C# – Call one constructor from another

cconstructor

I have two constructors which feed values to readonly fields.

public class Sample
{
    public Sample(string theIntAsString)
    {
        int i = int.Parse(theIntAsString);
        _intField = i;
    }

    public Sample(int theInt) => _intField = theInt;
    public int IntProperty    => _intField;

    private readonly int _intField;
}

One constructor receives the values directly, and the other does some calculation and obtains the values, then sets the fields.

Now here's the catch:

I don't want to duplicate the
setting code. In this case, just one
field is set but of course there may
well be more than one.
To make the fields readonly, I need
to set them from the constructor, so
I can't "extract" the shared code to
a utility function.
I don't know how to call one
constructor from another.

Any ideas?

Best Answer

Like this:

public Sample(string str) : this(int.Parse(str)) { }

Related Solutions

C# – Calling the base constructor in C#

Modify your constructor to the following so that it calls the base class constructor properly:

public class MyExceptionClass : Exception
{
    public MyExceptionClass(string message, string extrainfo) : base(message)
    {
        //other stuff here
    }
}

Note that a constructor is not something that you can call anytime within a method. That's the reason you're getting errors in your call in the constructor body.

C# – Virtual member call in a constructor

When an object written in C# is constructed, what happens is that the initializers run in order from the most derived class to the base class, and then constructors run in order from the base class to the most derived class (see Eric Lippert's blog for details as to why this is).

Also in .NET objects do not change type as they are constructed, but start out as the most derived type, with the method table being for the most derived type. This means that virtual method calls always run on the most derived type.

When you combine these two facts you are left with the problem that if you make a virtual method call in a constructor, and it is not the most derived type in its inheritance hierarchy, that it will be called on a class whose constructor has not been run, and therefore may not be in a suitable state to have that method called.

This problem is, of course, mitigated if you mark your class as sealed to ensure that it is the most derived type in the inheritance hierarchy - in which case it is perfectly safe to call the virtual method.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – Calling the base constructor in C#

C# – Virtual member call in a constructor

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