Should I always/ever/never initialize object fields to default values?

Question

Code styling question here.

I looked at this question which asks if the .NET CLR will really always initialize field values. (The answer is yes.) But it strikes me that I'm not sure that it's always a good idea to have it do this. My thinking is that if I see a declaration like this:

int myBlorgleCount = 0; 

I have a pretty good idea that the programmer expects the count to start at zero, and is okay with that, at least for the immediate future. On the other hand, if I just see:

int myBlorgleCount; 

I have no real immediate idea if 0 is a legal or reasonable value. And if the programmer just starts reading and modifying it, I don't know whether the programmer meant to start using it before they set a value to it, or if they were expecting it to be zero, etc.

On the other hand, some fairly smart people, and the Visual Studio code cleanup utility, tell me to remove these redundant declarations. What is the general consensus on this? (Is there a consensus?)

I marked this as language agnostic, but if there is an odd case out there where it's specifically a good idea to go against the grain for a particular language, that's probably worth pointing out.

EDIT: While I did put that this question was language agnostic, it obviously doesn't apply to languages like C, where no value initialization is done.

EDIT: I appreciate John's answer, but it is exactly what I'm not looking for. I understand that .NET (or Java or whatever) will do the job and initialize the values consistently and correctly. What I'm saying is that if I see code that is modifying a value that hasn't been previously explicitly set in code, I, as a code maintainer, don't know if the original coder meant it to be the default value, or just forgot to set the value, or was expecting it to be set somewhere else, etc.

Answer 1

Think long term maintenance.

• Keep the code as explicit as possible.
• Don't rely on language specific ways to initialize if you don't have to. Maybe a newer version of the language will work differently?
• Future programmers will thank you.
• Management will thank you.
• Why obfuscate things even the slightest?

Update: Future maintainers may come from a different background. It really isn't about what is "right" it is more what will be easiest in the long run.