using -1 for variable value p(557)

jmahdi · April 29th, 2011, 04:53 AM

I'm wondering why you used -1 one when initiating a value for _id, why not use Zero as it also indicates that no id is available...

thanks

Imar · April 30th, 2011, 05:07 AM

Hi there,

Both would work, and both would be considered "magic numbers".... ;-)

The reason I chose -1 is that 0 is the default value for an integer that hasn't been initialized explicitly. By setting it to -1, I know I set it to -1 or undefined, and not the .NET run-time.

A better alternative would be to use a nullable int; then you can check HasValue to determine if the variable has been assigned a value not.

Cheers,

Imar

jmahdi · April 30th, 2011, 06:16 AM

thanks for the clear explanation :)