avoid type repetition in class member initializer?

Question

Is there any way to avoid the repetition of the type in this kind of declaration of a class member?

Dictionary<string, int> myDict = new Dictionary<string, int>();

Answer 1

No, you can only use var for local variables. Basically you're stuck with the repetition, I'm afraid.

Eric Lippert has a great blog post on this.

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Interesting point to note: Java performs implicit typing and type inference the other way round, based on what you're trying to assign to. That means this is legal:

// Note: This is Java, not C#!
class CollectionHelpers
{
    public static <T> List<T> newList() 
    {
        return new ArrayList<T>();
    }
}

// In another class (doesn't have to be static)
static List<String> names = CollectionHelpers.newList();

Answer 2

Sure - use VB.NET. ;)

myDict as New Dictionary(Of String, Integer)()

Answer 3

Though it's not directly relevant to the question, some people may be interested that you can do this in C#3 using collection initialisation:

var myDict = new Dictionary<string, int>()
{
     { "one", 1 },
     { "two", 2 },
     { "three", 3}
};