Regions: Love or Hate

[dazfuller]

I have a love/hate relationship with regions. Personally I use them for breaking a code file into sections, so Fields, Properties, Public Methods etc... Now that I don't mind as I can still find things quite easily, I'm sure others might disagree but it works for me. What I hate is when developers put them around every method! Even worse is when they only use the method name instead of the whole signature, for example

#region MyMethod

public int MyMethod(int a, int b) { ... }

#endregion

#region MyMethod

public int MyMethod(int a, int b, string c) { ... }

#endregion

Which one is it that I need to look at? And what does this add as I can collapse the methods anyway! Seriously, if you do this then you should have your keyboard taken away from you until you know better!

[SimonRigby]

Dave Kerr wrote:

Now I hate them, each member of our team uses them differently.

I think that's the issue right there .. its not regions that's the problem .. its inconsistent use. You could say the same for any tool/practice. I use them to group things away that I don't need to see, like private members etc, and I use them consistently for this reason.

The only thing unpredictable about me is just how predictable I'm going to be.

[Brad Stiles]

Marcus_2 wrote:

Good, if used with some sense.

You mean, like almost everything else ever done in programming? :)

Currently reading: "Swords and Deviltry", by Fritz Leiber

[Remi BOURGAREL]

I always say : when you use region, just create another class ! It's useful only for generated code (like proxy class for web services)

[BrianPayne]

I LOVE regions, but only on a structured, limited basis. They are helpful to organize the class, but can get unruly if overused. I stick to several standard regions and alphabetize my methods, properties, etc, so that everything is easy to find. - Catalyst

[TNCaver]

It seems to me that you really don't hate regions, you just hate how they've been misused.

[8xFather]

I liked the idea but didn't use them very often because they didn't stand out when collapsed. After changing the “Collapsed Text” to orange in the options I use them a lot. Tools/Options/Environment/Fonts and Colors/Collapsed Text/Item foreground

[TNCaver]

I find them useful to separate true regions in the code, i.e., constructors, private properties, public properties, private methods and public methods. They are useful especially in code-behind pages with a lot of code that make for a lot of scrolling. When I collapse the code page to definitions, they are all you see between the class definition and Namespace declarations, making it easy to expand the region I'm looking for to view, edit or add to. Most of the comments I've seen here that oppose them seem to direct their hatred at how they are (mis)used, but don't really say why regions are in themselves bad. That's kind of like hating pencils because they can be used to write bad English. :)

[Naruki 0]

idiots people who like stupid space-wasting, conceptually-disorganized styles like Allman. But I guess the use of inferior editors that are incapable of brace matching, as well as dysfunctional eyes that cannot scan up-/downward to matching indents, are all factors in why they would give up as real developers need to use such a style. That, or they just really, really, really love Microsoft. 1TBS or GTFO

Narf.

[spencepk]

This is what I call abuse/overuse. It makes my eyes roll back in my head when I see this crap, comments would've been more than sufficient.

        foreach (DataRow currentRow in sortedTable.Table.Rows) {
            #region Load Data and set defaults
            creditCardNumber = currentRow\["CCNUMBER"\].ToString();
            cardHolder = currentRow\["CARDHOLDER"\].ToString();
            employeeId = currentRow\["EMPLCODE"\].ToString();
            deptNumber = currentRow\["DEPTCODE"\].ToString();
            accountNumber = currentRow\["GLCODE"\].ToString();
            expElemNumber = currentRow\["EXPELEM"\].ToString();
            fullRecord = currentRow\["FULLRECORD"\].ToString();
            isValidDept = true;
            isValidAcct = true;
            #endregion
            #region If Company Credit Card, don't process
            if (creditCardNumber == companyCard) {
                Trace.WriteLineIf(tron, "\[VERIFICATION\] Skipping Company Credit Card... ");
                continue;
            }
            else {
                this.statusReport.Text = "Verifying " + creditCardNumber + "...";
                this.rtbStatus.Text += "Verifying " + creditCardNumber + " \[" + cardHolder.Trim() + "\]...\\t";
                Trace.WriteLineIf(tron, "\[VERIFICATION\] Verifying Credit Card # : " + creditCardNumber);
                email\_er.Write("Credit Card Number: " + creditCardNumber + " for Card Holder: " + cardHolder.Trim() + "...");
            }
            #endregion
            #region Address Employee #, Dept #, Account #, and Expense Element
            if (employeeId.Trim().Length != 4) {
                employeeId = employeeId.PadLeft(4, '0');
            }
            if (deptNumber.Trim().Length != 4) {
                deptNumber = deptNumber.PadLeft(4, '0');
            }
            if (accountNumber.Trim().Length != 7) {
                accountNumber = accountNumber.PadLeft(7, '0');
            }
            if (expElemNumber.Trim().Length != 2) {
                expElemNumber = expElemNumber.PadLeft(2, '0');
            }
            #endregion
            #region Verify Deptartment Number from BoA File
            try {
                isValidDept = query.isValidDepartment(deptNumber);
                if (!isValidDept) Trace.WriteLineIf(tron, "\[VERIFICATION\] Bank of America Department is in

[Fernando A Gomez F]

I don't use them. I use Visual Studio's class explorer to navigate to the desired member, so don't need them. I don't mind if anybody else uses them though...

[John Boyett]

That makes a lot of sense. I might try using them that way.

[OriginalGriff]

Wouldn't know - I use Whitesmiths style. :-D

Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together. Manfred R. Bihy: "Looks as if OP is learning resistant."

[Naruki 0]

If anything, that is an even more retarded differently-abled variant of Allman. You have my sympathies. Hopefully, you are functional enough to be allowed to live a [mostly] normal adult life.

Narf.

[TNCaver]

That is a horrible misuse. Regions should never be used inside a code block, IMO.

[Kabwla Phone]

I think this is a good example of good usage. The advantage a region has over a comment is that a region can signal the end of your logical block. With a comment you would have to asume that the comment is valid until the next comment. And as you know, assumtion makes an ... out of u and me.

[Alan Burkhart]

I generally group code blocks in regions according to purpose. The file menu and edit menu each gets its own region, and printing, if the project does any printing. It helps me stay organized and makes various blocks of code easier to find.

XAlan Burkhart

[kp_brown]

That. Is. Insane.

[ScottK7]

Having spent the last 10-15 minutes learning more than I ever knew, cared to know, or ever dreamed there was to know, about the names (people waste their lives inventing names for this stuff???) and histories of these various indentation styles, I now feel my brain has been eternally and irrevocably damaged for the effort. Of all the 15 minute spans of my life that have gone to waste, I believe this one will be lamented the most. And, sorry, have to agree with the last poster about your choice of styles. :)

[Fabio Franco]

I find them useful to separate different regions inside a big class, like fields, properties, methods and constructors

"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson