Assignment in constructor vs direct assignment

Question

a basic question popped in my head this morning. Here it is:

Is there any difference between doing this:

public class MyClass
{
    private object _myField = new object();

    ...
}

and doing the following:

public class MyClass
{
    private object _myField;

    public MyClass()
    {
        _myField = new object();
    }

    ...
}

Answer 1

Yes, in the first, the field is initialized before the constructor call. In the second, the field is initialized during the constructor call.

Answer 2

Just to demonstrate casperOne's point...

using System;

public abstract class BaseClass
{
    public BaseClass()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Result for {0}: {1}", GetType(),
                          CalledByConstructor());
    }

    protected abstract string CalledByConstructor();
}

public class VariableInitializer : BaseClass
{
    private string foo = "foo";

    protected override string CalledByConstructor()
    {
        return foo;
    }
}

public class ConstructorInitialization : BaseClass
{
    private string foo;

    public ConstructorInitialization()
    {
        foo = "foo";
    }

    protected override string CalledByConstructor()
    {
        return foo;
    }
}


public class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        new VariableInitializer();
        new ConstructorInitialization();
    }
}

Here the base class constructor calls an abstract method implemented in the child class - this means we get to see the state of the object before its constructor body starts executing. The results are here:

Result for VariableInitializer: foo
Result for ConstructorInitialization:

As you can see, the variable initializer has already executed - but in the case where initialization only occurs in the constructor body, foo still has its default value of null.

Calling virtual methods from constructors is generally a very bad idea for precisely this sort of reason.