Does { } act like ( ) when creating a new object in C#?

I just noticed that using {} instead of () gives the same results when constructing an object.

class Customer
{
    public string name;
    public string ID {get; set;}
}

static void Main()
{  
    Customer c1= new Customer{}; //Is this a constructor? 
    Customer c2= new Customer();

    //what is the concept behind the ability to assign values for properties 
    //and fields inside the {} and is not allowable to do it inside () 
    //without defining a constructor:

    Customer c3= new Customer{name= "John", ID="ABC"};
}

Does {} act like () when creating a new object in C#?

Jon Skeet
people
quotationmark

There are three ways of directly creating a new object in C#:

  • A simple constructor call with an argument list:

    new Foo()       // Empty argument list
new Foo(10, 20) // Passing arguments

  • An object initializer with an argument list

    new Foo() { Name = "x" }       // Empty argument list
new Foo(10, 20) { Name = "x" } // Two arguments

  • An object initializer with no argument list

    new Foo { Name = "x" }

The last form is exactly equivalent to specifying an empty argument list. Usually it will call a parameterless constructor, but it could call a constructor where all the parameters have default values.

Now in both the object initializer examples I've given, I've set a Name property - and you could set other properties/fields, or even set no properties and fields. So all three of these are equivalent, effectively passing no constructor arguments and specifying no properties/fields to set:

new Foo()
new Foo() {}
new Foo {}

Of these, the first is the most conventional.

people

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