#160 – Be Careful When Setting Dependency Property Values from a DependencyObject Constructor

You should normally avoid calling any virtual methods in a C# class constructor.  Your constructor might get called during construction of a derived class, before the derived class has finished initializing everything that it needs to initialize.  If the derived class also overrides the virtual method that you’re calling, that method could end up getting called before the derived class has finished initializing everything (in its constructor).

If you use FxCop to check your code, this will be caught by the DoNotCallOverridableMethodsInConstructors rule.

This rule applies to WPF.  If you set the value of a dependency property in a constructor, virtual methods or callbacks in the property system may end up getting called.

The best way to avoid the problem is to follow the following rule:

• Initialize all objects that might be used by property system callbacks in your default (parameterless) constructor

See also: Safe Constructor Patterns for DependencyObjects