DefaultValue Attribute

Thought I found a very usefull attribute this morning that would eliminate the need to set class member defaults in the constructor, nl. the DefaultValueAttribute Class

However when using it I found that my booleans still are set to "false" when I create a class instance, even though I decorated the member with a # [DefaultValue(true)]

Someone pointed out the following in the documentation, which explains that:

Quote:

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A DefaultValueAttribute will not cause a member to be automatically initialized with the attribute's value. You must set the initial value in your code.

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Don't make sense...what is the use of this attribute then?

Makes perfect sense. What namespace is the DefaultvalueAttribute a member of? System.ComponentModel. What is the purpose of that namespace? To control designer behaviour. The documentation also says this:

Quote:

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You can create a DefaultValueAttribute with any value. A member's default value is typically its initial value. A visual designer can use the default value to reset the member's value. Code generators can use the default values also to determine whether code should be generated for the member.

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What you're talking about is the initial value, not the default value. Basically, the default value is what the property gets set to when you right-click it in the Properties window of the designer and select Reset.

Also, if you want an initial value for a property that is different to the default value for its type, you don't have to set them in the constructor. You can declare a backing field explicitly and initialise that where it's declared. This is actually better because the compiler can optimise such code better.