Question

I trying to understand why a non-nullable string initializes to null instead of an empty string. For example:

//Property of class foo
public string Address_Notes { get; set; }

//Create instance of foo
foo myFoo = new foo();

//Get value of Address_Notes
var notesValue = myFoo.Address_Notes; //Returns null

Am I crazy to think that a non-nullable string’s value should default to String.Empty? Is there a standard way of forcing this behavior, other than a custom getter?

Answer 1

There is no such thing as a “non-nullable string”.

String is a reference type, so its default value is indeed a null.

You could get around the issue by setting the value to String.Empty in the constructor for your class (foo).