C# Classes

Reading

A class represents a custom data type that allows us to store both state (properties) and behavior (methods) together.

Declaring a class with properties

This declares a class with three properties, Name, Age, and HungerLevel.


class Cat
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int Age { get; set; }
    public int HungerLevel { get; set; }
}

Instantiating an object from a class


var kitty = new Cat();

In this case kitty.Name will be null, kitty.Age will be 0, and kitty.HungerLevel will be 0. Since we did not provide any values for these properties when we made a new Cat.

Instantiating an object and providing values for properties


var kitty = new Cat() {
  Name = "Fluffy",
  Age = 3,
  HungerLevel = 5
};

In this case kitty.Name will be "Fluffy", kitty.Age will be 3, and kitty.HungerLevel will be 5.

Providing a default value for a property

If a property should default to a value we can specify it in the class.


class Cat
{
    public string Name { get; set; } = "Unknown Cat";
    public int Age { get; set; }
    public int HungerLevel { get; set; } = 3;
}


var kitty = new Cat();

In this case kitty.Name will be "Unknown Cat", kitty.Age will be 0, and kitty.HungerLevel will be 3.

Declaring a class with properties and methods

If all cats have the behavior that every time they play, their hunger increases by 3 we can implement that as a method on the class.


class Cat
{
    public string Name { get; set; } = "Unknown Cat";
    public int Age { get; set; }
    public int HungerLevel { get; set; } = 3;
    public void Play()
    {
      HungerLevel += 3;
    }
}


var kitty = new Cat() {
  Name = "Fluffy",
  Age = 3,
  HungerLevel = 5
};
kitty.Play();
kitty.Play();

At this point kitty.HungerLevel would be 11 (5 + 3 + 3).

Declaring a property that can be null

As we saw above the default value for a string is null but for an int it is 0. We can indicate that we allow null values for the int by appending it with a ?.

NOTE: This is often useful when declaring classes that will be populated from a database or JSON where a column or field is null in the input.


class Cat
{
    public string Name { get; set; } = "Unknown Cat";
    public int? Age { get; set; }
    public int HungerLevel { get; set; } = 3;
}


var kitty = new Cat()

In this case kitty.Age would be null, not 0.

Constructors

The other way to create new instances of an object is by specifying and requiring a constructor. A constructor is a method with the same name as the class which is called when we use new Cat (or the class name). We get a default constructor for free just by declaring the class. We can change the implementation of that default constructor, or add more constructors that take specific names.


class Cat
{
    public Cat() {
      Name = "Fluffy";
      Age = 3;
      HungerLevel = 5;
    }
    public Cat(string newName)
    {
      Name = newName;
      Age = 3;
      if (newName == "Hungry Cat")
      {
        HungerLevel = 100;
      }
      else
      {
        HungerLevel = 5;
      }
    }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int? Age { get; set; }
    public int HungerLevel { get; set; }
}

In this case:


var theHungryKitty = new Cat("Hungry Cat");
var regularCat = new Cat();

The value of theHungryKitty.HungerLevel will be 100 while regularCat.HungerLevel will be 5.

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