Question

Let’s say I have a parent/child-relationship ob objects and try to create a parent object inline (I’m not really sure that’s the right word). Is it possible to reference the created parent in its own creation code?

Parent = new Parent(
{
    Name = "Parent",
    Child= new Child(/*ReferenceToParent*/)
});

Answer 1

The only way round this would be for the Parent constructor to call the Child constructor itself and pass in this. Your object initializer (which is what I assume you’re trying to do) could then set other properties on the child:

public class Parent
{
    public Child Child { get; private set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public Parent()
    {
        Child = new Child(this);
    }
}

public class Child
{
    private readonly Parent parent;
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public Child(Parent parent)
    {
        this.parent = parent;
    }
}

Then:

Parent parent = new Parent
{
    Name = "Parent name",
    // Sets the Name property on the existing Child
    Child = { Name = "Child name" }
};

I would try to avoid this sort of relationship though – it can get increasingly tricky as time goes on.