17.10.3 Constructor execution

Variable initializers are transformed into assignment statements, and these
assignment statements are executed
before the invocation of the base class instance constructor. This ordering
ensures that all instance fields are
initialized by their variable initializers before any statements that have
access to that instance are executed.
[Example: For example:
C# LANGUAGE SPECIFICATION
260
using System;
class A
{
public A() {
PrintFields();
}
public virtual void PrintFields() {}
}
class B: A
{
int x = 1;
int y;
public B() {
y = -1;
}
public override void PrintFields() {
Console.WriteLine("x = {0}, y = {1}", x, y);
}
}
When new B() is used to create an instance of B, the following output is
produced:
x = 1, y = 0
The value of x is 1 because the variable initializer is executed before the
base class instance constructor is
invoked. However, the value of y is 0 (the default value of an int) because
the assignment to y is not executed
until after the base class constructor returns.
It is useful to think of instance variable initializers and constructor
initializers as statements that are automatically
inserted before the constructor-body. The example
using System;
using System.Collections;
class A
{
int x = 1, y = -1, count;
public A() {
count = 0;
}
public A(int n) {
count = n;
}
}
class B: A
{
double sqrt2 = Math.Sqrt(2.0);
ArrayList items = new ArrayList(100);
int max;
public B(): this(100) {
items.Add("default");
}
public B(int n): base(n ? 1) {
max = n;
}
}
contains several variable initializers; it also contains constructor
initializers of both forms (base and this). The
example corresponds to the code shown below, where each comment indicates
an automatically inserted
statement (the syntax used for the automatically inserted constructor
invocations isn?t valid, but merely serves to
illustrate the mechanism).
using System.Collections;
Chapter 17 Classes
261
class A
{
int x, y, count;
public A() {
x = 1; // Variable initializer
y = -1; // Variable initializer
object(); // Invoke object() constructor
count = 0;
}
public A(int n) {
x = 1; // Variable initializer
y = -1; // Variable initializer
object(); // Invoke object() constructor
count = n;
}
}
class B: A
{
double sqrt2;
ArrayList items;
int max;
public B(): this(100) {
B(100); // Invoke B(int) constructor
items.Add("default");
}
public B(int n): base(n ? 1) {
sqrt2 = Math.Sqrt(2.0); // Variable initializer
items = new ArrayList(100); // Variable initializer
A(n ? 1); // Invoke A(int) constructor
max = n;
}
}
end example]