C# NET 3.5 : Property or indexer cannot be assigned to “--” it is read only

Question

I have a readonly property:

public CollectionView View { get; }

and I am trying to initialize it from the class constructor:

public MyClass()
{
   this.View = ......
}

But the error described in the title is appearing. I am using NET 3.5 on Visual Studio 2008. I remember that in later versions of .NET and Visual Studio a readonly property could be initialized/assigned only from the constructor. Is it not possible in .NET 3.5? If not, how can I do this in .NET 3.5? I mean, I want a readonly property and only be assigned once in the constructor.

Answer 1

In C# 3.0 they didn't add special handling for read-only autoproperties so you must do it the old way:

public class MyClass {
    private readonly CollectionView _View;
    public CollectionView View { get { return _View; } }

    public MyClass() {
        this._View = ...;
    }
}