I am having trouble understanding how to initialize a List of objects and use it with methods inside of a class. I understand the mechanics of the List, but not how to initialize it inside a method and use it later. For example, I want to have a class that creates the List when it is constructed. Then, I want to use a method of that class to add elements to the list. The elements in the list are objects defined by the SolidWorks API. So, to construct the List, I used... public class ExportPoints : Exporter { public List<SldWorks.SketchPoint> listOfSketchPoints; public ExportPoints(SldWorks.SldWorks swApp, string nameSuffix) : base(swApp, nameSuffix) { List<SldWorks.SketchPoint> listOfSketchPoints = new List<SldWorks.SketchPoint>(); } public void createListOfFreePoints() { try { [imagine more code here] this.listOfSketchPoints.Add(pointTest); } catch (Exception e) { Debug.Print(e.ToString()); return; } } This fails during execution as if the listOfSketchPoints was never initialized as a List. So, I tried a hack and this worked: public ExportPoints(SldWorks.SldWorks swApp, string nameSuffix) : base(swApp, nameSuffix) { List<SldWorks.SketchPoint> listOfSketchPoints = new List<SldWorks.SketchPoint>(); this.listOfSketchPoints = listOfSketchPoints; } This approach creates the behavior that I want. However, it seems that I lack some understanding as to why this is necessary. Shouldn't it be possible to "initialize" a List that is a property of your object with a constructor? Why would you need to create the list, then assign the pointer of that new List to your property?