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  • M Michael Dunn

    It still bugs me that you can't write "new List" in C#, you have to write "new List()" But maybe I'm just a crusty old C++ guy. ;P

    --Mike-- Dunder-Mifflin, this is Pam

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    Brady Kelly
    wrote on last edited by
    #10

    The other day, I was staring at the screen nodding off, and I typed "var ls = List", and it looked so right. I ascended and send a messenger down to the C# 5 team. Just wait and see. :)

    I have been trying for weeks to get this little site indexed. If you wonder what it is, or would like some informal accommodation for the 2010 World Cup, please click on this link for Rhino Cottages.

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    • M Marc Clifton

      So, there's been a lot of posts about whether var (C# thingy, for those non-C# folks) is good, bad, or just ugly. Well, I can deal with: var foo = new List(); as an example, because it's obvious what foo is. What I really hate is something like this: var foo = factory.CreateAFoo() That's where I despise seeing a "var"! Marc

      Will work for food. Interacx

      I'm not overthinking the problem, I just felt like I needed a small, unimportant, uninteresting rant! - Martin Hart Turner

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      PIEBALDconsult
      wrote on last edited by
      #11

      Only use it where it's needed.

      Marc Clifton wrote:

      it's obvious what foo is

      Then don't use var.

      Marc Clifton wrote:

      That's where I despise seeing a "var"!

      And yet it makes a little more sense there.

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      • M Marc Clifton

        So, there's been a lot of posts about whether var (C# thingy, for those non-C# folks) is good, bad, or just ugly. Well, I can deal with: var foo = new List(); as an example, because it's obvious what foo is. What I really hate is something like this: var foo = factory.CreateAFoo() That's where I despise seeing a "var"! Marc

        Will work for food. Interacx

        I'm not overthinking the problem, I just felt like I needed a small, unimportant, uninteresting rant! - Martin Hart Turner

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        wout de zeeuw
        wrote on last edited by
        #12

        Marc Clifton wrote:

        var foo = new List();

        This is actually more typing than

        List foo = new List();

        so there it would be kinda useless too.

        Wout

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        • M Marc Clifton

          So, there's been a lot of posts about whether var (C# thingy, for those non-C# folks) is good, bad, or just ugly. Well, I can deal with: var foo = new List(); as an example, because it's obvious what foo is. What I really hate is something like this: var foo = factory.CreateAFoo() That's where I despise seeing a "var"! Marc

          Will work for food. Interacx

          I'm not overthinking the problem, I just felt like I needed a small, unimportant, uninteresting rant! - Martin Hart Turner

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          Robert Surtees
          wrote on last edited by
          #13

          Just make all undeclared variables vars and do away with the keyword altogether. ;)

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          • M Marc Clifton

            So, there's been a lot of posts about whether var (C# thingy, for those non-C# folks) is good, bad, or just ugly. Well, I can deal with: var foo = new List(); as an example, because it's obvious what foo is. What I really hate is something like this: var foo = factory.CreateAFoo() That's where I despise seeing a "var"! Marc

            Will work for food. Interacx

            I'm not overthinking the problem, I just felt like I needed a small, unimportant, uninteresting rant! - Martin Hart Turner

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            S Offline
            Shog9 0
            wrote on last edited by
            #14

            Marc Clifton wrote:

            var foo = factory.CreateAFoo() That's where I despise seeing a "var"!

            That's where I despise seeing factories... ;) Think about it: new List() obviously creates an instance of List, hence the utility of var. You'd expect CreateAFoo() to create an instance of something named Foo, thereby preserving the utility of var - since the author instead chose to return a list without indicating this anywhere in the method name, you're trapped, trapped like a rat, between the choice to write code that is verbose and code that is unclear. The problem hardly begins with var either; your code becomes similarly opaque if you pass the result of the Create... call directly as a parameter to another method.

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            • R Robert Surtees

              Just make all undeclared variables vars and do away with the keyword altogether. ;)

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              Luc Pattyn
              wrote on last edited by
              #15

              or use some other language, such as PHP. More freedom, more joy. :laugh:

              Luc Pattyn


              Have a look at my entry for the lean-and-mean competition; please provide comments, feedback, discussion, and don’t forget to vote for it! Thank you.


