CA2227: Collection properties should be read only

An externally visible writable property is a type that implements System.Collections::ICollection. Arrays, indexers (properties with the name 'Item'), and permission sets are ignored by the rule.

A writable collection property allows a user to replace the collection with a completely different collection. A read-only property stops the collection from being replaced but still allows the individual members to be set. If replacing the collection is a goal, the preferred design pattern is to include a method to remove all the elements from the collection and a method to re-populate the collection. See the Clear and AddRange methods of the System.Collections::ArrayList class for an example of this pattern.

Both binary and XML serialization support read-only properties that are collections. The System.Xml.Serialization::XmlSerializer class has specific requirements for types that implement ICollection and System.Collections::IEnumerable in order to be serializable.

To fix a violation of this rule, make the property read-only and, if the design requires it, add methods to clear and re-populate the collection.

Do not suppress a warning from this rule.

The following example shows a type with a writable collection property and shows how the collection can be replaced directly. Additionally, the preferred manner of replacing a read-only collection property using Clear and AddRange methods is shown.

using namespace System;
using namespace System::Collections;

namespace UsageLibrary
{
   public ref class WritableCollection
   {
   public:
      // Violates the rule.
      property ArrayList^ SomeStrings;

      WritableCollection()
      {
         SomeStrings = gcnew ArrayList(
            gcnew array<String^> {"IEnumerable", "ICollection", "IList"} );
      }
   };
}

using namespace UsageLibrary;

void main()
{
   ArrayList^ newCollection = gcnew ArrayList(
      gcnew array<String^> {"a", "new", "collection"} );

   // strings is directly replaced with newCollection.
   WritableCollection^ collection = gcnew WritableCollection();
   collection->SomeStrings = newCollection;

   // newCollection is added to the cleared strings collection.
   collection->SomeStrings->Clear();
   collection->SomeStrings->AddRange(newCollection);
}

CA1819: Properties should not return arrays