title: Instantiating Null Objects with ?? Operator
body: <p>Consider the following typical scenario:</p>
  
  <pre><code>if(anObject == null)
  {
   anObject = new AClass();
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm wondering what is thought of the following replacement using the ?? operator:</p>
  
  <pre><code>anObject = anObject ?? new AClass();
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm not sure whether I should be using the second form. It seems like a nice shorthand, but the anObject = anObject construct at the beginning seems like it could be a bit of a code-smell.</p>
  
  <p>Is this a reasonable thing to do, or is there a better shorthand that I am missing? Or maybe, "It's three lines, get over it!"?</p>