Question

I saw a lot of code with the following structure:

public void Blah()
{
    int a = 0;
    string b = "";
    DateTime c = DateTime.MinValue;
    bool d = false;
    // ...More initializations with dummy values

    // Overwrite the values in a, b, c, d, e.g. a = ReturnInt();

    // Do calculations, reading the values from a, b, c, d, like DoCalculations(a);
}

In general I much prefer something like:

public void Blah()
{
    int a = GetInt();
    string b = GetString();
    DateTime c = GetDateTime();
    bool d = GetBool();

    // Do calculations, reading the values from a, b, c, d, like DoCalculations(a);
}

Is that really necessary and will there any performance hits due to the extra initializations?

Answer 1

Variables should be initialized before use only if that use is a read if you are going to overwrite it immediately after initialization, it is better to follow the 2nd style you show, mainly for readability purposes, I expect performance hit (from style #1) if any would be typically minimal.