Compiler Error CS0052

Inconsistent accessibility: field type 'type' is less accessible than field 'field'

The type of a field cannot be less accessible than the field itself because all public constructs must return a publicly accessible object.

Example

The following sample generates CS0052:

// CS0052.cs
public class MyClass2
{
    // The following line causes an error because the field, M, is declared
    // as public, but the type, MyClass, is private. Therefore the type is 
    // less accessible than the field.
    public MyClass M;   // CS0052

    private class MyClass
    {
    }
    // One way to resolve the error is to change the accessibility of the type
    // to public. 
    //public class MyClass
    // Another solution is to change the accessibility of the field to private.
    // private MyClass M;
}

    public class MainClass
    {
        public static void Main()
        {
        }
    }

See Also

Reference

C# Keywords

Access Modifiers (C# Reference)

Accessibility Levels (C# Reference)

Modifiers (C# Reference)

Change History

Date	History	Reason
July 2009	Added explanation to the example.	Customer feedback.