Question

Here’s my method:

   public static bool ValidateAddressCount(ref long o_addressCount)
    {
  // o_addressCount is modified here
  //return true or false
   }

I’ve reached some case when i don’t care what the method returns, i just need the o_adressCount
Is it a good practice to use this method in the following way:

  long addressCount =  0;
  ValidateAddressCount(ref addressCount); //without assigning the returned value to any variable
  //use address count

Also, can anyone explain why this works in .net?

Thank you

Answer 1

Why it works is easy:

long addressCount =  0;
ValidateAddressCount(ref addressCount);

is of the same form as

long addressCount =  0;
true;

Any <expression> ; is a valid statement.

There is a valid question here though:

• Why is there no warning for this syntax which is quite likely a mistake?

Because in general it is not a good practice to ignore a return value.