Initialize a collection within an object?

Question

If an object has a property that is a collection, should the object create the collection object or make a consumer check for null? I know the consumer should not assume, just

Answer 1

While what I say here is not universal by any means, I think collections are mostly suited as private properties which should be accessed by public methods on the object itself. Therefore, the object is responsible to create and destroy them as needed. This way, it won't be possible to set it to null from external code.