What is the equivalent syntax in C#, if any?

Question

Does C# have any equivalent for VB6

With 
End With

This is a question you should read http://stackoverflow.com/questions/283749/the-vb-net-with-statement-embrace-or-avoid — John Hartsock, Nov 29 '10 at 15:34
The closest you can come is a *really short* variable name. ;) For object initialization, see Jon Skeet's answer. — Anthony Pegram, Nov 29 '10 at 15:35

score 19 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 29 '10 at 15:33

19

There's nothing quite equivalent, but C# 3 gained the ability to set properties on construction:

var person = new Person { Name = "Jon", Age = 34 };

And collections:

var people = new List<Person>
{
    new Person { Name = "Jon" },
    new Person { Name = "Holly"}
};

It's definitely not a replacement for all uses of With, but worth knowing for some of them.

answered Nov 29 '10 at 15:33

Jon Skeet

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How is anonymous construction related to With blocks? (The asker is clearly referring to the block.) – Craig Gidney Nov 29 '10 at 17:07
1

@Strilanc: Because With blocks are often used to set multiple properties on a newly-constructed object... and object initializers are the equivalent for *that* bit in C#. – Jon Skeet Nov 29 '10 at 17:07
Oh I see. I confused the anonymous and initialization syntaxes. – Craig Gidney Nov 29 '10 at 17:10
`With` can be used to hold a temporary instance -- `With New cMyClass` -- and then actually call methods (not just init props) before it going out of scope. – wqw Nov 29 '10 at 21:54

score 14 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 29 '10 at 15:33

14

C# does not have any equivalent syntax. The closest are object initializers, but they are not the same:

var obj = new SomeThing {
    Height = 100,
    Text = "Hello, World",
    ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Green
}

answered Nov 29 '10 at 15:33

Botz3000

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score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 29 '10 at 15:34

6

No.

What comes close are object and list initializers.

Person p = new Person()
{
    FirstName = "John",
    LastName = "Doe",
    Address = new Address()
    {
        Street = "1234 St.",
        City = "Seattle"
    }
};

answered Nov 29 '10 at 15:34

Kris van der Mast

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score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 29 '10 at 15:38

4

It is by no means an equivalent, however, if it is the typing you're trying to reduce, you can do.

{
  var o = myReallyReallyReallyReallyLongObjectName;
  o.Property1 = 1;
  o.Property2 = 2;
  o.Property3 = 3;
}

answered Nov 29 '10 at 15:38

Robin Day

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score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 29 '10 at 15:34

2

There is no C# equivalent to Visual Basic's With keyword.

answered Nov 29 '10 at 15:34

JeffFerguson

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score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 29 '10 at 15:35

2

There is no equivalent in c# -> read more here in the comments http://blogs.msdn.com/b/csharpfaq/archive/2004/03/11/why-doesn-t-c-have-vb-net-s-with-operator.aspx

answered Nov 29 '10 at 15:35

Mariusz

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 29 '10 at 15:34

One near-equivalent would be calling a method that is a member of a class. You don't have to repeatedly name the owning object inside class members - it's implicit in the fact that the function is a member, called for a given instance.

I doubt a direct equivalent of With/End With is a good idea in C# for this reason. If you found yourself typing an object's name over and over in a given scope, it's a good indication that the code in question would make a good method on that object's class.

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 29 '10 at 15:36

There is no direct equivalent. You can set properties on construction, as others explained, or you can assign your expression to a variable with a short name. The following should be semantically equivalent:

With <expression>
    .something ...
    .somethingElse ...
End With

var w = <expression>;
w.something ...
w.somethingElse ...

What is the equivalent syntax in C#, if any?

8 Answers8