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Introducing the C# Class Type

As far as the .NET platform is concerned, the most fundamental programming construct is the class

type. Formally, a class is a user-defined type that is composed of field data (often called member

variables) and members that operate on this data (such as constructors, properties, methods,

events, and so forth). Collectively, the set of field data represents the “state” of a class instance (oth-

erwise known as an 

object). The power of object-based languages such as C# is that by grouping

data and related functionality in a class definition, you are able to model your software after entities

in the real world.

To get the ball rolling, create a new C# Console Application named SimpleClassExample. Next,

insert a new class file (named Car.cs) into your project using the Project ➤ Add Class menu selec-

tion, choose the Class icon from the resulting dialog box as shown in Figure 5-1, and click the Add

button.

A class is defined in C# using the class keyword. Here is the simplest possible declaration:

class Car

{

}

Once you have defined a class type, you will need to consider the set of member variables that

will be used to represent its state. For example, you may decide that cars maintain an int data type

to represent the current speed and a string data type to represent the car’s friendly pet name. Given

these initial design notes, update your Car class as follows:

class Car

{