Serial Port communication in C#

[C# Programming]

I am trying to start with serial port communication using C# for my project. So even though i am familiar with the C# language i am new into I/O Port communication and i seem to be having some problem with my code

using System; using System.IO.Ports; class Program { public static void Main () { string portName = @"\\.\COM10"; _serialPort = new SerialPort (portName); _serialPort.Close (); } }

i am getting an error : Error 1 The name '_serialPort' does not exist in the current context c:\users\alfie\documents\visual studio 2012\Projects\serial\serial\Serial_port.cs

Someone pls help me get started with this. .

Also i have tested with the following code and verified that the COM10 port is working and is of type "char"

class Program { static void Main (string[] args) { string portName = @"\\.\COM10"; IntPtr handle = CreateFile (portName, 0, 0, IntPtr.Zero, 3, 0x80, IntPtr.Zero); if(handle == (IntPtr) (-1)) { Console.WriteLine ("Could not open " + portName + ": " + new Win32Exception ().Message); Console.ReadKey (); return; } FileType type = GetFileType (handle); Console.WriteLine ("File " + portName + " reports its type as: " + type); Console.ReadKey (); } [DllImport ("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall, SetLastError = true)] public static extern IntPtr CreateFile (string lpFileName, uint dwDesiredAccess, uint dwShareMode, IntPtr SecurityAttributes, uint dwCreationDisposition, uint dwFlagsAndAttributes, IntPtr hTemplateFile); [DllImport ("kernel32.dll")] static extern FileType GetFileType (IntPtr hFile); enum FileType : uint { UNKNOWN = 0x0000, DISK = 0x0001, CHAR = 0x0002, PIPE = 0x0003, REMOTE = 0x8000, } }