C# 5.0 in a Nutshell, 5th Edition

Chapter 3. Creating Types in C#

In this chapter, we will 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, 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

The readonly modifier

The readonly modifier prevents a field 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, ...