automatic property with default value [duplicate]

Answer 1

The constructor is NOT the only option you have.

I believe this is best:

private int m_HowHigh = 5; 
public int HowHigh { 
    get { return m_HowHigh; }  
    set { m_HowHigh = value; } 
} 

I prefer this for readability purposes more than the ctor().

This is NOT what you want:

[DefaultValue(5)]
public int HowHigh { get; set; }

Reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.componentmodel.defaultvalueattribute.aspx#Y2248

Because this is only a decoration and does not set the value (in C#4).