C# – Why is there no Char.Empty like String.Empty

base-class-libraryccharnetstring

Is there a reason for this? I am asking because if you needed to use lots of empty chars then you get into the same situation as you would when you use lots of empty strings.

Edit: The reason for this usage was this:

myString.Replace ('c', '')

So remove all instances of 'c's from myString.

Best Answer

There's no such thing as an empty char. The closest you can get is '\0', the Unicode "null" character. Given that you can embed that within string literals or express it on its own very easily, why would you want a separate field for it? Equally, the "it's easy to confuse "" and " "" arguments don't apply for '\0'.

If you could give an example of where you'd want to use it and why you think it would be better, that might help...

Related Solutions

C# – In C#, should I use string.Empty or String.Empty or “” to intitialize a string

Use whatever you and your team find the most readable.

Other answers have suggested that a new string is created every time you use "". This is not true - due to string interning, it will be created either once per assembly or once per AppDomain (or possibly once for the whole process - not sure on that front). This difference is negligible - massively, massively insignificant.

Which you find more readable is a different matter, however. It's subjective and will vary from person to person - so I suggest you find out what most people on your team like, and all go with that for consistency. Personally I find "" easier to read.

The argument that "" and " " are easily mistaken for each other doesn't really wash with me. Unless you're using a proportional font (and I haven't worked with any developers who do) it's pretty easy to tell the difference.

Python – Why is it string.join(list) instead of list.join(string)

It's because any iterable can be joined (e.g, list, tuple, dict, set), but its contents and the "joiner" must be strings.

For example:

'_'.join(['welcome', 'to', 'stack', 'overflow'])
'_'.join(('welcome', 'to', 'stack', 'overflow'))

'welcome_to_stack_overflow'

Using something other than strings will raise the following error:

TypeError: sequence item 0: expected str instance, int found

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – In C#, should I use string.Empty or String.Empty or “” to intitialize a string

Python – Why is it string.join(list) instead of list.join(string)

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