              Local announcement (Antwerp region): Lange Wapper? Neen!


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              • M Michael Dunn

                It still bugs me that you can't write "new List" in C#, you have to write "new List()" But maybe I'm just a crusty old C++ guy. ;P

                --Mike-- Dunder-Mifflin, this is Pam

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                Stuart Dootson
                wrote on last edited by
                #16

                Does the 'crusty old' relate to you or C++? ;P Use parentheses to disambiguate, young man - either (crusty old) (C++ guy) or (((crusty old) C++) guy)!

                Java, Basic, who cares - it's all a bunch of tree-hugging hippy cr*p

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                • N Nemanja Trifunovic

                  Marc Clifton wrote:

                  var foo = factory.CreateAFoo()

                  Meh, in your example foo is either Foo or IFoo. On a slightly related note: why on earth C# (or Java) need keyword new in the first place? It is completely redundant.

                  Programming Blog utf8-cpp

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                  Christian Graus
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #17

                  Nemanja Trifunovic wrote:

                  On a slightly related note: why on earth C# (or Java) need keyword new in the first place? It is completely redundant.

                  So objects can be null. So you can control where an object is declared ( as in, if they are a member, etc ), and also control when you pay the cost of creating them.

                  Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.

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                  • M Marc Clifton

                    So, there's been a lot of posts about whether var (C# thingy, for those non-C# folks) is good, bad, or just ugly. Well, I can deal with: var foo = new List(); as an example, because it's obvious what foo is. What I really hate is something like this: var foo = factory.CreateAFoo() That's where I despise seeing a "var"! Marc

                    Will work for food. Interacx

                    I'm not overthinking the problem, I just felt like I needed a small, unimportant, uninteresting rant! - Martin Hart Turner

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                    A Offline
                    Adam Maras
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #18

                    What if CreateAFoo() returns something ridiculous like IEnumerable<Dictionary<int, Dictionary<int, List<int>>>>?

                    Adam Maras | Software Developer Microsoft Certified Professional Developer

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                    • C Christian Graus

                      Nemanja Trifunovic wrote:

                      On a slightly related note: why on earth C# (or Java) need keyword new in the first place? It is completely redundant.

                      So objects can be null. So you can control where an object is declared ( as in, if they are a member, etc ), and also control when you pay the cost of creating them.

                      Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.

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                      Ian Shlasko
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #19

                      I kind of like the "new" keyword, but technically it shouldn't be needed, unless I'm missing something. Just playing devil's advocate here...

                      With: List<string> myList = new List<string>();
                      Without: List<string> myList = List<string>();

                      The parentheses would be enough to indicate that you're calling a constructor... I do think, though, that the "new" keyword keeps things clearer. There could be issues with functions named the same as classes, but that could technically be resolved with absolute references.

                      Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in? Developer, Author (Guardians of Xen)

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                      • M Marc Clifton

                        So, there's been a lot of posts about whether var (C# thingy, for those non-C# folks) is good, bad, or just ugly. Well, I can deal with: var foo = new List(); as an example, because it's obvious what foo is. What I really hate is something like this: var foo = factory.CreateAFoo() That's where I despise seeing a "var"! Marc

                        Will work for food. Interacx

                        I'm not overthinking the problem, I just felt like I needed a small, unimportant, uninteresting rant! - Martin Hart Turner

                        P Offline
                        P Offline
                        Pete OHanlon
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #20

                        Marc Clifton wrote:

                        var foo = factory.CreateAFoo() That's where I despise seeing a "var"!

                        So what you have here is var foo = factory.CreateAPoo();

                        "WPF has many lovers. It's a veritable porn star!" - Josh Smith

                        As Braveheart once said, "You can take our freedom but you'll never take our Hobnobs!" - Martin Hughes.

                        My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Onyx

                        M 1 Reply Last reply
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                        • A Adam Maras

                          What if CreateAFoo() returns something ridiculous like IEnumerable<Dictionary<int, Dictionary<int, List<int>>>>?

