When to use get; set; in c#

Question

I\'m failing to understand what the difference is between initializing a variable, getting its value like this:

 //define a local variable.
   int i;

   i=          


        

Answer 1

The syntax you are describing is known as an auto property.

Before the syntax was introduced in .NET 2.0, we created a property like so:

int _myVar;
int MyVar
{
    get { return _myVar; }
    set { _myVar = value; }
}

.NET 2.0 introduced the shorthand syntax, allowing the compiler to automatically create the backing variable (_myVar in my example above)

int MyVar
{
    get;
    set;
}

The key difference between setting a variable and a property such as this is that we can control the getting and setting of the property (read only properties, or a function call whenever a value is set to the property, for example.)