C# – Should uint Be Used for Non-Negative Values?

c++integer

I have just tried implementing a class where numerous length/count properties, etc. are uint instead of int. However, while doing so I noticed that it's actually painful to do so, like as if no one actually wants to do that.

Nearly everything that hands out an integral type returns an int, therefore requiring casts in several points. I wanted to construct a StringBuffer with its buffer length defaulted to one of the fields in that class. Requires a cast too.

So I wondered whether I should just revert to int here. I'm certainly not using the entire range anyway. I just thought since what I'm dealing with there simply can't be negative (if it was, it'd be an error) it'd be a nice idea to actually use uint.

P.S.: I saw this question and this at least explains why the framework itself always uses int but even in own code it's actually cumbersome to stick to uint which makes me think it apparently isn't really wanted.

Best Answer

I'll add to the other answers also that using uint as type of a public field, property, method, parameter, and so on, is a violation of the Common Language Specification rules and to be avoided when possible.

Related Solutions

C# – Difference Between int and uint and When to Use

uint means unsigned int, you can use it for a 0 .. +4G range
where the normal (signed) int has a -2G .. +2G range.

When to use it? Almost never. It is not a CLS compliant type so you should never use it in the public interface of an assembly. Not all .NET languages can handle it.

Their main use is in P/Invoke to unmanaged code and some rare bitmask situations. In .NET, we do most bitmasking with normal signed ints.

C# – Handling Unsigned Integer Literal with Negative Sign

What you are doing here is using unary operator - and as per https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa691145(v=vs.71).aspx

For the unary - operator, the operand is converted to type T, where T is the first of int and long that can fully represent all possible values of the operand. The operation is then performed using the precision of type T, and the type of the result is T. The unary - operator cannot be applied to operands of type ulong.

If i do something like

   var x =-1UL;

i get a compiler error Operator '-' cannot be applied to operand of type 'ulong It's because i am using unary operator

Whereas If i do

 var x =2UL-1UL;

The compiler doesnt complain because I am now using binary operator

When you do var x=-1UL the compiler interprets it as var x=0UL-1UL which if say succeded will produce -1UL however if you take a look at the range of UL it is 0 and 18446744073709551615 so -1UL is outside it's range hence the compile time error. same can be done for ushort as well.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – Difference Between int and uint and When to Use

C# – Handling Unsigned Integer Literal with Negative Sign

Related Question