Value of unassigned non-nullable variable (C#)

Question

Just curious.

If you go:

string myString;

Its value is null.

But if you go:

int myInt;

What is the value of this variable in C#?

Thanks

David

Answer 1

Firstly, note that this is only applicable for fields, not local variables - those can't be read until they've been assigned, at least within C#. In fact the CLR initializes stack frames to 0 if you have an appropriate flag set - which I believe it is by default. It's rarely observable though - you have to go through some grotty hacks.

The default value of int is 0 - and for any type, it's essentially the value represented by a bit pattern full of zeroes. For a value type this is the equivalent of calling the parameterless constructor, and for a reference type this is null.

Basically the CLR wipes the memory clean with zeroes.

This is also the value given by default(SomeType) for any type.