Do C# Assignment Expressions Return Values, and Why Does This Matter?

The return value and meaning of C# assignment expression

In C#, assignment statements can return values, which may seem a bit special at first glance. However, this feature is consistent with the design philosophy of the C# language and stems from historical usage.

First of all, it needs to be clear that assignment involves expressions, not just statements. When used as a statement, an assignment expression produces a valid expression.

Assignments themselves do not inherently return a value, but they can have valuable side effects. It is important to understand how assignments are used in expressions.

In C#, most expressions produce values, including operations with side effects such as assignments. The only exception is calling methods marked as returning void.

Assignment expressions can return values, which brings convenience and reflects the idioms of C-like languages. This property most likely stems from the fact that assignment operations typically retain the assigned value in a register, making it easy for the code generator to retain the value for subsequent operations.

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