Named arguments in C#.

So today is the day. I'm kicking off with a new series of articles in the category C# vs. Java. Let's start with a feature called named arguments. In a nutshell, it let us name arguments that we are passing when invoking some method. When it can be useful? There are a few different scenarios. First of all, it may happen that we have a method that takes many arguments of the same type. It comes as no surprise that they can get mixed easily and normally compiler won't help us as long as the passed variables' types match the ones from the method signature. Another thing is just code readability – it is much easier to go through it when we can see the variable name from the method signature next to the variable that we are passing.

    class NamedArgumentsExample
    {
        public static void AddStock(string companyShortName, int amount, double price)
        {
        }
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            AddStock("MSFT", 100, 150);
            AddStock("MSFT", amount: 100, price: 150);
        }
    }

In the above code we can see 2 method invocations – the first one without using named arguments. At first glance, it may be hard to get what are the values in the AddStock method invocation for. On the other hand, in the 9th line we can see with no problem that the first value is for the amount and the second for the price of a stock that we are adding.
As for Java, there is no such feature. I'm sure you can see, even from a very simple example above that it is useful. Of course, as with everything, one shouldn't overuse it but apply in a reasonable way, in cases where it will really add clarity.
That's it for today! Hope you enjoyed the post and have a happy Sunday!!