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C# C# Objects Object-Oriented Programming Wrap-up

Li Yu
Li Yu
2,067 Points

Return a value

I am wondering why constructors cannot return a value. Does "returning a value" means to change the value after initializing the constructor?

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,783 Points

:point_right: Constructors establish an object instance but do not directly return a value.

You would typically call a constructor like this:

var newobject = new SomeObject();

So you would not see a return value (even if there was one) from the constructor, but the new operator returns the constructed object. So, in a sense, you could say a constructor always "returns" the object.

If you really need to get a value back from a constructor, you can pass it an "out" argument.

Li Yu
Li Yu
2,067 Points

Thanks for the answer, Steven.