What is the 'out' parameter in C#?
The out parameter in C# is used to pass arguments to methods by reference. It differs from the ref keyword in that it does not require parameter variables to be initialized before they are passed to a method.
The
outkeyword must be explicitly declared in the method’s definition as well as in the calling method.
Code
The following code snippet demonstrates the usage of the out parameter to pass variables by reference:
using System;class HelloWorld{public static void Add(out int num1, out int num2){num1 = 30;num1 += 1;num2 = 40;num2 += 1;}static void Main(){// Declare two without assigning a value.int num1;int num2;// Call the Add method and pass it as an out parameter.Add(out num1, out num2);Console.WriteLine("Num1: {0}", num1);Console.WriteLine("Num2: {0}", num2);}}
Note that this is a way for a method to “return” multiple values. There is no explicit return value, but num1 and num2 are both updated inside the method, and their updated values are reflected outside the method.
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