C# 4.0 Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition

Classes

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

class Foo
{
}

Optionally, a more complex class has the following:

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 is optional. An uninitialized field has a default value (0, \0, null, false). Field initializers run before constructors, in the order in which they appear.

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 data back to the caller by specifying a return type ...