[dependency-injection] Why does one use dependency injection?

I think a lot of times people get confused about the difference between dependency injection and a dependency injection framework (or a container as it is often called).

Dependency injection is a very simple concept. Instead of this code:

public class A {
  private B b;

  public A() {
    this.b = new B(); // A *depends on* B
  }

  public void DoSomeStuff() {
    // Do something with B here
  }
}

public static void Main(string[] args) {
  A a = new A();
  a.DoSomeStuff();
}

you write code like this:

public class A {
  private B b;

  public A(B b) { // A now takes its dependencies as arguments
    this.b = b; // look ma, no "new"!
  }

  public void DoSomeStuff() {
    // Do something with B here
  }
}

public static void Main(string[] args) {
  B b = new B(); // B is constructed here instead
  A a = new A(b);
  a.DoSomeStuff();
}

And that's it. Seriously. This gives you a ton of advantages. Two important ones are the ability to control functionality from a central place (the Main() function) instead of spreading it throughout your program, and the ability to more easily test each class in isolation (because you can pass mocks or other faked objects into its constructor instead of a real value).

The drawback, of course, is that you now have one mega-function that knows about all the classes used by your program. That's what DI frameworks can help with. But if you're having trouble understanding why this approach is valuable, I'd recommend starting with manual dependency injection first, so you can better appreciate what the various frameworks out there can do for you.