C# – CS0120: An object reference is required for the non-static field, method, or property ‘System.Web.UI.Control.Controls.get’

Properties expose fields. Fields should (almost always) be kept private to a class and accessed via get and set properties. Properties provide a level of abstraction allowing you to change the fields while not affecting the external way they are accessed by the things that use your class.

public class MyClass
{
    // this is a field.  It is private to your class and stores the actual data.
    private string _myField;

    // this is a property. When accessed it uses the underlying field,
    // but only exposes the contract, which will not be affected by the underlying field
    public string MyProperty
    {
        get
        {
            return _myField;
        }
        set
        {
            _myField = value;
        }
    }

    // This is an AutoProperty (C# 3.0 and higher) - which is a shorthand syntax
    // used to generate a private field for you
    public int AnotherProperty { get; set; } 
}

@Kent points out that Properties are not required to encapsulate fields, they could do a calculation on other fields, or serve other purposes.

@GSS points out that you can also do other logic, such as validation, when a property is accessed, another useful feature.

Try type-safe-enum pattern.

public sealed class AuthenticationMethod {

    private readonly String name;
    private readonly int value;

    public static readonly AuthenticationMethod FORMS = new AuthenticationMethod (1, "FORMS");
    public static readonly AuthenticationMethod WINDOWSAUTHENTICATION = new AuthenticationMethod (2, "WINDOWS");
    public static readonly AuthenticationMethod SINGLESIGNON = new AuthenticationMethod (3, "SSN");        

    private AuthenticationMethod(int value, String name){
        this.name = name;
        this.value = value;
    }

    public override String ToString(){
        return name;
    }

}

Update Explicit (or implicit) type conversion can be done by

• adding static field with mapping

  private static readonly Dictionary<string, AuthenticationMethod> instance = new Dictionary<string,AuthenticationMethod>();
  

  • n.b. In order that the initialisation of the the "enum member" fields doesn't throw a NullReferenceException when calling the instance constructor, be sure to put the Dictionary field before the "enum member" fields in your class. This is because static field initialisers are called in declaration order, and before the static constructor, creating the weird and necessary but confusing situation that the instance constructor can be called before all static fields have been initialised, and before the static constructor is called.

• filling this mapping in instance constructor

  instance[name] = this;
  

• and adding user-defined type conversion operator

  public static explicit operator AuthenticationMethod(string str)
  {
      AuthenticationMethod result;
      if (instance.TryGetValue(str, out result))
          return result;
      else
          throw new InvalidCastException();
  }