Question

Consider the following class

public class PlanetKrypton
 {
  public static void CallSuperManforHelp(string helpMessage, params object[] kryptonParams)
  {
   Console.WriteLine(String.Format(helpMessage,kryptonParams));
  }

  public static void CallSuperManforHelp(string helpMessage ,string sender,string senderZipCode)
  {
   Console.WriteLine("{0} from {1}. I am {2}", helpMessage, sender, senderZipCode);
  }
 }

 public class ConsoleMan
 {
  public static void Main(string[] args)
  {
   string helpMessage = "I have a flat tire";
   string sender = "Jerry";
   int wrongZipType = 12345;


   PlanetKrypton.CallSuperManforHelp(helpMessage, sender, wrongZipType);
   PlanetKrypton.CallSuperManforHelp(helpMessage);
  }
 }

Now, if I have a more strongly typed method signature in the first method, I would have gotten a compile time error for both these method calls.

Are there any “best practices” for using params in method signature ?

Edit:Am making this a community wiki

Answer 1

I would avoid using params[] object. What I would do is create a class that encapsulates the three strings in your second overload:

public class HelpStuff
{
   public string Message{get;set;}
   public string Help{get;set;}
   public string ZipCode{get;set;}
}

Then have two overloads like this:

  public static void CallSuperManforHelp(string helpMessage, params string[] kryptonParams)
    {
            //do work
    }

    public static void CallSuperManforHelp(HelpStuff helpStuff)
    {
           //do work
    }