Class members that are not assigned a default value and are not initialized in a constructor will be set to null by the compiler. Even if code exists to properly set those members, there is a risk that they will be dereferenced before it is called, resulting in a ``++NullPointerException++``. 


Because you cannot guarantee that such classes will always be used properly, class members should always be initialized.


This rule flags members which have no default value and which are left uninitialized by at least one class constructor, but which are unconditionally dereferenced somewhere in the code.
