The class name '?' is not a valid identifier in this lang..

Question

I'm getting this error in VS; The class name '?' is not a valid identifier in this language
What does this mean? There is no line or column where I can find the error and I can't see my design.

I've searched the code for questionmarks (?) but I don't find any.

Also I'm creating a lottery program for an assignment in my C#.NET class.

Amanda · Answer

Hm well. I gave up trying to fix it so I rewrote the whole thing anyway.. (I'm kind of new to programming so testing and solving problems isn't that easy yet!) But thank you so much!

Vulpes · Answer

If those simple steps haven't worked then unless you have a recent back-up I don't think you've any choice but to rebuild the project. You won't necessarily need to rewrite the code. You might be able to just copy the .cs files (apart from the one you were working on when this problem occurred) across to the new project. I found where this bug was reported on Microsoft Connect and the person who reported it did something like this to preserve as much of the original work as possible: http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/497218/the-class-name-is-not-a-valid-identifier-for-this-language-can-reproduce-w-vs-2008

Amanda · Answer

I tried closing the project and then re-open it but the error still exists. And I was looking at your link and tried to open the link that was suggested there it didn't work. Is there really no way to fix it without re-writing the whole code?

Vulpes · Answer

This is an obscure bug which sometimes occurs in the VS designer. You might be able to get rid of it by simply closing the designer window (or the whole solution) and then reopening it. Otherwise I'd check out this thread: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/f2c1a027-3e49-4f7f-a4c2-c91a8fde25fc/the-class-name-is-not-a-valid-identifier-for-this-language?forum=winformsdesigner