Are static indexers not supported in C#?

c# .net clr
Kilhoffer picture Kilhoffer · Sep 30, 2008 · Viewed 8.3k times · Source

I've been trying this a few different ways, but I'm reaching the conclusion that it can't be done. It's a language feature I've enjoyed from other languages in the past. Is it just something I should just write off?

Answer

Jon Skeet picture Jon Skeet · Sep 30, 2008

No, static indexers aren't supported in C#. Unlike other answers, however, I see how there could easily be point in having them. Consider:

Encoding x = Encoding[28591]; // Equivalent to Encoding.GetEncoding(28591)
Encoding y = Encoding["Foo"]; // Equivalent to Encoding.GetEncoding("Foo")

It would be relatively rarely used, I suspect, but I think it's odd that it's prohibited - it gives asymmetry for no particular reason as far as I can see.

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