Question

Say I have this:

private list<myClass> myCollection;

Is there a programming idiom to shorten this very common statement combination into a single statement? :

   if (myCollection == null)
      myCollection = new list<myCollection>();

   myCollection.Add(someInstanceOfMyClass);

The idiom could be described as “create if necessary, then add to it”

TIA.

Answer 1

Why not simply create at declaration?:

private readonly List<myClass> myCollection = new List<myCollection>(); 

Instantiating a single list is not a time or memory consuming thing. (Might be different if you had thousands of these and wanted lazy instantiation).