use of unassigned local variable error

Question

2.52/5 (6 votes)

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C#

static void Main(string[] args)
        {
             string res;

            for (int i = 1; i <= 4; i++)
            {
                if (i == 1) res = "1";
                else

                     res = "" + i + res + i;//error in -res- in this statement

                    Console.WriteLine(res);

            }
        }

Posted 26-Oct-14 3:12am

sashkhdr

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Richard MacCutchan 26-Oct-14 9:15am

And?

PIEBALDconsult 26-Oct-14 10:06am

And look in to System.String.Format

8 solutions

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-26T07:39:00

You made two big mistakes here.

First, all local variable should be initialized (for type members, initialization by default is used).
You would need to initialize if as string res = string.Empty; but this is not a solution yet.

Your second big mistake is repeated concatenation using the same string. You should never do it. Why? Because strings are immutable. None of the string functions modify a string, they all create a brand-new string. You never concatenate anything of the same object. Concatenation creates a brand-new string object and copies all the data from two concatenating strings. Many intermediate objects are created; and data is moved back and forth. This is bad for performance.

So, you need to use the mutable representation of string, code System.Text.StringBuilder. It is initialized through constructor:

C#

System.Text.StringBuilder sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder(); // empty
// and so on...

[EDIT]

Also, I forgot to mention that you "concatenate" integer with string (in fact, implicit ToString() call creates a string; than two strings are concatenated). Even though it works, I agree with Maciej (please see our discussions in comment and in comments to his Solution 4): this is a pretty bad practice. The StringBuilder.Append(int) would also work.

When you explicitly use int.ToString, you can control the format of the string output (there are many ToString methods for all types, with different parameters controlling output format). Besides, it makes your code more explicitly showing what is done.

—SA

Mehdi Gholam · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-26T03:19:00

Solution 2

Try :

C#

...
string res = ""; // set it to blank
...

Posted 26-Oct-14 3:19am

Mehdi Gholam

Comments

Maciej Los 26-Oct-14 10:10am

Mehdi, please read my comment to the solution 1 and see my answer too ;)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 26-Oct-14 13:31pm

I advice to use string.Empty instead of "". This way, one can have most files with no single ", such code is easier to support.
—SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 26-Oct-14 13:50pm

First, string.empty should be used; it's really good to avoid "". Please see my comment to Solution 4.

And this is not the only problem. Please see my Solution 5.

—SA

Maciej Los · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-26T04:09:00

Solution 4

Few things:
1) You need to properly set string variable:

C#

string res = string.Empty;

2) You can't add string to integer value or cancatenate both this way:
C#

res = "" + i + res + i;

You need to convert it and concatenate:

C#

res = "" + i.ToString() + res + i.ToString();

or via using String.Concat method[^].

Posted 26-Oct-14 4:09am

Maciej Los

Updated 26-Oct-14 7:54am

v2

Comments

Mehdi Gholam 26-Oct-14 10:28am

Technically when the left of a + will auto convert to the right of the + so the ToString() is not needed and the CLR will auto convert to string.

This has the added value of if the right is null then you don't get an exception -> string s = "" + null; // = ""

Maciej Los 26-Oct-14 10:32am

Technically, yes, but is it good programming practice? Please, read Kornfeld's comment to the solution 1.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 26-Oct-14 13:47pm

Right, it would be a bad programming practice. This is acceptable in Javascript, but even in VB.NET I would recommend to avoid it.
—SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 26-Oct-14 13:45pm

Maciej,

Unfortunately, this time you made too many big mistakes for this post to survive. Let's see

"string" can be and should be used. The language is case-sensitive, but in language, "string" is the alias of System.String (int is alias of System.Int32, uint — if System.UInt32, and so on). These aliases can be and should be used; they are part of the language, not just of BCL.

string.Empty should be used. There is no string.Empty(). This is a readonly public field.

You recommended to use repeated concatenation, as OP is already doing. This is bad. Strings are immutable. For efficient repeated concatenation, System.Text.StringBuilder must be used, nothing else. I explained it in Solution 5; please see.

