CA1024: Use properties where appropriate

Article
04/22/2023

Property	Value
Rule ID	CA1024
Title	Use properties where appropriate
Category	Design
Fix is breaking or non-breaking	Breaking
Enabled by default in .NET 8	No

Cause

A method has a name that starts with Get, takes no parameters, and returns a value that's not an array.

By default, this rule only looks at externally visible methods, but this is configurable.

Rule description

In most cases, properties represent data and methods perform actions. Properties are accessed like fields, which makes them easier to use. A method is a good candidate to become a property if one of these conditions is present:

The method takes no arguments and returns the state information of an object.
The method accepts a single argument to set some part of the state of an object.

How to fix violations

To fix a violation of this rule, change the method to a property.

When to suppress warnings

Suppress a warning from this rule if the method meets one of the following criteria. In these situations, a method is preferable to a property.

The method can't behave as a field.
The method performs a time-consuming operation. The method is perceivably slower than the time that is required to set or get the value of a field.
The method performs a conversion. Accessing a field does not return a converted version of the data that it stores.
The Get method has an observable side effect. Retrieving the value of a field does not produce any side effects.
The order of execution is important. Setting the value of a field does not rely on the occurrence of other operations.
Calling the method two times in succession creates different results.
The method is static but returns an object that can be changed by the caller. Retrieving the value of a field does not allow the caller to change the data that's stored by the field.
The method returns an array.

Suppress a warning

If you just want to suppress a single violation, add preprocessor directives to your source file to disable and then re-enable the rule.

#pragma warning disable CA1024
// The code that's violating the rule is on this line.
#pragma warning restore CA1024

To disable the rule for a file, folder, or project, set its severity to none in the configuration file.

[*.{cs,vb}]
dotnet_diagnostic.CA1024.severity = none

For more information, see How to suppress code analysis warnings.

Configure code to analyze

Use the following option to configure which parts of your codebase to run this rule on.

Include specific API surfaces

You can configure this option for just this rule, for all rules it applies to, or for all rules in this category (Design) that it applies to. For more information, see Code quality rule configuration options.

Include specific API surfaces

You can configure which parts of your codebase to run this rule on, based on their accessibility. For example, to specify that the rule should run only against the non-public API surface, add the following key-value pair to an .editorconfig file in your project:

dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.api_surface = private, internal

Example

The following example contains several methods that should be converted to properties and several that should not because they don't behave like fields.

public class Appointment
{
    static long nextAppointmentID;
    static double[] discountScale = { 5.0, 10.0, 33.0 };
    string? customerName;
    long customerID;
    DateTime when;

    // Static constructor.
    static Appointment()
    {
        // Initializes the static variable for Next appointment ID.
    }

    // This method violates the rule, but should not be a property.
    // This method has an observable side effect. 
    // Calling the method twice in succession creates different results.
    public static long GetNextAvailableID()
    {
        nextAppointmentID++;
        return nextAppointmentID - 1;
    }

    // This method violates the rule, but should not be a property.
    // This method performs a time-consuming operation. 
    // This method returns an array.
    public Appointment[] GetCustomerHistory()
    {
        // Connect to a database to get the customer's appointment history.
        return LoadHistoryFromDB(customerID);
    }

    // This method violates the rule, but should not be a property.
    // This method is static but returns a mutable object.
    public static double[] GetDiscountScaleForUpdate()
    {
        return discountScale;
    }

    // This method violates the rule, but should not be a property.
    // This method performs a conversion.
    public string GetWeekDayString()
    {
        return DateTimeFormatInfo.CurrentInfo.GetDayName(when.DayOfWeek);
    }

    // These methods violate the rule and should be properties.
    // They each set or return a piece of the current object's state.

