Question

Are there any differences between the following two ways of field initialization? When to use which one?

First way

public class Class1
{
   private SomeClass someclass;

   public Class1()
   {
       someclass = new SomeClass(some arg);
   }
}

Second way

public class Class1
{
   private SomeClass someclass = new SomeClass(some arg);
}

The field in the second example could be readonly.

Answer 1

You cannot make use of the this keyword when initializing fields inline. The reason for this is the order in which the code is executed: for all intents and purposes, the code to initialize a field inline is run before the constructor for the class (i.e. the C# compiler will prevent access to the this keyword). Basically what that means is this will not compile:

public class Class1
{
   private SomeClass someclass = new SomeClass(this);

   public Class1()
   {
   }
}

but this will:

public class Class1
{
   private SomeClass someclass;

   public Class1()
   {
       someclass = new SomeClass(this);
   }
}

It’s a subtle difference, but one worth making a note of.

The other differences between the two versions are only really noticeable when using inheritance. If you have two classes which inherit from each other, the fields in the derived class will be initialized first, then the fields in the base class will be initialized, then the constructor for the base class will be invoked, and finally, the constructor for the derived class will be invoked. There are some cases where you need to be very careful with this, as it could cause a fruit salad of complications if you don’t realise what is going on (one of which involves calling a virtual method inside the base class constructor, but that is almost never a wise move). Heres an example:

class BaseClass
{
    private readonly object objectA = new object(); // Second
    private readonly object objectB;

    public BaseClass()
    {
        this.objectB = new object(); // Third
    }
}

class DerivedClass : BaseClass
{
    private object objectC = new object(); // First
    private object objectD;

    public DerivedClass()
    {
        this.objectD = new object(); // Forth
    }
}

You will need to set breakpoints on all of the lines that initialize fields to be able to see the correct sequence.