Question

I have the following static function in c#

public static string Greet(string name)
    {
        string greeting = "welcome  ";

        // is it possible to pass this value to a label outside this static method?
        string concat = string.Concat(greeting, name);

        //error
        Label1.text = concat;

        //I want to return only the name
        return name;
    }

As you can see in the comments, I want to retain only the name as the return value, however I want to be able to take out the value of the concat variable to asign it to a label, but when i try the compiler refuses, can it be done? Is there a work around?

Thank you.

Answer 1

If the method must be static for some reason, the main approach here would be to pass any required state into the method – i.e. add a parameter to the method that is either the label or (better) some typed wrapper with a settable property like .Greeting:

public static string Greet(string name, YourType whatever)
{
    string greeting = "welcome  ";

    whatever.Greeting = string.Concat(greeting, name);

    return name;
}

(where YourType could be your control, or could be an interface allowing re-use)

What you don’t want to do is use static state or events – very easy to get memory leaks etc that way.

---

For example:

public static string Greet(string name, IGreetable whatever)
{
    string greeting = "welcome  ";

    whatever.Greeting = string.Concat(greeting, name);

    return name;
}
public interface IGreetable {
    string Greeting {get;set;}
}
public class MyForm : Form, IGreetable {
    // snip some designer code

    public string Greeting {
        get { return helloLabel.Text;}
        set { helloLabel.Text = value;}
    }

    public void SayHello() {
        Greet("Fred", this);
    }
}