Global Variables/Classes in C#

Setting Global Variable in Web.Config is indeed very good practise. Alternativly, you can even Set up Session variables at different stage.

You can set Session["Name"] variable inside your application anywhere. & they will be available to your application from anywhere. If you want something to initialize at StartUp then you can write your code in Global.asax file.

Another good thing about Session variable is they are objects. So, you can store anything inside Session variable.. starting from string, integer, Array to even DataSet or DataView.

ex.
  Session["Name"] = "Tushar";

  string strName = Session["Name"].ToString();


-tushar

both comments are only for web apps.

using the app.config / web.config is only an option if the value is constant. if it will change, you should use a separate class with a public property. this way you can change the value throughout the application. if you want to save the changes (for instance have a list of recently opened documents), you can save it to a database, or file on the local system.

separate class with a public property... store to a database.... file on the local system....

Please read the question first

msdixon, that is the worst answer yet I heard on EE.

This is not a web application.  

I do not want to create a new instance of the class in every form, or read the data from a database or file on every form instance.  I would like to have an instance of a class that can be used on any form that the application opens.  

For example, if I have a class called "AppSettings", I would like to have one instance of this class available to all the different forms in the project for them to read from.

Thanks for the comments so far.  Hopefully this clarified things up a bit better.

I appreciate that.  However, that's not quite the ticket, either.  I will need to be able to modify certain things in this class, so all the properties in it will not be able to be static.  They also need to be set dynamically, so yeah....

OK... the variable doesn't have to be static, for instance:

public class AppSettings
{
public static string adminEmail = "test@testing.com";
public string location = "Earth";  //NOT STATIC

//etc
}

somewhere else in your other class

AppSettings.location = "Mars";

after this line is executed, AppSettings.location will be "Mars" to every other class.

servicegroup,

your comments have a lot of weight considering the high number of points you have.


all,

and i was not saying to read from the file / database every time the value was requested. i was saying when the app starts, read it from the external source, and when the app is closing, save the data. this is a much better way of doing things IF THE VALUE MIGHT CHANGE, otherwise it's better to use the app.config file since you won't have to re-compile in order to change the data. i'm sorry i wasn't clear enough for you two intelectual giants. the question wasn't very clear either.

i'll be quiet now so you ladies can work it out. this should be fun.

servicegroup, that is what I was looking for.

Now.... for future reference, what do I need to know regarding any security issues or stability issues with this sort of thing?

I don't think you can change the app.config settings within a program.

eh?

Also, it looks like the variables do have to be declared static to be able to reference them statically.  It makes sense, but yeah, the code you listed above isn't quite correct for the "location" string.

If that's what you are looking for, the best way is to have methods that get or change them for stability

public class AppSettings
{
private static string adminEmail = "test@testing.com";
private static string location = "Earth";  //NOT STATIC

public static string getadminEmail() //only get for email
{
return adminEmail;
}

public static string getlocation() //get for location
{
return location;
}

public static void setlocation(string newlocation) //set for location
{
location = newlocation;
}
//etc
}

Yep, already there, thanks :)

I was just wondering what you were talking about with the "app.config" stuff....

App.config is the win app version of web.config, How to use it as follow, but the main issue with app.config is that you CANNOT change the values within the application.

Here's how to add it:
Right click on your C# solution(Not the very top one) -> add New Item -> The last item is Application configuration -> that will give you the App.config file

From there, you can add configuration settings, such as

<appSettings>
     <add key="adminEmail" value="admin@admin.com"/>
</appSettings>

and

In the csharp side

using System.Configuration; //place this line before the namespace declearation

string admin = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["adminEmail"]; //after this, the variable admin will have the value "admin@admin.com"