Why can't I initialize my Garage class?

Question

I have this Car class,

public class Car
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Color { get; set; }

    public Car(): this ("", "") { }

    public Car(string name, string color)
    {
        this.Name = name;
        this.Color = color;
    }
}

Also I have Garage class containing a collection of Cars.

public class Garage
    {
        public List<Car> CarList { get; set; }

        public Garage() { }

        public Garage(int carCount)
        {
            this.CarList = new List<Car>(carCount);
        }

        public Garage(params Car[] cars)
        {
            this.CarList = new List<Car>();
            foreach (Car car in cars)
               this.CarList.Add(car);
        }
    }

I tried to initialize an instance of a Garage in Main(),

Car car1 = new Car("BMW", "black");
Car car2 = new Car("Audi", "white");
Garage garage = new Garage(car1, car2);

I get an error, "A field initializer cannot reference the non-static field, method, or property". What I'm doing wrong?

There are no field initializers in the code you posted. Locate the line where the error is being reported, and post that line. — dcastro, Jun 17 '14 at 09:18
Your code seems fine to me. I think you have problem elsewhere — Sergey Berezovskiy, Jun 17 '14 at 09:18
A side note, personally I wouldn't use empty strings in your default constructor. If you don't have values leave them as null. — Liath, Jun 17 '14 at 09:21
Garage garage = new Garage(car1,car2). this is where i get an error. "A field initializer cannot reference the non-static field, method, or property " — astrid, Jun 17 '14 at 09:22
Checked on my machide - works fine... so maybe just restart studio? — Valentyn Vynogradskiy, Jun 17 '14 at 09:24
Questions must include the shortest code necessary to reproduce problem. Your code do not reproduce problem — Sergey Berezovskiy, Jun 17 '14 at 09:28
You are doing `Garage garage=new Garage(car1,car2)` inside a class right? You cannot do that. You should do that inside a constructor. — Mat J, Jun 17 '14 at 09:35
Duplicate of [A field initializer cannot reference the non-static field, method, or property?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7400677/a-field-initializer-cannot-reference-the-non-static-field-method-or-property) — dcastro, Jun 17 '14 at 09:38
A common antipattern is to have settable collection properties. I'd change it to say `public List Cars { get; private set; }` otherwise your evil colleague will soon do this: `garage.Cars = null;` — Anders Forsgren, Jun 17 '14 at 09:48

H. Mahida · Answer 1 · 2014-06-17T09:47:51.870

"Instance fields cannot be used to initialize other instance fields outside a method." Please check this page ERROR page from MS.

So either make car object static as;

    static Car car1 = new Car("BMW", "black");
    static Car car2 = new Car("Audi", "white");

    Garage garage = new Garage(car1, car2);

Or declare it

     Car car1 = new Car("BMW", "black");
     Car car2 = new Car("Audi", "white");
     Garage garagel;

and then use inside any other method

    garage = new Garage(car1, car2);

Why can't I initialize my Garage class?

1 Answers1