    public DayOfWeek GetWeekDay()
    {
        return when.DayOfWeek;
    }

    public void SetCustomerName(string customerName)
    {
        this.customerName = customerName;
    }

    public string? GetCustomerName()
    {
        return customerName;
    }

    public void SetCustomerID(long customerID)
    {
        this.customerID = customerID;
    }

    public long GetCustomerID()
    {
        return customerID;
    }

    public void SetScheduleTime(DateTime when)
    {
        this.when = when;
    }

    public DateTime GetScheduleTime()
    {
        return when;
    }

    // Time-consuming method that is called by GetCustomerHistory.
    Appointment[] LoadHistoryFromDB(long customerID)
    {
        ArrayList records = new ArrayList();
        // Load from database.
        return (Appointment[])records.ToArray();
    }
}

Public Class Appointment
    Shared nextAppointmentID As Long
    Shared discountScale As Double() = {5.0, 10.0, 33.0}
    Private customerName As String
    Private customerID As Long
    Private [when] As Date

    ' Static constructor.
    Shared Sub New()
        ' Initializes the static variable for Next appointment ID.
    End Sub

    ' This method violates the rule, but should not be a property.
    ' This method has an observable side effect. 
    ' Calling the method twice in succession creates different results.
    Public Shared Function GetNextAvailableID() As Long
        nextAppointmentID += 1
        Return nextAppointmentID - 1
    End Function

    ' This method violates the rule, but should not be a property.
    ' This method performs a time-consuming operation. 
    ' This method returns an array.
    Public Function GetCustomerHistory() As Appointment()
        ' Connect to a database to get the customer's appointment history.
        Return LoadHistoryFromDB(customerID)
    End Function

    ' This method violates the rule, but should not be a property.
    ' This method is static but returns a mutable object.
    Public Shared Function GetDiscountScaleForUpdate() As Double()
        Return discountScale
    End Function

    ' This method violates the rule, but should not be a property.
    ' This method performs a conversion.
    Public Function GetWeekDayString() As String
        Return DateTimeFormatInfo.CurrentInfo.GetDayName([when].DayOfWeek)
    End Function

    ' These methods violate the rule and should be properties.
    ' They each set or return a piece of the current object's state.

    Public Function GetWeekDay() As DayOfWeek
        Return [when].DayOfWeek
    End Function

    Public Sub SetCustomerName(customerName As String)
        Me.customerName = customerName
    End Sub

    Public Function GetCustomerName() As String
        Return customerName
    End Function

    Public Sub SetCustomerID(customerID As Long)
        Me.customerID = customerID
    End Sub

    Public Function GetCustomerID() As Long
        Return customerID
    End Function

    Public Sub SetScheduleTime([when] As Date)
        Me.[when] = [when]
    End Sub

    Public Function GetScheduleTime() As Date
        Return [when]
    End Function

    ' Time-consuming method that is called by GetCustomerHistory.
    Private Function LoadHistoryFromDB(customerID As Long) As Appointment()
        Dim records As ArrayList = New ArrayList()
        Return CType(records.ToArray(), Appointment())
    End Function
End Class

Control property expansion in the debugger

One reason programmers avoid using a property is because they do not want the debugger to autoexpand it. For example, the property might involve allocating a large object or calling a P/Invoke, but it might not actually have any observable side effects.

You can prevent the debugger from auto-expanding properties by applying System.Diagnostics.DebuggerBrowsableAttribute. The following example shows this attribute being applied to an instance property.

Imports System.Diagnostics

Namespace Microsoft.Samples
    Public Class TestClass
        ' [...]

        <DebuggerBrowsable(DebuggerBrowsableState.Never)> _
        Public ReadOnly Property LargeObject() As LargeObject
            Get
                ' Allocate large object
                ' [...]
            End Get
        End Property
    End Class
End Namespace

using System.Diagnostics;

namespace Microsoft.Samples
{
    class TestClass
    {
        // [...]

        [DebuggerBrowsable(DebuggerBrowsableState.Never)]
        public LargeObject LargeObject
        {
            get
            {
                // Allocate large object
                // [...]
            }
        }
    }
}

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