c# - Local variable 'mydate' might not be initialized before accessing

Question

In my code i initilized Datetime like this

 DateTime myDate;

But when i try to access it then i got this error.

Local variable 'myDate' might not be initialized before accessing

Here i initialized my date know ?

Answer 1

You declared it, but you didn't give it a value; you can't read a local variable until it is "definitely assigned". For a simple example:

DateTime myDate = DateTime.UtcNow; // is assigned

You don't have to give it a value right away... you can give it a value any time before you try to read it, including any branching etc that leaves no ambiguity that it has a value, for example:

DateTime myDate;
//....
if(condition) {
    myDate = DateTime.UtcNow;
} else {
    myDate = GetDateFromSomewhereElse();
}
Console.WriteLine(myDate);

For contrast, fields (class variables) are automatically initialized to their all-zero value, and are treated as "definitely assigned" from the object's creation.