Get private string from different class

Question

I need to get a private string from a class, and count the frequency of words in the string.

the counting is the easy part... the bit I am struggling with is getting the string from the second class.

Heres what I am trying to get

public class GetString
{
  private string myText = "this is the string that i need to get"         
  private string text;

  public GetString()
  {
    text = myText
  }

any and all help would be very much appreciated. I am also told I cannot edit this class

How did you tried getting the string?You could return your private string from your getString() method — Joseph, Jul 31 '15 at 07:29
It's not realy clear what you want to achieve. Can you provide your try and the expected result? — take, Jul 31 '15 at 07:32
im beign told, I cannot edit this class where the string is held — Simon Price, Jul 31 '15 at 07:34
Could you add some more information about where you are trying to get it? the obvious answer would be to make it a property with a private setter but if you can't change the class thats not possible.. — Sayse, Jul 31 '15 at 07:35
`getString` as class-name? Seriously? Bad idea. Whoever designed this class should not have the right to tell you to NOT change it. — MakePeaceGreatAgain, Jul 31 '15 at 07:36

Alex Booker · Answer 1 · 2015-07-31T07:42:14.060

5

You have three options in my view:

You can make myText public.
You can return myText from another public member, preferably a property.
You can access the value via reflection (see: How to get the value of private field in C#?).

edited Jul 31 '15 at 07:42

answered Jul 31 '15 at 07:32

Alex Booker

10,487
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A 4th option is to apply an interface to that class, and cast an instance to that interface that exposes the property. – Matthew Abbott Jul 31 '15 at 07:37

BugFinder · Answer 2 · 2015-07-31T07:34:21.760

1

This seems rather fundemental, you have nothing in your getString class returning the string. Try something like

public class getString
{
  private string myText = "this is the string that i need to get"

  public String getString()
  {
    return myText
  }

getString a = new getString();
String hiddenString = a.getString();

edited Jul 31 '15 at 07:34

answered Jul 31 '15 at 07:31

BugFinder

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I believe he was referring to the original class created by the user. His answer is legit, given the context. It would be better to question the original user's choice of wording – Draken Jul 31 '15 at 07:33
Edited to fix the () and no, I dont approve of the OP's function name, I was just making it work (btw Im female!) – BugFinder Jul 31 '15 at 07:35
Im being told that I cannot edit the class, the class in this question is a mock of what i have to work with – Simon Price Jul 31 '15 at 07:37
1

Apologies, should have used they for gender neutrality! – Draken Jul 31 '15 at 07:38

Salah Akbari · Answer 3 · 2015-07-31T07:45:48.630

1

Use Properties (property is a member that provides a flexible mechanism to read, write, or compute the value of a private field.):

public string MyText
{
    get { return myText; }
    private set { myText = value; }
}

edited Jul 31 '15 at 07:45

answered Jul 31 '15 at 07:32

Salah Akbari

39,330
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It should be a private string, so the setter should have a private setting and is set from within the class – Draken Jul 31 '15 at 07:39

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 31 '15 at 07:34

It seems that your getString class (by the way - bad naming a class with lowercase letter) contains a text property. If this property is public you can use it to get the string. If it is not public, there might be a method that exposes it. Your code is not complete, so it cannot be said for certain.

If there are no public properties or methods that expose the string, then the only way to get is through reflection

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 31 '15 at 07:38

You cannot use the constructor for this purpose. Try this:

public class Foo
{
    private string myText = "this is the string that i need to get";

    public Foo()
    {
    }

    public String GetString()
    {
        return this.myText;
    }
}

Every method should either have the void keyword or the return type, which is in your case a String.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 31 '15 at 07:40

To follow on from @Petrichor, you could also potentially use interfaces:

public interface IHasText
{
  string GetPrivateText();
}

public class GetString : IHasText
{
  private string myText = "this is the string that i need to get";

  string IHasText.GetPrivateText()
  {
    return myText;
  }
}

var val = new GetString();
var asInterface = (IHasText)val;

string text = asInterface.GetPrivateText();

Get private string from different class

6 Answers6