Proposal: Keyword property access to backing field

[jademinear]

Problem

Consider the following auto-property:

public int MyProperty
{
    get;
    set;
}

MyProperty.get() returns a hidden backing store. Modifying the get() and set() methods of a property is a common practice. However, doing so requires that we declare a new backing store:

private int myVar;

public int MyProperty
{
    get { return myVar; }
    set { myVar = value; }
}

Rarely, if ever, will the backing store be directly accessed through code in a way that adds any additional functionality when the access modifier is private. How about exposing the hidden field of a property with the keyword field , to avoid writing unnecessary code when modifying the get() and set() of a property?

public int MyProperty
{
    get { return field; }
    set { field = value; }
}

Modified properties are declared often enough that this should warrant some quicker and cleaner alternatives, right?

[Joe4evr]

Duplicate of #140

[jnm2]

Using a backing field without naming it was considered in https://github.com/dotnet/csharplang/blob/master/meetings/2020/LDM-2020-04-01.md