C# assign values of array to separate variables in one line

Question

Can I assign each value in an array to separate variables in one line in C#? Here's an example in Ruby code of what I want:

irb(main):001:0> str1, str2 = ["hey", "now"]
=> ["hey", "now"]
irb(main):002:0> str1
=> "hey"
irb(main):003:0> str2
=> "now"

I'm not sure if what I'm wanting is possible in C#.

Edit: for those suggesting I just assign the strings "hey" and "now" to variables, that's not what I want. Imagine the following:

irb(main):004:0> val1, val2 = get_two_values()
=> ["hey", "now"]
irb(main):005:0> val1
=> "hey"
irb(main):006:0> val2
=> "now"

Now the fact that the method get_two_values returned strings "hey" and "now" is arbitrary. In fact it could return any two values, they don't even have to be strings.

Answer 1

This is not possible in C#.

The closest thing I can think of is to use initialization in the same line with indexs

strArr = new string[]{"foo","bar"};
string str1 = strArr[0], str2 = strArr[1];

Answer 2

You can do it in one line, but not as one statement.

For example:

int str1 = "hey"; int str2 = "now";

Python and ruby support the assignment you're trying to do; C# does not.

Answer 3

I'm not sure if what I'm wanting is possible in C#.

It's not.

Answer 4

No, but you can initialize an array of strings:

string[] strings = new string[] {"hey", "now"};

Although that's probably not too useful for you. Frankly its not hard to put them on two lines:

string str1 = "hey";
string str2 = "now";

Answer 5

The real-world use case for this is providing a convenient way to return multiple values from a function. So it is a Ruby function that returns a fixed number of values in the array, and the caller wants them in two separate variables. This is where the feature makes most sense:

first_name, last_name = get_info() // always returns an array of length 2

To express this in C# you would mark the two parameters with out in the method definition, and return void:

public static void GetInfo(out string firstName, out string lastName)
{
    // assign to firstName and lastName, instead of trying to return them.
}

And so to call it:

string firstName, lastName;
SomeClass.GetInfo(out firstName, out lastName);

It's not so nice. Hopefully some future version of C# will allow this:

var firstName, lastName = SomeClass.GetInfo();

To enable this, the GetInfo method would return a Tuple<string, string>. This would be a non-breaking change to the language as the current legal uses of var are very restrictive so there is no valid use yet for the above "multiple declaration" syntax.

Answer 6

You can do this in C#

string str1 = "hey", str2 = "now";

or you can be fancy like this

        int x, y;
        int[] arr = new int[] { x = 1, y = 2 };