How to implement a DateTime entity property to set always DateTime.Now

Question

I've read a bunch about auto implemented properties but I still don't quite get it. I have and entity: ``` public class News { public int NewsId { get; set; } public string Title { get; set; } public string Content { get; set; } public DateTime Date { get; set; } } ``` Now I don't want the user to set date himself every time a new entity of `News` type is created. I want the record to be saved automatically with the datetime it's created. Thinking about it I suggest that it's enough to just modify the `set` for my property to something like : ``` public DateTime Date { get; set { Date = DateTime.Now; } } ``` But reading about the topic I saw that the standard way is to create private variable and use it instead in the implementation. That's where I get a little bit lost. ``` private DateTime _date = null; public DateTime Date { ``` Well I'm not sure for the getter and setter implementations. It seems reasonable to have something like : `set { _date = DateTime.Now;}` and I have no idea…

Accepted Answer

Some ways to return the current date:

```
 public DateTime Date { get { return DateTime.Now; } }
```

or

```
 public class News
 {
    public News()
    {
       Date = DateTime.Now;
    }
    public DateTime Date { get; private set; }
 }
```

The first one will always return the current date/time, even if that instance was created some time ago. The second one will return the date/time the instance was created. Both prevent the user from setting that Date value.

How to implement a DateTime entity property to set always DateTime.Now

Solution

Problem