If you have multiple variables on one line it's always a guess which one might be the null.   Sometimes I split one inline statement over two statements on purpose so I can easier understand what variable it's talking about if an exception occurs.   But I assume that the compiler can anyway decide to merge these lines into one 'thing'? So why can it then differentiate between the variables, but not if it's in one statement?  I assume there is a really good reason, but to understand compilers and the underlying workings better; why can't it tell me which variable (or column) is causing the nullref exception?  // NullRefException pointing to this line if ( GetSomeItemFromX().AmountOfLolCats &gt; GetSomeItemFromY().AmountOfLolCats )     return "yay";   vs  // now I can see which method is causing problems    int amountX = GetSomeItemFromX().AmountOfLolCats; int amountY = GetSomeItemFromY().AmountOfLolCats;  if ( amountX &gt; amountY )     return "yay";   A typical ASP.NET exception; which one is null?    I hope someone can teach us about the underlyings of compilers and a better understanding of things happening under the hood and the tradeoffs that are being made on that level.
120685
It seems to me that a lot of my debugging time is spent chasing down null-reference exceptions in complex statements. For instance:  For Each game As IHomeGame in _GamesToOpen.GetIterator()   Why, when I get a NullReferenceException, can I get the line number in the stack trace, but not the name of the object that equals null. In other words, why:  Object reference not set to an instance of an object.   instead of  _GamesToOpen is not set to an instance of an object.   or  Anonymous object returned by _GamesToOpen.GetIterator() is null.   or  game was set to null.   Is this strictly a design choice, meant to protect the anonymity of the code or is there a compelling reason in compiler design not to include this information in the debug-time exception?
38112
Here's the scenario...    if (entry.Properties["something"].Value != null)   attribs.something = entry.Properties["something"].Value.ToString();   While effective and working correctly, this looks ugly to me.  If I don't check for a null before performing the ToString() then it throws an exception if the property was null.  Is there a better way to handle this scenario?  Much appreciated!
30163
What is the difference between this:  void MyMethod(IMyInterface value) {     //... }   and this:  void MyMethod&lt;T&gt;(T value) where T : IMyInterface {     //... }
71027
The following code fails to compile stating  "A local variable named 'st' cannot be declared in this scope because it would give a different meaning to 'st', which is already used in a 'child' scope to denote something else":           var l = new List&lt;string&gt;();         l.Find(st =&gt; st.EndsWith("12"));         string st = "why this fails?";   I understand why this won't work:          string preParent = "";         {             string preParent = "Should fail cause we change the meaning";         }   When we do the following we get "CS0103: The name 'postParent' does not exist in the current context":          {             string postParent=string.Empty;         }         postParent = "Should this work?";   What I don't get is why is the compiler smart enough to see that postParent is not within scope, but won't let me define a new variable that has the same name as a variable used within a child scope (which is obviously out of scope at this point).   Is the compiler simple enforcing scope by refusing to let me use the variable? If so this makes sense.  ===========  Edited:   I guess what I also find interesting is how you can have the same variable within two child scopes in a single method, so this is valid:          {             string thisWorks= string.Empty;         }         {             string thisWorks= "Should this work?";         }   I'm just a little curious that you can have two variables with the same name as long as they are at the same level (if you look at scope as a tree). This makes sense because you can have local variables in two methods of the same class with the same name.   I'm just surprised that the compiler is able to differentiate and allow this, while it wouldn't allow the postParent variable. And is this a technical limitation or was this a design decision? That's what I'm really trying to get at;-)
96218
I came across this code and wanted others to provide their point of view... is it good or bad ? ;)  Class ReportClass {  public string ReportName {get; set;} }   Then it was used as follows in code:  displayReport(ReportClass.ReportName = cmbReportName.SelectedValue.ToString())   That is about the simplest form example I can give you. Quetion is... why can't I find examples ? What would this be called? Is this just asking for trouble?  EDIT: I'm referring to the inplace assignment. Which I wasn't aware of until today
62585
Given the following example, why do I have to explicitly use the statement b-&gt;A::DoSomething() rather than just b-&gt;DoSomething()?  Shouldn't the compiler's overload resolution figure out which method I'm talking about?  I'm using Microsoft VS 2005. (Note: using virtual doesn't help in this case.)  class A {   public:     int DoSomething() {return 0;}; };  class B : public A {   public:     int DoSomething(int x) {return 1;}; };  int main() {   B* b = new B();   b-&gt;A::DoSomething();    //Why this?   //b-&gt;DoSomething();    //Why not this? (Gives compiler error.)   delete b;   return 0; }
80203
