. An uninitialized field has a default value (0, \0, null, false). Field initializers run before constructors:

	string name = "anonymous";

Declaring multiple fields together

For convenience, you may declare multiple fields of the same type in a comma-separated list. This is a convenient way for all the fields to share the same attributes and field modifiers. For example:

	static readonly int legs = 8, eyes = 1;

Methods

A method performs an action in a series of statements. A method can receive input data from the caller by specifying parameters, and output ...