A value-type constructor chains via 'this = new TSelf(...)', an ordinary
body statement, so a hoisted argument null-guard in front of it is legal
C# output as-is; folding it back only bought lifting the chain into a
this(...) initializer. That cosmetic gain does not justify the extra
stobj shape matching, so the guard now stays in the body for structs and
the gate reduces to the ChainedConstructorCallILOffset check.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-fable-5:Claude Code
A type's leading field assignments are extracted to field declarations
only when every constructor that does not chain with this() agrees on
them. When they disagree, the analyzer gave up on the whole type, so the
remaining constructors' this()/base() calls were never lifted into
initializers -- a struct with two divergent constructors plus a chaining
one rendered the chain as `this = new TSelf(...)` instead of `: this(...)`.
Chain lifting does not depend on the shared-initializer extraction, so a
mismatch now just skips the extraction (the assignments stay in the
bodies) and the transform continues. Primary constructors still bail,
since their parameters drive the initializers that must be extracted.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
When a chained constructor-call argument contains a throwing null-check
(e.g. `value?.Length ?? throw ...`) and the argument is evaluated more
than once, the compiler hoists the null-check in front of the chained
call. The hoisted `if (value == null) throw ...;` then became the first
body statement, so MoveConstructorInitializer could not recognize the
chained call and left it as an illegal in-body `base..ctor(...)` /
`this..ctor(...)` (a parse error).
Fix it in the ILAst, where the `?? throw` shape already lives, rather
than re-deriving it on the C# AST: NullCoalescingTransform folds a guard
that directly precedes the chained call back into the first use of the
parameter as `if.notnull(ldloc param, throw)`. Nothing in a constructor
body can legally run before the chained call, so a statement preceding it
is necessarily compiler-hoisted; matching is by ILVariable identity, not
parameter name. The guard disappears before the AST transforms run, so
they need no change.
Reference types chain via a base/this..ctor CallInstruction; value types
chain via `this = new TSelf(...)`, i.e. stobj(ldthis, newobj TSelf(...)),
which ChainedConstructorCallILOffset does not report -- so the value-type
chain (including the case where this is spilled to a stack slot because
the guard sits between its load and the call) is matched directly.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Various improvements regarding primary constructor decompilation, including:
- introduce `HasPrimaryConstructor` property in the AST, as there is a difference between no primary constructor and a parameterless primary constructor
- improved support for inherited records and forwarded ctor calls
- exclude non-public fields and properties in IsPrintedMember
- introduce an option to always make the decompiler emit primary constructors, when possible
Siegfried Pammer
Peter Crabtree
Daniel Grunwald