Using a private auto property instead of a simple variable for a programming standard

Private auto-properties are completely pointless, in my opinion. What value does a private auto-property provide that a plain field doesn't?

(It's different when the auto-property is only partially private -- eg, a public/protected getter with a private setter -- or when you use a private non-automatic property to enable you to wrap additional code around the getter/setter.)

This does not make too much sense.

I can think of a 'benefit':

• you can later add logic to the getter and/or setter and be sure it is always passed

but frankly your classes should not become so big that this is useful.

"are there any issues" ?

Your properties won't work as arguments to ref or out parameters.

It's not nearly as useful for privates as for publics.

Suppose you took your automatic private property and later built some logic into it (being able to do that without breaking anything is the whole point of auto props)...

This would require you to create a private backing member for the property to wrap.

So now you've got two different private ways (member and property) of doing the same thing though one has hidden side effects (the property) and you've now also got the problem of ensuring none of your other methods in the class access that member directly.

Ends up being much more of a headache than just using a private member from the beginning.