Question

My .NET Windows application has multiple instances of being able to open and view text files. I have no problem getting this to work when I create individual openFileDialogs through my code. In trying to clean up my code, I created a method, but I am fairly new and am getting a red squiggly. Can someone please look at this and tell me what I am doing wrong? Thanks.

I am trying to call the method as shown here:

textBox_ViewFile.Text = LoadFromFile();

Then my method is as follows:

static string[] LoadFromFile()
    {
        OpenFileDialog openFileDialog1 = new OpenFileDialog();
        openFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = "c:\\";
        openFileDialog1.Filter = "Text files (*.txt)|*.txt|All files (*.*)|*.*";
        openFileDialog1.RestoreDirectory = false;
        openFileDialog1.ShowHelp = true;

        if (openFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
        {
            try
            {
                if (openFileDialog1.OpenFile() != null)
                {
                    return (File.ReadAllLines(openFileDialog1.FileName));
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("Error: Could not read file from disk. Original error: " + ex.Message);
            }
        }
    }

In this case, I am getting a syntax error in VS2010 under “LoadFromFile()” from

static string[] LoadFromFile()"

Answer 1

You’re missing a return statement if either of your if statements are false

    if (openFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
    {
        try
        {
            if (openFileDialog1.OpenFile() != null)
            {
                return (File.ReadAllLines(openFileDialog1.FileName));
            }
            // missing
            return null;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("Error: Could not read file from disk. Original error: " + ex.Message);
            // missing
            return null;
        }
    }
    // missing
    return null;