Question: I figured I would ask... but is there a way to have the Get part of a property available as public, but keep the set as private?

Otherwise I am thinking I need two properties or a property and a method, just figured this would be cleaner.

Answer: 
```
    Public Property Name() As String
        Get
            Return _name
        End Get
        Private Set(ByVal value As String)
            _name = value
        End Set
   End Property

```
If you are using VS2010 or later it is even easier than that

```
Public Property Name as String

```

You get the private properties and Get/Set completely for free!

see this blog post: [Scott Gu's Blog](http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/automatic-properties-collection-initializers-and-implicit-line-continuation-support-with-vb-2010)