Question

In for loop case I can declare the index outside the for statement. For example, instead of

for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++) { }

I can do:

int i;
for (i = 0; i < 8; i++) { }

Now in compare to foreach loop, I have to declare the variable inside the loop:

foreach (string name in names) { }

And I cannot do something like:

string name;
foreach (name in names) { }

The reason this bothers me is that after the loop I want to use the variable “name” again. In case of foreach loop the variable “name” can’t be used since it outside of the foreach scope, and I cannot declare another variable with the same name since it declared before in the same scope.

Any idea?

Answer 1

Well, you can do:

string name = null; // You need to set a value in case the collection is empty
foreach (string loopName in names)
{
    name = loopName;
    // other stuff
}

Or more likely:

string name = null; // You need to set a value in case the collection is empty
foreach (string loopName in names)
{
    if (someCondition.IsTrueFor(loopName)
    {
        name = loopName;
        break;
    }
}

If the contents of the foreach loop is just to find a matching element – which at least sounds likely – then you should consider whether LINQ would be a better match:

string name = names.Where(x => x.StartsWith("Fred"))
                   .FirstOrDefault();

Using LINQ can often make code which is basically trying to find something a lot simpler to read.