# Accessor methods and property syntax in .NET **URL:** \ **Category:** IronRuby\ **Created:** [September 7, 2010, 10:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessor-methods-and-property-syntax-in-net/194569 "2010-09-07T10:37:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Davy_B)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 10:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessor-methods-and-property-syntax-in-net/194569/1 "2010-09-07T10:37:08Z")
Hi all, IronRuby has a nice trick where attributes defined by attr\_reader, attr\_accessor and attr\_writer are usable as properties from C#… i was just wondering: is it possible to use the same trick in our own ruby code? or can anyone just point me in the right direction as to where in the IronRuby source code i could find where this is being done? I have accessor methods that really need to do something specific and ideally, i’d like them be usable as properties in .NET since it leads to a much nicer syntax in C# brs, Davy ---
**Author:** ![Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Davy_B)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 11:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessor-methods-and-property-syntax-in-net/194569/2 "2010-09-07T11:06:25Z")
You can just define them as attr\_accessors and then implement the methods class Foo attr\_accessor :bar, :baz def bar=(val) # do more stuff here for example @bar = val end def bar @bar end end ---
**Author:** ![Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Davy_B)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 11:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessor-methods-and-property-syntax-in-net/194569/3 "2010-09-07T11:14:01Z")
if i do that, calling bar as a property like this: var value = myObject.bar; leads to ‘value’ being an instance of IronRuby.BuiltIns.RubyMethod, and not the value that is in the @bar instance field which i’m using 1.1 btw, not sure how this would behave on 1.0 from looking at the IronRuby source code, it looks like i need to find a way to change the RubyMemberInfo for a given accessor method to RubyAttributeReaderInfo or RubyAttributeWriterInfo ---
**Author:** ![Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Davy_B)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 11:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessor-methods-and-property-syntax-in-net/194569/4 "2010-09-07T11:56:11Z")
your solution does however work for the assignment accessor… in fact, you can do something like this: class Foo attr\_reader :bar def bar=(val) # do more stuff here for example @bar = val end end and then you can do the following in C#: var value = myObject.bar; myObject.bar = someOtherValue; for my specific scenario, i think i can actually get by with just overriding the assignment accessor but the thing i’m wondering is: is the current behavior actually a bug? and will this behavior be preserved in future releases? ---
**Author:** ![Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Davy_B)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 2:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessor-methods-and-property-syntax-in-net/194569/5 "2010-09-07T14:47:44Z")
Actually, we discussed this about a month ago: [http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/ironruby-core/2010-July/007154.html](http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/ironruby-core/2010-July/007154.html) [http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/ironruby-core/2010-July/007154.html](http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/ironruby-core/2010-July/007154.html)The outcome was that a feature request was added to allow for C# properties to be defined using getter/setter in ruby. I was going to look at implementing it… got into a bit, and had a baby… Haven’t looked at it since. B ---
**Author:** ![Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Davy_B)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 2:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessor-methods-and-property-syntax-in-net/194569/6 "2010-09-07T14:57:06Z")
Hey Brian, i saw that thread, but didn’t really see a definitive answer as to how to work around it until it’s implemented (though i might’ve missed it), which is why i thought i’d raise the question again 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Davy_B)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 2:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessor-methods-and-property-syntax-in-net/194569/7 "2010-09-07T14:57:06Z")
Beware! Contributing to the IronRuby source code might result in having babies!!! 🙂 Congratulations Brian! ---
**Author:** ![Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Davy\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Davy_B)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 11:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessor-methods-and-property-syntax-in-net/194569/8 "2010-09-09T11:05:36Z")
I love how he just tossed that off like it happens to everybody. “Yeah, I know, I was committing this source patch, but all of a sudden there was this crying squalling thing in my lap that needed a diaper changed. WTF is up with that? . I know! Seriously! I thought good code wasn’t supposed to have side effects?!? I kept looking to ROLLBACK, but sonuvagun, wouldn’t you know it…” Congrats, Brian. Ted Neward Java, .NET, XML Services Consulting, Teaching, Speaking, Writing [http://www.tedneward.com](http://www.tedneward.com) From: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [[mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)] On Behalf Of Shay F. Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 5:57 AM To: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid Subject: Re: [Ironruby-core] accessor methods and property syntax in .NET Beware! Contributing to the IronRuby source code might result in having babies!!! 🙂 Congratulations Brian! On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 3:47 PM, Brian G. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: Actually, we discussed this about a month ago: [http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/ironruby-core/2010-July/007154.html](http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/ironruby-core/2010-July/007154.html) The outcome was that a feature request was added to allow for C# properties to be defined using getter/setter in ruby. I was going to look at implementing it… got into a bit, and had a baby… Haven’t looked at it since. B On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 5:55 AM, Davy B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: your solution does however work for the assignment accessor… in fact, you can do something like this: class Foo attr\_reader :bar def bar=(val) ``` # do more stuff here for example @bar = val ``` end end and then you can do the following in C#: var value = myObject.bar; myObject.bar = someOtherValue; for my specific scenario, i think i can actually get by with just overriding the assignment accessor but the thing i’m wondering is: is the current behavior actually a bug? and will this behavior be preserved in future releases? On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 11:13 AM, Davy B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: if i do that, calling bar as a property like this: var value = myObject.bar; leads to ‘value’ being an instance of IronRuby.BuiltIns.RubyMethod, and not the value that is in the @bar instance field which i’m using 1.1 btw, not sure how this would behave on 1.0 from looking at the IronRuby source code, it looks like i need to find a way to change the RubyMemberInfo for a given accessor method to RubyAttributeReaderInfo or RubyAttributeWriterInfo On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 11:01 AM, Ivan Porto Carerro [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: You can just define them as attr\_accessors and then implement the methods class Foo attr\_accessor :bar, :baz def bar=(val) ``` # do more stuff here for example @bar = val ``` end def bar ``` @bar ``` end end On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 10:36 AM, Davy B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: Hi all, IronRuby has a nice trick where attributes defined by attr\_reader, attr\_accessor and attr\_writer are usable as properties from C#… i was just wondering: is it possible to use the same trick in our own ruby code? or can anyone just point me in the right direction as to where in the IronRuby source code i could find where this is being done? I have accessor methods that really need to do something specific and ideally, i’d like them be usable as properties in .NET since it leads to a much nicer syntax in C# brs, Davy * * * Ironruby-core mailing list removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ironruby-core](http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ironruby-core) * * * Ironruby-core mailing list removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ironruby-core](http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ironruby-core) * * * Ironruby-core mailing list removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ironruby-core](http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ironruby-core)