CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.net
Naor
Naor

Reputation: 24063

declare variable outside of the foreach loop

In for loop case I can declare the index outside the for statement. For example, instead of

for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++) { }

I can do:

int i;
for (i = 0; i < 8; i++) { }

Now in compare to foreach loop, I have to declare the variable inside the loop:

foreach (string name in names) { }

And I cannot do something like:

string name;
foreach (name in names) { }

The reason this bothers me is that after the loop I want to use the variable "name" again. In case of foreach loop the variable "name" can't be used since it outside of the foreach scope, and I cannot declare another variable with the same name since it declared before in the same scope.

Any idea?

Upvotes: 15

Views: 11369

Answers (3)

Vladimir
Vladimir

Reputation: 3689

Maybe?

string name;
foreach (var tmp in names) { name = tmp; }

Upvotes: 1

Jon Skeet
Jon Skeet

Reputation: 1500535

Well, you can do:

string name = null; // You need to set a value in case the collection is empty
foreach (string loopName in names)
{
    name = loopName;
    // other stuff
}

Or more likely:

string name = null; // You need to set a value in case the collection is empty
foreach (string loopName in names)
{
    if (someCondition.IsTrueFor(loopName)
    {
        name = loopName;
        break;
    }
}

If the contents of the foreach loop is just to find a matching element - which at least sounds likely - then you should consider whether LINQ would be a better match:

string name = names.Where(x => x.StartsWith("Fred"))
                   .FirstOrDefault();

Using LINQ can often make code which is basically trying to find something a lot simpler to read.

Upvotes: 16

Darren Young
Darren Young

Reputation: 11090

You can't do this in foreach loops. You are creating and using a range variable whose scope is limited to the foreach query.

If you need to use an individual name from within the names collection then you can assign it to a value outside of the foreach loop:

foreach(string name in names)
{
    if(name == someCondition)
        someVariable = name;
}

Upvotes: 1

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