Property Procedures vs. fields
Both properties and fields store and retrieve information in an object. At times, their similarity can make it difficult to determine which one is a better programming choice in a given case.
Use property procedures when:
- You need to control how and when a value is set or retrieved.
- Setting the value causes some change in the object’s state, such as a visible property.
- Setting the property causes changes to other internal variables or to the values of other properties.
- The property has a well-defined set of values that need to be validated.
- A set of steps must be performed before the property can be set or retrieved.
Use fields when:
- The value is of a self-validating type. For example, an error or automatic data
conversion occurs if a value other than
TrueorFalseis assigned to a*Booleanvariable. - The property is a
*Stringdata type, and there are no constraints on the size or value of the string.