Does constructor have access to initialized properties

Question

If I use an object initializer when instantiating an object does that objects constructor have access to the initialized properties?

public class ExampleClass {
    public string proptery1 { get; set; }
    public string property2 { get; set; }

    public ExampleClass() {
        if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(property1)) {
            ...
        }
    }
} 

ExampleClass exampleClass = new ExampleClass() {
    property1 = "hello",
    property2 = "world"
};

Answer 1

No, the constructor is called before any properties are initialized.

Your code:

ExampleClass exampleClass = new ExampleClass() {
    property1 = "hello",
    property2 = "world"
};

is language-sugar for

ExampleClass exampleClass = new ExampleClass();
exampleClass.property1 = "hello";
exampleClass.property2 = "world";

Answer 2

Collection initializers call the .Add method of the collection, which must be defined for the particular collection. The object will be fully constructed before it is passed to .Add.

The syntax

ExampleClass exampleClass = new ExampleClass() {
    property1 = "hello",
    property2 = "world"
};

does not show a collection initializer, but rather object initialization.

Here, your constructor will be called, then setters for the given properties will be called.

A proper example would be

List<ExampleClass> list = new List<ExampleClass>() { 
    new ExampleClass() {
         exampleClass.property1 = "hello";
         exampleClass.property2 = "world";            
    }
}

The order of events would be

1. A new instance of List<ExampleClass> is created and assigned to list
2. A new instance of ExampleClass is created, the constructor called.
3. The property setters are called on the new instance of ExampleClass

Answer 3

No, the constructor gets called first. Object initialization is only a syntactic sugar for calling the constructor and then settings object's properties.