Parameterless String constructor

[dippykdog]

Does anyone know why there isn't a parameterless constructor for the
String type?

Given that you can...

Dim s as New String("Hello") ' inefficient, don't do this

I guess I would have expected...

Dim x as New String()

to give me x pointing the an empty string.
For what it's worth, the reason I came across this was because I was
trying to do this in a generic-based class...

Class XYZ(Of T)
Public Sub New()
If Not GetType(T).IsValueType Then
Dim ci As ConstructorInfo =
GetType(T).GetConstructor(System.Type.EmptyTypes)
Dim obj As T = DirectCast(ci.Invoke(Nothing), T)
Me.SetValue(obj)
End If
End Sub

And when I instantiated one of these of type String, I got the famous
NullReferenceException because ci remained Nothing. The reason: String
has no constructor. I've sinced created a new exception for this class
to throw in such a case, but I still found it odd about String not
having a constructor without any arguments. I'm sure there's probably
a reason; I'm just not seeing it.

[Charlie Brown]

On Oct 5, 4:29 pm, [e-mail] wrote:

Does anyone know why there isn't a parameterless constructor for the
String type?

Given that you can...

Dim s as New String("Hello") ' inefficient, don't do this

I guess I would have expected...

Dim x as New String()

to give me x pointing the an empty string.
For what it's worth, the reason I came across this was because I was
trying to do this in a generic-based class...

Class XYZ(Of T)
Public Sub New()
If Not GetType(T).IsValueType Then
Dim ci As ConstructorInfo =
GetType(T).GetConstructor(System.Type.EmptyTypes)
Dim obj As T = DirectCast(ci.Invoke(Nothing), T)
Me.SetValue(obj)
End If
End Sub

And when I instantiated one of these of type String, I got the famous
NullReferenceException because ci remained Nothing. The reason: String
has no constructor. I've sinced created a new exception for this class
to throw in such a case, but I still found it odd about String not
having a constructor without any arguments. I'm sure there's probably
a reason; I'm just not seeing it.

I believe it has to do with the String type being immutable, that is
it acts more like a value type than a reference type. Each time you
change a strings value, you actually create a new string, you don't
change the value of the old one.

[dippykdog]

Thanks. You're a good man. (ha)
Interestingly, whereas this doesn't work...

Dim x As String
x = New String()

this does...

Dim x as String
x = New String(Nothing)

and x becomes equal to "" (empty string)

There is *SO* much I don't understand.

[rowe_newsgroups]

On Oct 5, 4:53 pm, [e-mail] wrote:

Thanks. You're a good man. (ha)
Interestingly, whereas this doesn't work...

Dim x As String
x = New String()

this does...

Dim x as String
x = New String(Nothing)

and x becomes equal to "" (empty string)

There is *SO* much I don't understand.

I always use "Dim x As String = String.Empty"

Thanks,

Seth Rowe