Do nothing keyword in C#?

Question

Is there a keyword to 'do nothing' in C#?

For example I want to use a ternary operator where one of the actions is to take no action:

officeDict.ContainsKey("0") ? DO NOTHING : officeDict.Add("0","")

In your example, you should use an "if" statement instead of a ternary operator. — Fabio, Oct 18 '12 at 14:33
In your example you actually do not need a ternary operator, an `IF` block is enough. In other cases it depends. — Alberto De Caro, Oct 18 '12 at 14:34
I cant help but feel like im getting trolled on this question. =p — Richard Small, Oct 18 '12 at 17:40
This question was closed as "not a real question". It may not be a great question, yet it seems to be a real question since it was asked again: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/41146905/do-nothing-when-other-side-of-ternary-operator-is-reached/41146937#41146937 — Tot Zam, Dec 15 '16 at 04:38

score 43 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:32

No, there is no such keyword. Besides, the ?: operator is not meant for deciding actions. It's meant for deciding values (or, more technically, value expressions).

You really, really want to use an if condition for this sort of decision-making instead:

if (!officeDict.ContainsKey("0"))
    officeDict.Add("0", "");

score 21 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:38

21

As others have pointed out, using an if statement is far more idiomatic here.

But to answer what you ask, you can use lambdas and delegates:

// Bad code, do not use:
(officeDict.ContainsKey("0") ? (Action)(() => { }) : () => officeDict.Add("0", ""))();

answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:38

Ani

111,048
26
262
307

14

Credit for actually providing a working solution. Even if it is friggin retarded... – Maxim Gershkovich Oct 19 '12 at 06:36

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:41

Setting aside the fact that this is a bad idea, you actually can create a 'DoNothing' method using an attribute to conditionally emit the method call (note this relies on the convention that you don't #define a 'NEVER' condition.) Because of the ConditionalAttribute, calls to the method will not be emitted and you essentially have a 'nop' section of code.

       [Conditional("NEVER")] 
       public void DoNothing() 
       { 
       }

Still, as several others have already pointed out, this is not recommended.

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:33

5

Why do you want to use a ternary operator, if you only want to do something in one of the cases ? Why don't you just invert the condition and use an if statement ?

if (!officeDict.ContainsKey("0"))
{
    officeDict.Add("0","")
}

answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:33

Frederik Gheysels

56,135
11
101
154

1

Good advice: Don't write spaces before question marks, it looks unprofessional. – Tom Pažourek Oct 26 '12 at 16:45

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:32

3

The ternary operator is for expressions, not statements.

You want an if statement.

answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:32

SLaks

868,454
176
1,908
1,964

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:34

3

Why not just use an if statement so the code looks like this:

if(!officeDict.ContainsKey("0"))
    officeDict.Add("0","")

answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:34

Chris

2,885
18
25

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:33

2

Why not write it with a simple if?

if (!officeDict.ContainsKey("0"))
    officeDict.Add("0","")

It will be far more readable.

answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:33

Otiel

18,404
16
78
126

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:33

2

Why don't you just use an IF statement for this?

if(!officeDict.ContainsKey("0")) officeDict.Add("0","");

answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:33

Darius

5,180
5
47
62

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:33

2

Use an if statement instead.

if (!officeDict.ContainsKey("0")) 
{
    officeDict.Add("0","")
}

answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:33

Kyle Trauberman

25,414
13
85
121

score -3 · Answer 10 · answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:35

-3

Try this (grinns)

    if (officeDict.ContainsKey("0")) 
       Thread.Sleep(1) 
   else
       officeDict.Add("0","")

answered Oct 18 '12 at 14:35

lboshuizen

2,746
17
20

Do nothing keyword in C#?

10 Answers10

Linked

Related