Properties should not be write only

The public or protected property has a set accessor but does not have a get accessor.

Get accessors provide read access to a property and set accessors provide write access. While it is acceptable and often necessary to have a read-only property, the design guidelines prohibit using write-only properties because allowing a user to set a value, and then preventing the user from viewing the value does not provide any security. Also, without read access, the state of shared objects cannot be viewed, which limits their usefulness.

To fix a violation of this rule, add a get accessor to the property. Alternatively, if the behavior of a write-only property is necessary, consider converting this property to a method.

It is strongly recommended that you do not exclude a warning from this rule.

In the following example, BadClassWithWriteOnlyProperty is a type with a write-only property. GoodClassWithReadWriteProperty contains the corrected code.

using System;

namespace DesignLibrary
{
   public class BadClassWithWriteOnlyProperty
   {
      string someName;

      // Violates rule PropertiesShouldNotBeWriteOnly.
      public string Name 
      { 
         set 
         { 
            someName = value; 
         } 
      }
   }

   public class GoodClassWithReadWriteProperty
   {
      string someName;

      public string Name 
      { 
         get 
         { 
            return someName; 
         } 
         set 
         { 
            someName = value; 
         } 
      }
   }
}