This error should be a simple one but I cant seem to make it work. The problem lies in the fact that this very same code works earlier in the program. I don's see any reason for it to be sending an error on this instance and not the four previous ones. Reference the code below, and feel free to provide any criticism you may have as it should make me better. If it matters, I am using Sharp Develop 2.2.  Here is an example of the code that works:  void calc2Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {     if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb2_fla.Text) &amp; String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb2_e.Text) | String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb2_fla.Text) &amp; String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb2_e.Text) | String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb2_e.Text))     {         MessageBox.Show("Enter either kVA and Voltage or FLA and Voltage", "Invalid Data Entry", MessageBoxButtons.OK);     }                 if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb2_kva.Text) &amp; !String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb2_e.Text))     {              decimal x, y, z;             x = decimal.Parse(tb2_kva.Text);                   y = decimal.Parse(tb2_e.Text);             z = (x * 1000) / (1.732050808m * y); //the m at the end of the decimal allows for the multiplication of decimals                 tb2_fla.Text = z.ToString();             tb2_fla.Text = Math.Round(z,2).ToString();     }         else     {         if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb2_fla.Text) &amp; !String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb2_e.Text))     {              decimal x, y, z;             x = decimal.Parse(tb2_fla.Text);                   y = decimal.Parse(tb2_e.Text);             z = (x * y * 1.732050808m) / 1000; //the m at the end of the decimal allows for the multiplication of decimals               tb2_kva.Text = Math.Round(z,2).ToString();      }   Here is the example of the code that sends the error in the subject line of this post:  void Calc4Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {         if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb4_fla.Text) &amp;&amp; String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb4_e.Text) || String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb4_kw.Text) &amp; String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb4_e.Text) || String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb4_e.Text))         {   //If values are entered improperly, the following message box will appear         MessageBox.Show("Enter either FLA and Voltage or kW and Voltage", "Invalid Data Entry", MessageBoxButtons.OK);         }              if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb4_fla.Text)&amp;&amp; !String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb4_e.Text)&amp;&amp; String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb4_kw.Text))         {//If the user eneters FLA and Voltage calculate for kW              decimal x, y, z;             x = decimal.Parse(tb4_fla.Text);             y = decimal.Parse(tb4_e.Text);             z = (x*y)*(.8 * 1.732050808m);             tb4_kw.Text = Math.Round(z,0).ToString();          }                         if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb4_kw.Text) &amp;&amp; !String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb4_e.Text) &amp;&amp; String.IsNullOrEmpty(tb4_fla.Text))         {;//If the user enters kW and Voltage calculate for FLA             decimal x, y, z;             x = decimal.Parse(tb4_kw.Text);             y = decimal.Parse(tb4_e.Text);             z = (1000 * x)/(y * 1.732050808m)* .8;             tb4_fla.Text = Math.Round(z,0).ToString();         }      }   I appreciate any help that I can get.  Thank you.
9051
Check out the below program.   try {     for (String data : Files.readAllLines(Paths.get("D:/sample.txt"))){         String[] de = data.split(";");         System.out.println("Length = " + de.length);     } } catch (IOException e) {     e.printStackTrace(); }   Sample.txt:   1;2;3;4 A;B;; a;b;c;   Output:   Length = 4 Length = 2 Length = 3   Why second and third output is giving 2 and 3 instead of 4. In sample.txt file, condition  for 2nd and 3rd line is should give newline(\n or enter) immediately after giving delimiter for the third field. Can anyone help me how to get length as 4 for 2nd and 3rd line without changing the condition of the sample.txt file and how to print the values of de[2] (throws  ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException)?
15847
When I debug a C# program and I get an exception throwed (either thrown by code OR thrown by the framework), the IDE stops and get me to the corresponding line in my code.  Everything is fine for now.  I then press "F5" to continue. From this moment, it seams like I'm in an infinite loop. The IDE always get me back to the exception line. I have to Shift + F5 (stop debugging/terminate the program) to get out of his.  I talked with some co-workers here and they told me that this happens sometime to them too.  What's happening?
59881
When I ran  on my code, for example:      if (some condition)     {         Some code...                 }   ReSharper gave me the above warning (Invert "if" statement to reduce nesting), and suggested the following correction:     if (!some condition) return;    Some code...   I would like to understand why that's better. I always thought that using "return" in the middle of a method problematic, somewhat like "goto".
