Global Variables

Question

Hello everybody I know that there are no global variables in C# but there has to be a way to get the same functionality. What I need to do is increment a counter in different spots in a solution. Different instances of different classes need to increment the same counter under certain conditions. Any ideas??????? Thanks Kendal

chrishornberger · Answer

yep... it never happens. I hear that alot. Typical big-iron attitudes.

katana · Answer

NO WAY.. I can't believe someone told you that.. You are taking a quote from 1984 or something. I'm serious that is just ludricous.... Chornbe.. you have some of the best interactions with ppl. BTW James and Chornbe... i use Globals at least once a day before breakfast.. :P

chrishornberger · Answer

hmm... try this on for size. I recently had to help someone with an issue. I won't go into specifics about who he is or what he does but when I asked him about his job and what he does... well first you click here read the number then click there click that click that print the report and click OK... oh... ok well step back from the problem a few minutes what happens if the computer's down? Oh well I have to wait until the system is back up. You don't have another source for these numbers? Oh I could probably calculate them but the system tells me what they are. And what happens if the system is wrong? It never is. Famous last words. There's a whole generation of worker bees that can't tie their own shoes if a computer doesn't tell them how. Look out Matrix Runaway and Terminator. Here we come. *sigh*

james · Answer

Hmm... I detect a bit of frustration... I agree with you whole-heartedly. When I was first learning to code my first (and favorite) professor preached efficiency beyond all else. We'd get bonus points for shaving miliseconds off of runtime on our apps. BUT profs like him are few and far between. There is a small bunch of us who still believe in the old school method of good design but we've been overrun by the 'first one to a solution wins' crowd who don't put any forethought into what they are creating. Ergo productivity goes down cost goes up more jobs are created for slack-ass coders who know HOW to put an app together but not the WHY behind it. My brother who is a junior in high school was thinking about taking Java in his senior year. Yes they are teaching Java in HS now. I told him that if he has any real desire to become a programmer to AVOID that class like the plague. The teacher more than likely can't spell OO let alone teach it and they will flood his brain with bad practices that he may never overcome. I can't say that I see any better product coming out of the local colleges here. Sure they teach .Net but they don't teach theory. Thats like giving someone a Mercedes and making them steer it from the trunk. okay...so did my rant top your rant? -James

chrishornberger · Answer

I gotta tell you. I'm kinda sick of dealing with it. F'it. He wants to do globals? Fine. EVERYONE knows globals = bad. Yet... colleges apparently still condone their use heavily. Use statics. Bam. Done. Problem solved. Next crisis please. *sigh* None teaches good design. Few care to even try to learn good design. Good analytical skills? Why would we need that? No one wants to crack their knuckles and try. It seems there's a whole group of people coming up that have never failed. Why? Because they've never tried. Failing is not a failure. It's simply not having found the right answer. Especially with something so ethereal as computer programs. Oh no!! I got that file stream code wrong!! The world's going to end!! RUN!! f'it. Open the books. Read the manuals. Dig into help. Jeezuz. TRY! Everyone comes to the various forums and posts their college tests get answers and squeak thru'. I figure in 5-10 years... if I'm still doing this... there will be about 5 people left on the globe who still understand OO design and I'll be one of a very few whose apps still run in a manageable memory footprint can clean up resoures etc. Everyone else will be (over)using XML doing web front ends to scheduled jobs hosted in IIS with memory leaks restarts and downtime. *sigh* As you can see this is a SERIOUS pet peave of mine. I ask very few questions. Any want to guess why? I can assure you that I certainly don't know everything and FAR FAR from it. But... what I DO know... and what I'm apparently very good at... is trying. Experimenting. Reading. Researching. Analyzing a problem. Thinking it thru'. And coming at it from various approaches until I've not only gotten it working but usually several different ways will varying results. I mean... do chemistry and physics classes still even contemplate the whole let's try it and see what happens model any more? It seems the CompSci crowd sure as hell doesn't.

james · Answer

Global Variables = BAD Even though you CAN do them like that doesn't mean you SHOULD. In this instance he should create a class for his counter and pass it to the other classes that need to access it.

chrishornberger · Answer

eh?

james · Answer

I'm surprised at you chorno!!!

chrishornberger · Answer

main class -> static public int