To understand how to use custom constructors, we need to learn a bit about different overloads. Overloading happens when we have two methods with the same name but different signatures, that is, we are passing different types of parameters into the method.

As a constructor is a public method, the same rule applies. You can choose what overload you wish to use simply by entering the specific parameters when calling the method. MonoDevelop works well with Unity and helps you preview the available overloads you can use with its parameters and type.

Go back to the LearningObjects and have a try. Inside the Start function, type new Person (. The popup in MonoDevelop will appear as soon as you type the open bracket.

MonoDevelop is trying to let us know there are two overloads available for Person constructors. Press down the arrow on your keyboard straightaway to preview the next overload:

As you can see, this is the custom constructor we have written. By pressing down the arrow key whenever you see this popup, you can iterate through all available overloads.

We know how to write custom public constructors and how to call them. Let's try to put that knowledge into use now. I will use the same example again to make it easier to compare.

Lines 14 and 15 are calling our newly written custom constructor. As we are instantiating Person object and assigning firstName and secondName in one line, our code has shrunk by a few lines. This is good! Less code but the same functionality.