CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#methods
user3248647
user3248647

Reputation: 87

Methods with classname as a return type

I'm new in c# or any type of programming language. When I see codes in c# I found there are lot of confusions are over here. one of them I want to clarify from here. Methods common structure is

<modifier><return type><method name>()
{
//do any thing
return <abc which should same as return type which declared above>;
}

in above said example I saw many times in <return type> use of <class name>, <dictionary> etc. but natural these are also user defined types. so this also should be here. But, never stood what happened actually here when we use "class name" in place of string or any data type?

Please let me understand this with easy words, and easy examples.

class StockData
{
    public int StockID { get; set; };
    public double CurrentPrice { get; set; };
    public string StockName { get; set; };
}

class GetStock
{
    public StockData /*(this is the same name which is the class name above)*/ GetStockData(string symbol)
    {
        //something
        return /*(what will be the return type?)*/;
    }
}

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3798

Answers (2)

dav_i
dav_i

Reputation: 28097

So if we have a class Triangle and a method GetTriangle which has the parameter isBlue.

public class Triangle
{
    public string Colour { get; set; }
}

public Triangle GetTriangle(bool isBlue)
{
    Triangle resultTriangle;

    if (isBlue)
    {
        resultTriangle = new Triangle { Colour = "Blue" };
    }
    else
    {
        resultTriangle = new Triangle { Colour = "Red" };
    }

    return resultTriangle;
}

We can call GetTriangle with an argument of true or false like so:

Triangle blueTriangle = GetTriangle(true);

Triangle redTriangle = GetTriangle(false);

Both of the results of GetTriangle are Triangles, even though they contain different data (in this case a different Colour).

Like a child's wood-block toy, the compiler checks what the "shape" of the data is, not what colour it is. So if you try to return a Square from a method which returns Triangle then the compiler will throw an error in the same way you wouldn't be able to put a square block in a triangle hole.

Upvotes: 1

Nitin Joshi
Nitin Joshi

Reputation: 1668

In GetStockData method return type would be StockData i.e. you will have to return an instance of StockData class or any sub-class inherited from StockData. It depends on your code whether you create that instance in the GetStockData method or get from some other method, but surely type of the instance should be StockData or any sub-class inherited from StockData class.

Upvotes: 1

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