If statement to set minimum wage in C#

Question

I'm trying to set up a property in a constructor that will store a minimum value of 7.50m when any value less than it is entered. The attributes have already been declared, I just need help with this if statement, everything compiles but when a value is entered < 7.5, it doesn't work...

public decimal PayRate
{
    get
    {
        return payRate;
    }

    set
    {  
        if (value <= 7.50m)
            payRate = 7.50m;
        else
            payRate = value;
    }
}

EDIT: Here's the code that enters the values... EDIT 2: The code following the namespace declaration, I can't change anything but add a property. It didn't get formatted.

static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Employee e1 = new Employee("Chevy", "Jack", 'A', "987654321", 1.20m); }

And the namespace where everything is defined.

    public Employee(string lName, string fName, char mi, string ss, decimal pay)
    {
        firstName = fName;
        lastName = lName;
        MiddleInitial = mi;
        SSN = ss;
        payRate = pay;
    }

Looks like it works fine to me. Under what conditions is it failing? — Daniel Mann, Feb 15 '12 at 04:01
Are you sure you are assigning the Property PayRate and not the member variable payRate in your Constructor? That's all I can think of since you didn't say how it is not working. — Bojin Li, Feb 15 '12 at 04:03
Related: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9165836/is-the-property-accessor-mutator-getter-setter-the-right-place-to-enforce-acce — Anthony Pegram, Feb 15 '12 at 04:04
@BojinLi Good catch. That's *exactly* why I try to keep logic out of properties. — Daniel Mann, Feb 15 '12 at 04:05

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 18 '16 at 08:30

I assume that you are having something like this.

    private decimal payRate;
    public decimal PayRate
    {
        get { return payRate; }
        // i avoid use of "if else" in situations like these
        set { payRate = (value <= 7.50m) ? 7.50m : value; }
    }

Which should work fine when you assign

    PayRate=6.5m // or any value less than 7.5

but if you assign

    payRate=6.5m // this won't work because you are assigning value directly to private  property.

this won't work because you are assigning value directly to private property.

Edit: Your set accessor won't get invoked if you set

    payRate=pay

inside the constructor. You can remove pay from the constructor argument and set it later once you create an instance of Employee.

    // create employee 
    Employee e1 = new Employee("Ford", "Joe", 'S', "123456789");

    // set the pay here
    e.PayRate=1.75m;   // this will invoke the set accessor and set value to 7.5m

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 19 '12 at 21:56

Your setter is broken by design. A setter should either set the property to the assigned value, or throw an exception.

You should write:

public static readonly Decimal MinimumWage = 7.50m;

...

set
{  
    if(value<=MinimumWage)
      throw new ArgumentException(string.Format("Wage {0} must be at least the minimum wage of {1}",value,MinimumWage));
    payRate = value;
}

If statement to set minimum wage in C#

2 Answers2