C# 0 The Complete Reference

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lock

 is discussed in detail in Chapter 23.

readonly

You can create a read-only field in a class by declaring it as 

readonly

. A 

readonly

 field can 

be given a value only by using an initializer when it is declared or by assigning it a value 

within a constructor. Once the value has been set, it can’t be changed outside the constructor. 

Thus, a 

readonly

 field is a good way to create a fixed value that has its value set by a 

constructor. For example, you might use a 

readonly

 field to represent an array dimension 

that is used frequently throughout a program. Both static and non-static