Member access

A member-access consists of a primary-expression or a predefined-type, followed by a "." token, followed by an identifier. member-access : primary-expression.identifierpredefined-type.identifierpredefined-type : one of boolbytechardecimaldoublefloatintlongobjectsbyteshortstringuintulongushort
A member-access of the form E.I, where E is a primary-expression or a predefined-type and I is an identifier, is evaluated and classified as follows: If E is a namespace and I is the name of an accessible member of that namespace, then the result is that member and, depending on the member, is classified as a namespace or a type. If E is a predefined-type or a primary-expression classified as a type, and a member lookup (14.3) of I in E produces a match, then E.I is evaluated and classified as follows: If I identifies a type, then the result is that type. If I identifies one or more methods, then the result is a method group with no associated instance expression. If I identifies a static property, then the result is a property access with no associated instance expression. If I identifies a static field: If the field is readonly and the reference occurs outside the static constructor of the class or struct in which the field is declared, then the result is a value, namely the value of the static field I in E. Otherwise, the result is a variable, namely the static field I in E. If I identifies a static event: If the reference occurs within the class or struct in which the event is declared, and the event was declared without event-accessor-declarations (17.7), then E.I is processed exactly as if I was a static field. Otherwise, the result is an event access with no associated instance expression. If I identifies a constant, then the result is a value, namely the value of that constant. If I identifies an enumeration member, then the result is a value, namely the value of that enumeration member. Otherwise, E.I is an invalid member reference, and a compile-time error occurs. If E is a property access, indexer access, variable, or value, the type of which is T, and a member lookup (14.3) of I in T produces a match, then E.I is evaluated and classified as follows: First, if E is a property or indexer access, then the value of the property or indexer access is obtained (14.1.1) and E is reclassified as a value. If I identifies one or more methods, then the result is a method group with an associated instance expression of E. If I identifies an instance property, then the result is a property access with an associated instance expression of E. If T is a class-type and I identifies an instance field of that class-type: If the value of E is null, then a System.NullReferenceException is thrown. Otherwise, if the field is readonly and the reference occurs outside an instance constructor of the class in which the field is declared, then the result is a value, namely the value of the field I in the object referenced by E. Otherwise, the result is a variable, namely the field I in the object referenced by E. If T is a struct-type and I identifies an instance field of that struct-type: If E is a value, or if the field is readonly and the reference occurs outside an instance constructor of the struct in which the field is declared, then the result is a value, namely the value of the field I in the struct instance given by E. Otherwise, the result is a variable, namely the field I in the struct instance given by E. If I identifies an instance event: If the reference occurs within the class or struct in which the event is declared, and the event was declared without event-accessor-declarations (17.7), then E.I is processed exactly as if I was an instance field. Otherwise, the result is an event access with an associated instance expression of E. Otherwise, E.I is an invalid member reference, and a compile-time error occurs.