What is the c# equivalent of this weird VB syntax for property?

Question

I found the following syntax as a VB.NET property and I'm trying to convert it to c#, but I'm not sure how to accomplish that.

Public Property SomeText(ByVal someEnumThing as SomeEnum) As String
    Get
        Select Case someEnumThing
            //figure out what string to return
        End Select
    End Get
    Set(ByVal Value as String)
        Select Case someEnumThing
            //figure out what string to set
        End Select
    End Set
End Property

I've never seen a property done like this before, any ideas?

Answer 1

Hmm... maybe the switch statement?

Answer 2

The Select Case will be a switch statement. Is that what you are specifically referring to?

EDIT: here's what I was referring to in my comment to @Lucero's answer to get close to the VB.NET syntax.

private SomeEnum SomeEnumThing { get; set; }
public string SomeText {
    get {
        switch (SomeEnumThing) {
        //figure out what string to return
        }
    }
    set {
        switch (SomeEnumThing) {
        //figure out what string to set
        }
   }

}

Answer 3

I guess you're referring to the arguments for the property. Well, as far as I know, C# only supports them for indexers, which cannot have a name (e.g. this[SomeEnum someEnumThing] {}).

If you want to get a similar behavior, you can create a helper class with an indexer property and use it to expose the "name" of the property:

public class YourClass {
 public struct SomeTextProperty {
  private readonly YourClass owner;

  internal SomeTextProperty(YourClass owner) {
   this.owner = owner;
  }

  public string this[SomeEnum someEnumThing] {
   get {
    return owner.GetSomeText(someEnumThing);
   }
   set {
    owner.SetSomeText(someEnumThing, value);
   }
  }
 }

 public SomeTextProperty SomeText {
  get {
   return new SomeTextProperty(this);
  }
 }

 private string GetSomeText(SomeEnum someEnumThing) {
  // implementation to get it
 }

 private void SetSomeText(SomeEnum someEnumThing, string value) {
  // implementation to set it
 }
}

Answer 4

It is impossible to create a Property in C# which has arguments, unless it's the default property:

public double this[int index]
{
  get {...}
  set {...}
}

Just one of those areas where VB differs from C#. It is not recommended to use syntax like this since you will not be able to use that property from a C# project that references this assembly.

Answer 5

If you're talking about the fact that the property is parameterized...

There's no direct translation for this in c# that I know of. Basically this is carryover from VB6 where you could make this weird quasi-collection property for a class. The easiest way to get similar functionality is to create a dictionary object and either publicly expose it or create an accessor. Where the VB code accesses this property like Class.SomeText("SomeKey") your C# code will become Class.SomeDictionaryProperty["SomeKey"]

Unfortunately this still isn't quite the same since the collection accessor won't be able to "see" the index value. This has been a minor source of frustration for me as well in the past coming from a VB background.