What's the proper way to create a global array constant?

Question

I have done some searching, but haven't found much. At the moment I am using:

class GlobalArrays
{
    public static string[] words = { "Easy", "Medium", "Hard" };
    public static Color[] backColors = { Color.LightGreen, Color.Orange, Color.Red };
}

Which works well, but I don't know if it is the correct way to do it. I've seen global variables done like this:

static class GlobalVars
{
    const string SOMETHING = "LOL";
}

Which is supposedly the Microsoft approved way of declaring namespace level constants, but when I tried that with arrays, it threw an error, saying they could only be of type string.

static class GlobalArrays
{
    public const string[] words = { "Easy", "Medium", "Hard" };
    public const Color[] backColors = { Color.LightGreen, Color.Orange, Color.Red };
}

The above code won't compile, and says they can only be initialized with null, because they are of a type that is not string.

Could you post the code that throws an error?

David Pilkington
– David Pilkington

2014-12-12 05:45:55 +00:00
Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 5:45 — David Pilkington
– David Pilkington, Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 5:45

danielnixon · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-12 06:10:48Z

3

According to the compiler:

A const field of a reference type other than string can only be initialized with null.

I think this is about as close as you're going to get:

private static readonly string[] words = { "Easy", "Medium", "Hard" };
public static IReadOnlyCollection<string> Words
{
    get
    {
        return Array.AsReadOnly(words);
    }
}

edited Dec 12, 2014 at 6:10

answered Dec 12, 2014 at 5:50

danielnixon

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2 Comments

shree.pat18 Over a year ago

Note that the values of array elements can still be changed individually by any method that can access it.

danielnixon Over a year ago

@shree.pat18 That's why I've hidden it behind a ReadOnlyCollection.

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