Initializing list inline

C#'s collection initialization syntax is only supported in versions 3 and up (since you mentioned .NET 2.0 I am going to assume you are also using C# 2). It can be a bit confusing since C# has always supported a similar syntax for array initialization but it is not really the same thing.

Collection initializers are a compiler trick that allows you to create and initialize a collection in one statement like this:

var list = new List<String> { "foo", "bar" };

However this statement is translated by the compiler to this:

List<String> <>g__initLocal0 = new List<String>();
<>g__initLocal0.Add("foo");
<>g__initLocal0.Add("bar");
List<String> list = <>g__initLocal0;

As you can see, this feature is a bit of syntax sugar that simplifies a pattern into a single expression.

As the other users point out, that is not supported in 2.0. However, you can mimic it by doing the following.

public overrides List<String> getSpaceballs
{
   get { return new List<String> ( new String[] {"abc","def","egh"} ); }
}

Please note that this creates some computational overhead.

The first option is not legal :)

You can only do that type of initialiser on arrays.

-- Edit: See Andrew Hare's post (and others, below); it is only available in v3 and up.

-- Edit again:

Just to be clear, if your compiler is of 3 or greater, you can target 2.0, to get this to work (because it's compiled down to the code that Andrew shows, below). But if your compiler is 2, then you can't.

Just in case anyone would search for it as well nowadays, there is a neat way to do that using LINQ extensions. Hope it helps someone ;)

var list = new string[]{ "1", "2", "3" }.ToList();