How to initialize generic parameter type T?

Question

Simple question:
If you have a string x, to initialize it you simple do one of the following:

string x = String.Empty;  

or

Answer 1

use default keyword.

T x = default(T);

See: default Keyword in Generic Code (C# Programming Guide)

Given a variable t of a parameterized type T, the statement t = null is only valid if T is a reference type and t = 0 will only work for numeric value types but not for structs. The solution is to use the default keyword, which will return null for reference types and zero for numeric value types. For structs, it will return each member of the struct initialized to zero or null depending on whether they are value or reference types.