Question

In C# you can do this:

foo = string.Format("{0} {1} {2} {3} ...", "aa", "bb", "cc" ...);

This method Format() accepts infinite parameters, being the first one how the string should be formatted and the rest are values to be put in the string.

Today I’ve come to a situation where I had to get a set of strings and test them, then I remembered this language functionality, but I had no clue. After a few unsuccessful web searches, I’ve realised it would be more prudent to just get an array, which didn’t make me quite satisfied.

Q: How do I make a function that accepts infinite parameters? And how do I use it ?

Answer 1

With the params keyword.

Here is an example:

    public int SumThemAll(params int[] numbers)
    {
        return numbers.Sum();
    }

    public void SumThemAllAndPrintInString(string s, params int[] numbers)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(string.Format(s, SumThemAll(numbers)));
    }

    public void MyFunction()
    {
        int result = SumThemAll(2, 3, 4, 42);
        SumThemAllAndPrintInString("The result is: {0}", 1, 2, 3);
    }

The code shows various things. First of all the argument with the params keyword must always be last (and there can be only one per function). Furthermore, you can call a function that takes a params argument in two ways. The first way is illustrated in the first line of MyFunction where each number is added as a single argument. However, it can also be called with an array as is illustrated in SumThemAllAndPrintInString which calls SumThemAll with the int[] called numbers.