Hi
I wonder why i can define and use a variable of type DateTime without having to instantiate class DateTime (DateTime dat = new DateTime while with random, i have to use Random rnd = new Random(); otherwise, i get the error "unassigned local variable":
Thanks.
DateTime dat;
dat = DateTime.Parse("12/02/12");
Console.WriteLine(dat.ToLongDateString()); // this works without DateTime dat = new DateTime: why?
Random rnd;
Console.Write(rnd.Next(2)); error "unassigned local variable":
Naimish MakwanaPosted Mar 11, 2023, 1:09 PM
Hello Valerie,
The reason why you are able to define and use a variable of type DateTime without explicitly instantiating the DateTime class using the
newkeyword is because DateTime is a value type in C#, and has a default value ofDateTime.MinValue(which is equivalent to "01/01/0001 12:00:00 AM"). When you define a variable of type DateTime, it gets automatically initialized with this default value, so you can use it without having to explicitly instantiate a new DateTime object.On the other hand, the Random class is a reference type in C#, which means that it doesn't have a default value. When you define a variable of type Random, it's not automatically initialized, so you need to explicitly instantiate a new Random object using the
newkeyword before you can use it.If you try to use a variable of a reference type that has not been initialized, you will get the "unassigned local variable" error. This is because the compiler doesn't know what value to assign to the variable, since it hasn't been initialized yet.
Thanks
Naimish Makwana