I would really advise you to remove this bad answer.

—SA

Maciej Los 26-Oct-14 14:02pm

Agree only with first note, but... If string is alias for System.String, which represents string in Unicode characters, is it wrong to use it (technically)? Disagree with others. Please, read my answer again. I recommend OP to convert integer to string or use String.Concat method. Yes, StringBuilder class is very useful in this case.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 26-Oct-14 14:19pm

You already changed Empty() to Empty. It means, you were agree on that item, too. :-)

Alias means that string is exactly the same as System.String. All strings and characters are Unicode in .NET; so this aspect is irrelevant. It is not wrong to use "string". To me, it's even better; you emphasize that you use the same type in its shorter form, considering it as a part of the language. What's wrong with that.

What else do you disagree with and why? How about reading my answer?

Thank you.

—SA

Maciej Los 26-Oct-14 14:59pm

Yes, i changed it (String.Epmty()->string.Empty), because it was a 'typing mistake' (of course String has been changed to string with respective to your comment).
I've already read your answer and posted my comment.

User 11060979 · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-26T03:20:00

Solution 3

Simply by:

C#

string res= "";

And yes, also I feel this is very strange, because e.g. int does not have this behaviour.

[EDIT]
I was wrong, also int does Show this behaviour (I'm c++ damaged, but does not excuse anything. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6032638/default-variable-value[^]
[/EDIT]

Posted 26-Oct-14 3:20am

User 11060979

Updated 26-Oct-14 4:05am

v4

Comments

Maciej Los 26-Oct-14 10:09am

Bruno, please read my comment to the solution 1 and see my answer too ;)

[no name] 26-Oct-14 10:35am

I read it and voted my 5. I was too much fixed on initialisation Problem. But it triggered me to think more about these things. I basically work with c++ (embarcadero, former borland). String was a thing which I always assumed if I instantiate it, that it is simply an empty string. On the other hand e.g. int I always initialized it explicitly. Now I'm really asking me why I assumed all the time, that string should be empty by default...maybe because if I instantiate any class I assume the class is ready to go. I do not like to distinguish between simple and complex types. It becomes too much philosophics ;)

Maciej Los 26-Oct-14 10:39am

Thank you, Bruno.
Short conclusion: C++ is not the same as C# ;)

[no name] 26-Oct-14 10:48am

So it is. Please tell next time you have dinner with Bill Gates that I'm still missing a deterministic destructor for c# ;)
Kind regards, Bruno

Maciej Los 26-Oct-14 10:52am

Who is Bill Gates? I don't know Him ;)
:laugh:
Rather than Bill, i prefer beautiful women (as my wife is) ;)

[no name] 26-Oct-14 10:57am

I think you took the right choice!

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 26-Oct-14 13:49pm

First, string.empty should be used; it's really good to avoid "". Please see my comment to Solution 4.

You recommended to use repeated concatenation, as OP is already doing. This is bad. Strings are immutable. For efficient repeated concatenation, System.Text.StringBuilder must be used, nothing else. I explained it in Solution 5; please see.

—SA

[no name] 26-Oct-14 14:27pm

I know you are responsible for it, but why a string can not be empty by default? Any of "my own" written classes I do not have to assign MyClass.Empty....a noob's meaning ;)

And btw: "You recommended to use repeated concatenation, as OP is already doing". No I did not recommended it. I was only focused on the subject "unassigned".

Robert Welliever 27-Oct-14 3:18am

String.Empty is an unnecessary abstraction with no performance advantage or additional readability, and using StringBuilder for string concatenation is not always faster.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 27-Oct-14 5:17am

I appreciate your critical view of things. In principle, you are right. This abstractions is not related to performance. It is related to... abstractions. In practice, this is related to maintainability. You may find it weird, but I find it important to have mass of files without a single " character. I hope you can guess why. In such cases, "" is the only hassle, which would spoil, for example, the check up with the global text search. To me, code text with "" just looks dirty. Again, this is not a very principle thing.