                          Adam Maras | Software Developer Microsoft Certified Professional Developer

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                          Ian Shlasko
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #21

                          public class MyRidiculousClass : IEnumerable<Dictionary<int, Dictionary<int, List<int>>>>
                          {
                          }

                          Now CreateAFoo() can return something legible :)

                          Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in? Developer, Author (Guardians of Xen)

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                          • W wout de zeeuw

                            Marc Clifton wrote:

                            var foo = new List();

                            This is actually more typing than

                            List foo = new List();

                            so there it would be kinda useless too.

                            Wout

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                            P Offline
                            PIEBALDconsult
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #22

                            var wasn't created to reduce keystrokes, and should not be used as such. Developers should strive to type more keystrokes, not fewer.

                            W K 2 Replies Last reply
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                            • I Ian Shlasko

                              I kind of like the "new" keyword, but technically it shouldn't be needed, unless I'm missing something. Just playing devil's advocate here...

                              With: List<string> myList = new List<string>();
                              Without: List<string> myList = List<string>();

                              The parentheses would be enough to indicate that you're calling a constructor... I do think, though, that the "new" keyword keeps things clearer. There could be issues with functions named the same as classes, but that could technically be resolved with absolute references.

                              Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in? Developer, Author (Guardians of Xen)

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                              C Offline
                              Christian Graus
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #23

                              OK, I guess that would work. If the method was not generic, what if you had an object called List, AND a method called List in scope that returns a List ?

                              Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.

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                              • P PIEBALDconsult

                                var wasn't created to reduce keystrokes, and should not be used as such. Developers should strive to type more keystrokes, not fewer.

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                                W Offline
                                wout de zeeuw
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #24

                                Huh? Isn't the point of var and anonymous types less typing? Otherwise one would type out all these types explicitly. Other than amount of typing I see no advantage in var.

                                Wout

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                                • W wout de zeeuw

                                  Marc Clifton wrote:

                                  var foo = new List();

                                  This is actually more typing than

                                  List foo = new List();

                                  so there it would be kinda useless too.

                                  Wout

                                  H Offline
                                  H Offline
                                  Henry Minute
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #25

                                  Parding? I've looked and looked at your post and according to my count your code has one more letter than Marc's. So how can his be more typing than yourn?

                                  Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”

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                                  • C Christian Graus

                                    OK, I guess that would work. If the method was not generic, what if you had an object called List, AND a method called List in scope that returns a List ?

                                    Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.

                                    I Offline
                                    I Offline
                                    Ian Shlasko
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #26

                                    Then there would have to be a standard rule to handle it, the same way the compiler handles ambiguous methods... Local gets priority over external, same assembly gets priority over referenced assembly... Anything that can't be resolved throws an error and forces you to prefix the class or namespace. (But again, just looking at the other side here - I think new is a good thing)

                                    Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in? Developer, Author (Guardians of Xen)

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                                    • H Henry Minute

                                      Parding? I've looked and looked at your post and according to my count your code has one more letter than Marc's. So how can his be more typing than yourn?

                                      Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”

                                      W Offline
                                      W Offline
                                      wout de zeeuw
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #27

                                      Well, at least in VS it is... as soon as you type "new " the autocompletion will happen. So you'll type "List" just once, whereas when using var you have to type the extra var.

                                      Wout

                                      H 1 Reply Last reply
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                                      • W wout de zeeuw

                                        Well, at least in VS it is... as soon as you type "new " the autocompletion will happen. So you'll type "List" just once, whereas when using var you have to type the extra var.

                                        Wout

                                        H Offline
                                        H Offline
                                        Henry Minute
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #28

                                        OK. Now I understand. :)

                                        Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”

                                        1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • P Pete OHanlon

                                          Marc Clifton wrote:

                                          var foo = factory.CreateAFoo() That's where I despise seeing a "var"!

                                          So what you have here is var foo = factory.CreateAPoo();

                                          "WPF has many lovers. It's a veritable porn star!" - Josh Smith

                                          As Braveheart once said, "You can take our freedom but you'll never take our Hobnobs!" - Martin Hughes.

                                          My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Onyx

                                          M Offline
                                          M Offline
                                          Mustafa Ismail Mustafa
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #29

                                          That would be a mess...

                                          If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Book: Devils by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Project: Hospital Automation, final stage Learning: Image analysis, LINQ Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?

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