Usage of ?? operator (null-coalescing operator)

Question

I use ?? operator very heavily in my code. But today I just came across a question.

Here the code which I use for ?? operator

private List<string> _names;
public List<string> Names
{
    get { return _names ?? (_names = new List<string>()); }
}

But in some locations I have seen this code as well.

private List<string> _names;
public List<string> Names
{
    get { return _names ?? new List<string>(); }
}

What is real difference between these codes. In one I am assigning _names = new List() while in other I am just doing new List().

Answer 1

The only difference I see is in first case your variable _names will contain a new empty list while in second it does not. In both cases value returned will be same.