C# 3.0 Object and Collection Initializers

In this article, I will talk about Object and Collection Initializers in C# 3.0.

Object initializers let us assign values to any accessible fields or properties of an object at the time of creation without having to explicitly invoke a constructor.

When using .Net 2.0, to initialize an instance of a User, we would (1) either overload the constructors, (2) or create an instance first and assign values accordingly.

User oldUser = new User();

oldUser.UserId = "OUSR";

oldUser.UserName = "Old User";

oldUser.UserEmail = "old.user@somewhere.com";

oldUser.UserLevel = 3;

Now, with C# 3.0 and .NET 3.5, we will be able to initialize the object by creating the instance and assigning the values to the properties in a single statement. Using this new syntax, the code will look like:

User test = new User { UserId = "NUSR", UserName = "New User",

 UserEmail = "new.user@anywhere.com", UserLevel = 3};

Similarly, if we had to create a list of users in .NET 2.0, we would first create the list and then add the users one by one.

User oldUser = new User();

oldUser.UserId = "OUSR";

oldUser.UserName = "Old User";

oldUser.UserEmail = "old.user@somewhere.com";

oldUser.UserLevel = 5;

User newIser = new User();

newIser.UserId = "NUSR";

newIser.UserName = "New User";

newIser.UserEmail = "new.user@anywhere.com";

newIser.UserLevel = 3;

List<User> users = new List<User>();

users.Add(oldUser);

users.Add(newIser);

And now, with C# 3.0 and .NET 3.5, this can be achieved in just one single statement:

List<User> users = new List<User> {

    new User { UserId = "OUSR", UserName = "Old User",

        UserEmail = "old.user@somewhere.com", UserLevel = 5},

    new User { UserId = "NUSR", UserName = "New User",

        UserEmail = "new.user@anywhere.com", UserLevel = 3}

};