What is a default literal expression in C#?
Overview
A default literal expression in C# produces a default value for a type. This is achieved using the default keyword, which previously had the following syntax:
dataType variableName = default(dataType);
In the above code, default returns a default value for the given dataType. However, with C# version 7.0 onward, the default keyword does not take any argument; instead, it automatically infers the dataType based on the dataType of the variable its value is being assigned to.
Therefore, the syntax for default in newer versions of C# is:
dataType variableName = default;
Example
The following example depicts the usefulness of the default keyword:
class HelloWorld {static bool Test(bool a = default) {return a;}static void Main() {int x = default;System.Console.WriteLine("Default 'int' value inside 'x':");System.Console.WriteLine(x);System.Console.WriteLine("Result of Test():");System.Console.WriteLine(Test());}}
Output:
Default 'int' value inside 'x':
0
Result of Test():
False
In the example above, the default keyword is used to initialize the int variable x. The default value turns out to be 0. Moreover, the default keyword can also be used in function declaration as a default parameter.
The function Test in line 2 is one such example. The argument a is of type bool. Since this argument is not supplied, the default value is stored inside a. Later on, in line 3 this default value is returned and printed on the console.
