Question

I’ve got the following c# code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace StringTest
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

               String strSQLCode;
            strSQLCode = " select rank() over (order by percentagecorrect desc, totalmilliseconds asc) as rank, * "
                      += " from view_dg_game_details gd (nolock) "
                      += " where gd.gametypeid = {0} " 
                      += " and gd.numberofrounds = {1} "
                      += " and gd.gamevalues = '{2}' ";
        }
    }
}

For some reason I’m getting an error “The left-hand side of an assignment must be a variable, property or indexer”.

I can’t see what the error is trying to tell me. I’ve commented out the offending line but the error simply moves up a line.

I can get the string concation to working using this method:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace StringTest
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            String strSQLCode;
            strSQLCode = " select rank() over (order by percentagecorrect desc, totalmilliseconds asc) as rank, * ";
            strSQLCode = strSQLCode +  " from view_dg_game_details gd (nolock) ";
            strSQLCode = strSQLCode + " where gd.gametypeid = {0} ";
            strSQLCode = strSQLCode + " and gd.numberofrounds = {1} ";
            strSQLCode = strSQLCode + " and gd.gamevalues = '{2}' ";            
        }
    }
}

Can someone explain to me what this error is about?

Thanks

Ken

Answer 1

Because you can’t string together += operators without repeating the variable that you’re operating on:

strSQLCode = @"select rank() over (order by percentagecorrect desc, 
                                            totalmilliseconds asc) as rank, * ";
strSQLCode += " from view_dg_game_details gd (nolock) ";
strSQLCode += " where gd.gametypeid = {0} ";
strSQLCode += " and gd.numberofrounds = {1} ";
strSQLCode += " and gd.gamevalues = '{2}' ";

If you want to declare it as a “long” one liner, just use +

strSQLCode = @"select rank() over (order by percentagecorrect desc, 
                                            totalmilliseconds asc) as rank, * "
           + " from view_dg_game_details gd (nolock) "
           + " where gd.gametypeid = {0} " 
           + " and gd.numberofrounds = {1} "
           + " and gd.gamevalues = '{2}' ";

Or, if you don’t want any of that, you could just use a single string literal:

strSQLCode = 
    @"select rank() over (order by percentagecorrect desc, 
                                totalmilliseconds asc) as rank, *
      from view_dg_game_details gd (nolock)
      where gd.gametypeid = {0}
          and gd.numberofrounds = {1}
          and gd.gamevalues = '{2}' ";