C# 9.0 in a Nutshell

Chapter 3. Creating Types in C#

In this chapter, we delve into types and type members.

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 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 and constraints, a base class, and interfaces.
Within the braces	Class members (these are methods, properties, indexers, events, fields, constructors, overloaded operators, nested types, and a finalizer).

This chapter covers all of these constructs except attributes, operator functions, and the unsafe keyword, which are covered in Chapter 4. The following sections enumerate each of the class members.

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;
}

Fields allow the following modifiers:

Static modifier	static
Access modifiers	public internal private protected
Inheritance modifier	new
Unsafe code modifier	unsafe
Read-only modifier	readonly
Threading modifier	volatile

There are two popular naming conventions for private fields: camel-cased (e.g., firstName) and camel-cased with an underscore (_firstName). The latter convention lets you instantly distinguish private fields from parameters and local ...