What is the difference between “instantiated” and “initialized”?

Question

I\'ve been hearing these two words used in Microsoft tutorials for VB.NET. What is the difference between these two words when used in reference to variables?

Answer 1

We can see it this way. For a line of code below:

var p = new Person();

The above line can be read as following two ways:

1. The variable p has been initialized as a person class
2. Person class has been instantiated in variable p

The subject of reference or context matters. When talking in terms of variable, we use the word initialize. When talking in terms of class/type, we use the word instantiate.