Question

Normally, I program .NET in C#, but currently I am updating a project written in VB.NET and have noticed a curious syntax being used in For Each loops.

Is there any difference between

For Each x in collection.Items
    ...
Next

and

For Each x in collection.Items
    ...
Next x

?

I have seen both in the code here and was curious why someone would use the second variation.

Answer 1

This is specified like so on the MSDN Reference:

You can optionally specify element in the Next statement. This
improves the readability of your program, especially if you have
nested For Each loops. You must specify the same variable as the one
that appears in the corresponding For Each statement.

Original can be found here – fifth para under Remarks section:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/5ebk1751.aspx