Interface Properties (C# Programming Guide)
Properties can be declared on an interface. The following example declares an interface property accessor:
public interface ISampleInterface
{
// Property declaration:
string Name
{
get;
set;
}
}
Interface properties typically don't have a body. The accessors indicate whether the property is read-write, read-only, or write-only. Unlike in classes and structs, declaring the accessors without a body doesn't declare an automatically implemented property. An interface can define a default implementation for members, including properties. Defining a default implementation for a property in an interface is rare because interfaces can't define instance data fields.
Example
In this example, the interface IEmployee
has a read-write property, Name
, and a read-only property, Counter
. The class Employee
implements the IEmployee
interface and uses these two properties. The program reads the name of a new employee and the current number of employees and displays the employee name and the computed employee number.
You could use the fully qualified name of the property, which references the interface in which the member is declared. For example:
string IEmployee.Name
{
get { return "Employee Name"; }
set { }
}
The preceding example demonstrates Explicit Interface Implementation. For example, if the class Employee
is implementing two interfaces ICitizen
and IEmployee
and both interfaces have the Name
property, the explicit interface member implementation is necessary. That is, the following property declaration:
string IEmployee.Name
{
get { return "Employee Name"; }
set { }
}
Implements the Name
property on the IEmployee
interface, while the following declaration:
string ICitizen.Name
{
get { return "Citizen Name"; }
set { }
}
Implements the Name
property on the ICitizen
interface.
interface IEmployee
{
string Name
{
get;
set;
}
int Counter
{
get;
}
}
public class Employee : IEmployee
{
public static int numberOfEmployees;
private string _name;
public string Name // read-write instance property
{
get => _name;
set => _name = value;
}
private int _counter;
public int Counter // read-only instance property
{
get => _counter;
}
// constructor
public Employee() => _counter = ++numberOfEmployees;
}
System.Console.Write("Enter number of employees: ");
Employee.numberOfEmployees = int.Parse(System.Console.ReadLine());
Employee e1 = new Employee();
System.Console.Write("Enter the name of the new employee: ");
e1.Name = System.Console.ReadLine();
System.Console.WriteLine("The employee information:");
System.Console.WriteLine("Employee number: {0}", e1.Counter);
System.Console.WriteLine("Employee name: {0}", e1.Name);
Sample output
Enter number of employees: 210
Enter the name of the new employee: Hazem Abolrous
The employee information:
Employee number: 211
Employee name: Hazem Abolrous