C# Language Specification

Optional instance constructor parameters

The this(...) form of constructor initializer is commonly used in conjunction with overloading to implement optional instance constructor parameters. In the example

class Text

{
public Text(): this(0, 0, null) {}

public Text(int x, int y): this(x, y, null) {}

public Text(int x, int y, string s) {
// Actual constructor implementation
}
}

the first two instance constructors merely provide the default values for the missing arguments. Both use a this(...) constructor initializer to invoke the third instance constructor, which actually does the work of initializing the new instance. The effect is that of optional constructor parameters:

Text t1 = new Text(); // Same as Text(0, 0, null)
Text t2 = new Text(5, 10); // Same as Text(5, 10, null)
Text t3 = new Text(5, 20, "Hello");

12.