Properties Vs Public Variables

Today I was testing out the XmlSerializer to see how it dealt with variables instead of properties.

I tried to read an XML file directly into code, and which was the most convenient:

XML

<myclass>
     <Number1></Number1>
     <Text1>Hello!</Text1>
     <Decimal1>1.35262646464</Decimal1>
</myclass>

And now, lets see the 2 examples of source code

Version 1:


public class MyClass
{
      public int Number1;
      public string Text1;
      public decimal Decimal1;
}



Version 2:


public class MyClass
{
      private int number1;
      public int Number1 { get { return number1; } set { number1 = value; }
    
      private string text1;
      public string Text1{ get { return text1; } set { text1= value; }

      private decimal decimal1;
      public decimal Decimal1{ get { return decimal1; } set { decimal1 = value; }
}



In my opinion, if you are purely reading and writing XML, and that for all your variables you are allowing read/write access, you should use public variables. Unfortuantely, as stubborn as I am, there are reasons to use properties, which I'll reference here.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000654.html

In summary, when reflecting through a class, public variables are accessed differently to properties. Also, changing public variables to public properties is a breaking change to code.

I recommend reading it thoroughly as it is a good argument!!