Renamed c# class and now I can't access the public const variables in that class

Question

I renamed one of my c# classes and now I can't access the 'public const byte' variables in that class. I renamed it in the solution explorer and when it asked if I would like to perform a rename in the project of all references to the code element 'className' I selected 'Yes'.

The error message I'm getting is: "Member 'Namespace1.Class1.CONSTANT_NUM' cannot be accessed with an instance reference; qualify it with a type name instead".

Everything else in the class works (i.e. the methods and non-const fields) but I don't know why I'm not able to access the public const fields any longer?? Any ideas?

Answer 1

A constant is associated with a particular type, rather than a particular instance (considered static).

Your error message is telling you that you're trying to access a const from a particular class instance, rather than a type.

So if your class was:

public class Class1()
{
    public const int MY_INT = 5;
}

You may well be trying to do this somewhere in your code:

Class1 thisInstance = new Class1();
Console.WriteLine(thisInstance.MY_INT); // Will cause an error.

What you probably want to be doing is this:

Console.WriteLine(Class1.MY_INT);

Edit: It might be the case that before the error, your instance name was the same as your type name, and the compiler couldn't infer what you meant.