The link doesn't work

yep, that works

Edited the URL inside the post

because list is a variable scoped inside the method?

and you return nothing from that method

so it only lives there

oh i see

you are gonna want to pass by ref in that case

your code is heavily based in references

not values (copies)

But I thought classes were passed by reference by default?

They are

Ok so adding ref definitely works, I'm just puzzled why it's not the same as the default lol

Anyways, thanks @246732334282440704 !

!close

i'm still baffled though

Sharplab indicates, that list = before.ToList() is an unnecessary assignment.

I don't understand why you have to add ref to a reference type either, can someone explain?

shouldn't it have no effect because its the default behaviour?

yeah you are still passing a reference but you are passing it by value

and the method evaluates that reference and generates a value at that moment

Strings are immutable. So when you do foo = "asdasd", you are not modifying the string. You are creating a new string altogether. Not sure about ref List, though.

this has nothing to do with that

He's asking why ref string is required when a string is a reference type?

Where do you see ref string?

I see ref strings, as in, a variable named strings being passed as ref

I misread this, I thought the first one was a ref string

Carry on

Still makes me wonder why ref List would be needed. I don't see how this would "pass by value" if it's a reference. Can you only change the actual items in the list, but you can't change the list itself unless you add ref?

again, the List is a reference type

but when you put it in the parameter

it's evaluated and it generates a copy of it

it's passed by value

No. strings is passed as ref. Then in the method, you are adding stuff to list, meaning you are adding stuff to strings. But then you are killing the original ref for list by doing list = before.ToString(). strings will still be a list with 5 elements, while list, now only in the scope of the function itself, only has 2 elements.

That's why you need ref. Because you don't wanna have another reference, when you are reassigning list

no, strings is not passed by ref unless you explicitly say ref

oh you were answering to Fused?

i'm lost

Huh, now that you say it, I'm lost too i was trying to clear up the original question

you are on the right track with your explanation.

so to sum up strings in the original code, is passed by value, it's reference is evaluated and a copy is generated, you can do whatever you want with that copy, it's an exact copy of strings but only with the existing references, so new references are not part of the original object, so you either return the result and assign it or you do everything by ref

does it make sense?

Ahhh, i think i understand. Yeah, the reference itself is passed by value as you said. true. you can override that and the link to strings is gone. I just worded poorly. mb

yeah it's a very hard thing to understand sometimes, took me years xd

still don't get it

haha

pass by reference has it's uses

but i don't use it, like at all

i guess if the object is very large, and ref is an option, it's a good idea