When I define my class like:

public class ProductEntity
{

private int productID;
// Public properties, to expose the state of the entity
public int ProductID
{
get { return productID; }
set { productID = value; }
}

......

then to bind the ProductID to my textbox.Text in a form I do:

textBox1.DataBindings.Add("Text", myProductObject, "ProductID");

But I get error: Object reference not set to an instyance of an object.

But When I initialize the value of productID like in

private int productID=0;

that fixes the problem

My question:

I don t see why I should initialize that value.

Is there a way not to get the error without initializing productID .

and what s a good practice for this pls (I mean binding Business entity classes to form controls)

Thanks

P.S: this is C# but VB.Net is practically the same syntax.