Why can't we define a variable inside an if statement?

c# language-design scope
comecme picture comecme · Jul 2, 2011 · Viewed 51.8k times · Source

Maybe this question has been answered before, but the word if occurs so often it's hard to find it.

The example doesn't make sense (the expression is always true), but it illustrates my question.

Why is this code valid:

StringBuilder sb;
if ((sb = new StringBuilder("test")) != null) {
    Console.WriteLine(sb);
}

But this code isn't:

if ((StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("test")) != null) {
    Console.WriteLine(sb);
}

I found a similar question regarding a while statement. The accepted answer there says that in a while statement, it would mean the variable would be defined in each loop. But for my if statement example, that isn't the case.

So what's the reason we are not allowed to do this?

Answer

Jecoms picture Jecoms · Jul 20, 2018

Try C#7's Pattern Matching.

Using your example:

if (new StringBuilder("test") is var sb && sb != null) {
    Console.WriteLine(sb);
}

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