"Not always faster" is not a great excuse. This is, again, a maintenance thing. Say, you have a cycle; and a number of the iterations is a variable. In this value is a small number, even if the StringBuilder is not faster, the time is short; but when the number of iterations becomes bigger, the performance becomes a problem.

—SA

BillWoodruff · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-26T12:13:00

I think I'll join the party:

C#

private string buildIt(int n)
{
    string temp = "1";

    var sb1 = new StringBuilder(temp);

    var sb2 = new StringBuilder();
    sb2.AppendLine(temp);

    for (int i = 2; i <= n; i++)
    {
        sb1.Replace(temp, i + temp + i);
        temp = sb1.ToString();
        sb2.AppendLine(temp);
    }

    return sb2.ToString();
}

// sample call:
string result = buildIt(4);

sashkhdr · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-26T17:47:00

C#

static void Main(string[] args)
        {
             string res="";
 
            for (int i = 1; i <= 4; i++)
            {
                if (i == 1) res = "1";
                else
 
                     res = "" + i + res + i;//error in -res- in this statement

                    Console.WriteLine(res);
 
            }
        }

vijayadav · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-26T20:42:00

Solution 8

hello dear !

if your loop iteration is more than ten times you use StringBuilder
else you can use

C#

string str= string.Empty;

StringBuilder sb=new Stringbuilder();
sb.append(vlaue);

OR

//its better than str="";

string str= string.Empty;

string str="";

Posted 26-Oct-14 20:42pm

vijayadav

sashkhdr · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-26T03:18:00

Solution 1

C#

static void Main(string[] args)
        {
             string res="";

            for (int i = 1; i <= 4; i++)
            {
                if (i == 1) res = "1";
                else

                     res = "" + i + res + i;
                    Console.WriteLine(res);

            }
        }

Posted 26-Oct-14 3:18am

sashkhdr

Updated 26-Oct-14 4:04am

v2

Comments

Maciej Los 26-Oct-14 10:04am

You can't add string to integer values! You can't concatenate both this way!

Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter 26-Oct-14 10:24am

In fact adding strings and int is NOT a compile time error (and that makes it more dangerous), as compiler will handle the automatic type convert fro those types, but at run-time the value of the strings can make such an addition a disaster!!!

[no name] 26-Oct-14 10:44am

Sorry, I can't vote a comment, but this comment is worth more then a five ;)
Regards, Bruno

Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter 26-Oct-14 10:45am

Thank you...

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 26-Oct-14 13:49pm

First, string.empty should be used; it's really good to avoid "". Please see my comment to Solution 4.

You recommended to use repeated concatenation, as OP is already doing. This is bad. Strings are immutable. For efficient repeated concatenation, System.Text.StringBuilder must be used, nothing else. I explained it in Solution 5; please see.

—SA

Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter 26-Oct-14 13:55pm

Are you sure this post is for me?!
All I stated that this kind of writing is much more dangerous than it looks like, as it does not generate compile time error, but can produce disastrous results...

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 26-Oct-14 14:02pm

Sorry, no. My idea was: in this position of the comment reply tree, it will be cause notifications to all participant of this discussion, including the author of the answer. Please forgive me for using your post and disturbing you in this way.
—SA

Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter 26-Oct-14 14:05pm

Nothing happened - I just thought that you made a mistake :-) (It's good idea to post on the last and in that way notify all who interested in the topic - I didn't know it works like that but from now I will use it when appropriate, thank you!)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 26-Oct-14 14:20pm

:-)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 26-Oct-14 13:49pm

First, string.empty should be used; it's really good to avoid "". Please see my comment to Solution 4.

You recommended to use repeated concatenation, as OP is already doing. This is bad. Strings are immutable. For efficient repeated concatenation, System.Text.StringBuilder must be used, nothing else. I explained it in Solution 5; please see.

—SA

use of unassigned local variable error

8 solutions

Solution 5

Solution 2

Solution 4

Solution 3

Solution 6

Solution 7

Solution 8

Solution 1

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