18114
I have a method with an out parameter that tries to do a type conversion. Basically:  public void GetParameterValue(out object destination) {     object paramVal = "I want to return this. could be any type, not just string.";      destination = null; // default out param to null     destination = Convert.ChangeType(paramVal, destination.GetType()); }   The problem is that usually someone would call this like:  string output; GetParameterValue(output);   This will fail because of:  destination.GetType()   destination is null, so we can't call .GetType() on it. We also can not call:  typeof(destination)   because destination is a variable name not a type name.  So is there any way to get the type of an object that is set to null? I would think there would have to be a way to know what type a storage location is without it being assigned anything.    Just to give a bit more info, I am trying to make a utility method that will grab the output parameters of an Oracle stored procedure. The issue is that DbParameter.Value is of type object.  What would be ideal would be for the developers to do something like:  string val = GetParameterValue("parameterName");   The notable thing is that there is no casting of types. In practice, you don't know the lparam of the "equals", so I went with:  string val; GetParameterValue("parameterName", out val);   And figured within the method, I would know the destination type of the output variable. I guess that was a bad assumption. As an alternative, I also wrote the method:  public T GetParameterValue&lt;T&gt;(string paramName)   So the developers can do:  string val = GetParameterValue&lt;string&gt;("parameterName");   I find the explicit "string" declaration to be repetitive, especially since in practice, the destination if probably an object property and the oracle data type could change (think ORM):  MyObj.SomeProp = GetParameterValue&lt;MyObj.SomeProp.GetType()&gt;("parameterName");   But again, if MyObj.SomeProp is null, that .GetType() call fails. The VM has to know the type of MyObj.SomeProp, even when its null, right? or else how would it catch cast exceptions?    To partially solve my own problem, I can do:  MyObj.SomeProp = GetParameterValue&lt;typeof(MyObj).GetField("SomeProp").GetType()&gt;("parameterName");   The whole idea was to not have to explicitly use the Type in more than one place, so that if the data type changes, it only has to be changed in the destination object (MyObj.SomeProp) and in the DB. There has to be a better way...
102402
I'm wanting to parse a string into a nullable int in C#.  ie. I want to get back either the int value of the string or null if it can't be parsed.  I was kind of hoping that this would work  int? val = stringVal as int?;   But that won't work, so the way I'm doing it now is I've written this extension method  public static int? ParseNullableInt(this string value) {     if (value == null || value.Trim() == string.Empty)     {         return null;     }     else     {         try         {             return int.Parse(value);         }         catch         {             return null;         }     } }      Is there a better way of doing this?  EDIT:  Thanks for the TryParse suggestions, I did know about that, but it worked out about the same.  I'm more interested in knowing if there is a built-in framework method that will parse directly into a nullable int?
21288
It seems that   if (x=y) { .... }   instead of  if (x==y) { ... }    is a root of many evils.  Why don't all compilers mark it as error instead of a configurable warning?  I'm interested in finding out cases where the construct if (x=y) is useful.
23048
Technically, NULL = NULL is False, by that logic no NULL is equal to any NULL and all NULLs are distinct. Shouldnt this imply that all NULLs are unique and a unique index should allow any number of NULLs?
90464
We noticed that lots of bugs in our software developed in C# (or Java) cause a NullReferenceException.  Is there a reason why "null" has even been included in the language?  After all, if there were no "null", I would have no bug, right?  In other words, what feature in the language couldn't work without null?
1840
I met an interesting issue about C#. I have code like below.  List&lt;Func&lt;int&gt;&gt; actions = new List&lt;Func&lt;int&gt;&gt;();  int variable = 0; while (variable &lt; 5) {     actions.Add(() =&gt; variable * 2);     ++ variable; }  foreach (var act in actions) {     Console.WriteLine(act.Invoke()); }   I expect it to output 0, 2, 4, 6, 8. However, it actually outputs five 10s.  It seems that it is due to all actions referring to one captured variable. As a result, when they get invoked, they all have same output.  Is there a way to work round this limit to have each action instance have its own captured variable?
9770
I'm sure you all know the behaviour I mean - code such as:  Thread thread = new Thread(); int activeCount = thread.activeCount();   provokes a compiler warning.  Why isn't it an error?  EDIT:  To be clear: question has nothing to do with Threads.  I realise Thread examples are often given when discussing this because of the potential to really mess things up with them.  But really the problem is that such usage is always nonsense and you can't (competently) write such a call and mean it.  Any example of this type of method call would be barmy.  Here's another:  String hello = "hello"; String number123AsString = hello.valueOf(123);   Which makes it look as if each String instance comes with a "String valueOf(int i)" method.