Hide a property in class for Form1?

Question

Hey there!

I have this situation:
class A
dim test as B = new B()
test.open = true
test.color = color.black
end class

class B
public property open as boolean
public property color as color
end class

Very simple and common situation. But this property "color" is like a intern value, I dont want to show this info. But if I convert to private I cant anymore access this value in class A.
Is important to know that this class A is a custonControl in Form1. So is here where I want to hide. If in Form I create dim teste as B = new B() so I can access teste.color but will be very good to avoid problens hide only the color property. Hide to Form1 because in Class A I keeping need to read or qrite it.

Thank you

Answer 1

Hi @Alexandre Bisewski ,
After setting the color as a private property in class B, add two public methods getColor() and setColor().
In this way, the color property cannot be accessed directly.
Then you can read and write the color attributes in class A through the getColor() and setColor() methods of class B.

Class A  
    Dim test As B = New B  
    test.setColor(Color.Black)  
    Dim col = test.getColor  
End Class  
  
Class B  
    Public Property open As Boolean  
Private Property color As Color  
  
    Public Function getColor()  
        Return Me.color  
    End Function  
  
    Public Sub setColor(ByVal color As Color)  
        Me.color = color  
    End SubEnd Class  
End Class  

Hope the code above could be helpful.
If I have any misunderstanding, please let me know.

Best Regards.
Jiachen Li
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Answer 2

If B is a specific internal helper class that must not be used by other classes, then consider this approach:

• Add a new project to your solution: “Class Library” (or “Windows Forms Control Library” if A is a User Control).
• In your main project, add a project reference to new library.
• Define A and B inside the new library; remove A and B from your main project.
• Use the following definition of B:   Public Class B
     Public Property open As Boolean
     Friend Property color As Color
    End Class

You can also use Friend for the whole class B. Check the usage of access modifiers: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/visual-basic/programming-guide/language-features/declared-elements/access-levels.