Poor var (C#)

[hairy_hats]

Possibly because if you want to find a List variable in a long list of declarations, it's much easier to run your eye down a vertical line of types on the left hand side of the = than to have to scan left and right on each line to find the declaration type. var for Linq queries I can see the value of, var for every declaration is confusing.

I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine

[Brady Kelly]

I was at a DevDays lecture when 'var' was introduced to the audience. I had a phat laugh at all the self-important 'experts' whose disparaging comments you could hear flying around the audience. The sounded like a bunch of church elders would on hearing one of their members had had his ear pierced.

[Brady Kelly]

How about looking for the variable name that should indicate it being a list, or do you declare List v1 = new List();? I would quickly scan down my list and find var studentList = new List();

[Brady Kelly]

_Maxxx_ wrote:

It is a var, var better thing I do, than I have ever done; it is a var, var better rest I go to, than I have ever knownthrown.

FTFY :)

[hairy_hats]

Maybe we could stick to the status quo but enforce column alignments à la Fortran to make all this scanning easier? ;)

I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine

[Simon Pickersgill]

Ctrl + F

[Brady Kelly]

I once built a column aligning editor for a COBOL project. Impressed my cute team mate quite a bit, where others were all using notepad and counting columns, ours had tab settings at all the right columns. :)

[Adriaan Davel]

I think it has big strengths and big weaknesses, if used badly its going to cause confusion, if used correclty it will assist greatly. One rule that I have (and that I love var for) is the variable naming MUST be good else code becomes less readable...

____________________________________________________________ Be brave little warrior, be VERY brave

[Adriaan Davel]

Hmmm, I think I like the way you think... :cool:

____________________________________________________________ Be brave little warrior, be VERY brave

[KramII]

This is pure anti-varist propaganda. If there is an enemy in the camp, it is not var. The much-maligned VB party strives not for anarchy, but for freedom with responsibility. The VB party does not condone any acts of violence perpetrated with var or any other tool at our disposal. We do seek to free, but we also strive to educate. Now, we do openly acknowledge that there are those within out ranks who misappropriate the libertarian message of var, who misuse its expressiveness to undermine productivity and pollute the code-base. However, var is not the cause of poor practice, but merely a tool of convenience for the unlearned hack. Take away var and these uneducated code-manglers will find a myriad other techniques to defile your code. They will tangle your classes, force your file handles permanently open, race your threads until they lock, or leach your resources with their crude algorithms and ugle data structures. So, we recognise that there are those who misuse the tools we provide, but argue that this is true of every party, regardless of colour and flag. And may I say this to those who besmirch the good name of the VB party: you speak of the impurity promoted by var, but ignore a greater danger: providing unregulated access to the world of unmanaged code, a realm where the uninitiated are free to dangle their pointers without reprise nor censure! He who is without sin, my friends, he who is without sin.

KramII

[BillWoodruff]

5 ! At last I meet a "worthy opponent." best, Bill

"Many : not conversant with mathematical studies, imagine that because it [the Analytical Engine] is to give results in numerical notation, its processes must consequently be arithmetical, numerical, rather than algebraical and analytical. This is an error. The engine can arrange and combine numerical quantities as if they were letters or any other general symbols; and it fact it might bring out its results in algebraical notation, were provisions made accordingly." Ada, Countess Lovelace, 1844

[Daniel Grunwald]

unsafe was named so 'scary' and buried under an extra compiler option that nearly no one is using it. I've seen code doing manual marshaling (Marshal.AllocHGlobal, Marshal.Copy, etc.) for P/Invoke calls which could have been replaced with a simple fixed block around the P/Invoke call.

[Anders 0]

Or even better:

var students = new List();

That way, you're not repeating yourself... ;)

[Luc Pattyn]

That is no good. var studentList = new List(); is bad in two ways: 1. now it will say "List" every time you need to reference your students collection, that is even more typing with var than without it; 2. if and when you decide to change your collection type (say to SortedList, Dictionary, whatever) you have to rename all those "studentList" references. And obviously List v1 = new List(); is very bad, it should have been List students = new List(); :)

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]

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[Gary Wheeler]

Steve_Harris wrote:

enforce column alignments à la Fortran

Oh varf, er, barf.

Software Zen: delete this;

[csharphacker]

I guess I don't get all the hoopla over var? What happens if you were to initialize your variables and use them elsewhere? List records = null; records = new List(); Also, what kind of overhead does var add to your applications when you use it everywhere? It's like a lot of new features in C# (don't get me started on extension methods). They were added to allow LINQ to be implemented, but should NOT be used in general, everyday programming tasks (unless you are using LINQ) Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps. - Emo Phillips

[Netblue]

Your kidding right? I have seen that code a million times written by other developers.

Proudly drinking the finest Maryland craft beer. Visiting Maryland for business? First round is on me!

[Mark J Miller]

I say, use it or don't but it doesn't really save you typing - ever heard of intellisense? Try it, count how many total keystrokes it takes to use var verses typing the whole thing out using intellisense as soon as you get the option. Most of the time you'll type more than 3 characters on the left side to declare the type, but intellisense will then give you the right side for free (1 keystroke to accept the selected type from the intellisense list). You break even - so that little girl w/ the cripped fingers == propaganda :P

Code responsibly: OWASP.org Mark's blog: developMENTALmadness.blogspot.com Click here for Free Industry White Papers/Magazines! Bill Cosby - "A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice."

[grgran]

"shoe shopping" ??????? What kind of programmers are you hanging out with ... there is exactly one type of flip-flop ... cheap ... shopping is not really an issue. Chocolate is is only slightly more complicated, it comes in three forms; large, rich and "large and rich". The third is always perferred but not always available. :-)

[Pascal Ganaye]

Vb has it but they managed to re-use the dim keyword rather that creating a new var keyword. Normal Declarations (without using var):

C# : int x;
VB : dim x as integer

Using var (and Option Infer in VB)

C# : var x = 5;
VB : dim x = 5

Note that VB as also a nice compact dim ... as new ... syntax:

C# : var x = new Button();
VB : dim x as new Button()

Both language look very similar to me now.