Forbid public Add and Delete for a List

Question

in my C#-project, I have a class which contains a List

public class MyClass
{
  public MyClass parent;
  public List children;
  ...
}
         


        

Answer 1

You can encapsulate the list in the class by making it private, and offer it as a ReadOnlyCollection:

public class MyClass {

  public MyClass Parent { get; private set; };

  private List _children;

  public ReadOnlyCollection Children {
    get { return _children.AsReadOnly(); }
  }

  public void AddChild(MyClass item) {
    item.Parent = this;
    _children.Add(item);
  }

  public void DeleteChild(MyClass item) {
    item.Parent = null;
    _children.Remove(item);
  }

}

You can make the Parent a property with a private setter, that way it can't be modified from the outside, but the AddChild and DeleteChild methods can change it.