Initialization expression in c#

Question

I have the following line of code

int i = (i = 20);

and it sets the value of i to 20. Now my question is, are the two statements same ?

int a = 0;

int i = (a = 20);

and

int a = 0;

int i = a = 20;

Both the statements will set the values as i = 20 and a = 20. What's the difference?

If they are same then why are there braces for equating the value?

Answer 1

From MSDN:

The assignment operators are right-associative, meaning that operations are grouped from right to left. For example, an expression of the form a = b = c is evaluated as a = (b = c).

Answer 2

Yes, those two are the same - but I would strongly discourage you from initializing variables like this. I would much rather see:

int a = 0;
// Whatever the intervening code is

a = 20;
int i = a;