Question

This is easy to work around, but I just curious if I could be using a language feature or possibly the fact that the language disallows it means I’m making a logical error in class design.

I’m doing a self review of my code to help “harden” it for re-use and I just came accross:

public partial class TrackTyped : Component
{
    IContainer components = null;

    public TrackTyped()
        : base()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    public TrackTyped(IContainer container)
        : base()
    {
        container.Add(this);
        InitializeComponent();
    }
}

What I usually do when I see the same line of code in two constructors is make one call the other with “this()” but I can’t seem to do it.

If I read the spec right (I just started trying to read the spec so I may not be right):

10.11 Instance Constructors
   constructor-declarator:
      identifier   (   formal-parameter-listopt   )   constructor-initializeropt
   constructor-initializer:
      :   base   (   argument-listopt   )
      :   this   (   argument-listopt   )

It’s saying I can only have one of those.

QUESTION: is 10.11 implying that there’s no reason to need to call both or is it simply implying that the language only supports calling one?

Answer 1

There is no need to call both, because this redirects to another constructor that will call base.