C# Class Members

C# Class Members

Fields and methods inside a class are often referred to as Class Members.

• Fields: Variables declared within a class. They store the data or state of the object.
• Methods: Functions defined within a class. They represent the actions or behaviors the object can perform.

Fields

You have already seen fields in previous examples. They are variables declared directly inside the class body.

using System;

class Car 
{
  // Class members (fields)
  string color = "red";
  int maxSpeed = 200;
  static void Main(string[] args) 
  {
    Car myObj = new Car();
    Console.WriteLine(myObj.color);
    Console.WriteLine(myObj.maxSpeed);
  }
}

You can also leave fields uninitialized (blank), and assign values to them when you create the object:

using System;

class Car 
{
  public string color;
  public int maxSpeed;
  static void Main(string[] args) 
  {
    Car myCar = new Car();
    // Accessing and modifying fields using dot syntax
    myCar.color = "blue";
    myCar.maxSpeed = 250;
    Console.WriteLine("My car color is " + myCar.color);
    Console.WriteLine("Max speed is " + myCar.maxSpeed);
  }
}

Notice we used the public keyword before the fields. We will discuss this in detail in the Access Modifiers lesson, but it simply allows the fields to be accessed from outside the class!

Object Methods

Methods are used to perform certain actions. Methods normally belong to a class, and they define how an object of that class behaves.

Just like with fields, you can access methods using the dot syntax (.).

using System;

class Car 
{
  public string color = "red";
  // A class method
  public void Honk() 
  {
    Console.WriteLine("Beep beep!");
  }
  static void Main(string[] args) 
  {
    Car myCar = new Car();
    // Calling the method
    myCar.Honk(); 
  }
}

This code will output: Beep beep!