Static constructor not working for structs

Question

Env.: C#6, Visual Studio 2015 CTP 6

Given the following example:

namespace StaticCTOR
{
  struct SavingsAccount
  {
      // static members

      public static double currInterestRate = 0.04;

      static SavingsAccount()
      {
          currInterestRate = 0.06;
          Console.WriteLine("static ctor of SavingsAccount");
      }
      //

      public double Balance;
  }

  class Program
  {
      static void Main(string[] args)
      {
          SavingsAccount s1 = new SavingsAccount();

          s1.Balance = 10000;

          Console.WriteLine("The balance of my account is \{s1.Balance}");

          Console.ReadKey();
      }
  }

}

The static ctor is not being executed for some reason. If I declare SavingsAccount as a class instead of a struct, it works just fine.

Answer 1

The static constructor isn't executed because you are not using any static members of the struct.

If you use the static member currInterestRate, then the static constructor is called first:

Console.WriteLine(SavingsAccount.currInterestRate);

Output:

static ctor of SavingsAccount
0,06

When you are using a class, the static constructor will be called before the instance is created. Calling a constructor for a structure doesn't create an instance, so it doesn't trigger the static constructor.