Interview Quest.: What can't be done in a nested loop in C#

Question

I have just been asked this question in an interview: "What can't be done in a nested loop in C#?" and I was stumped!

Is there a correct answer to this question? Or is it meant to stump people?

depends on context as what you are trying to do? – Rahul Oct 20 '16 at 12:10 — Rahul, Oct 20 '16 at 12:10
@SomeUser could you please elaborate? – Marci-man Oct 20 '16 at 12:12 — Marci-man, Oct 20 '16 at 12:12

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

2

I am almost certain that the interviewer was talking about breaking out of the outer loop without using goto statement.

This is, indeed, a problem that has been successfully solved in other similar languages, such as Java.

This Q&A provides more information on the problem.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

Community

answered Oct 20 '16 at 12:12

could you please elaborate!? – Marci-man Oct 20 '16 at 12:13
2

this was my thought. But with it being possible with a `goto`, it's a very poor question. – Jonesopolis Oct 20 '16 at 12:13
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You can use return, if this is the case. – Vivek Nuna Oct 20 '16 at 12:14
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@viveknuna Breaking out the loop is not the same as ending method execution. – Sergey Kalinichenko Oct 20 '16 at 12:15
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throw can also be used :) – Vivek Nuna Oct 20 '16 at 12:18
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@Botonomous `break` would only break out of the inner loop. You'd have to set a flag or something, to indicate that the outer loop should break, and then have the code in the outer loop check that flag and break if it's set. – Richard Irons Oct 20 '16 at 12:52

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 20 '16 at 12:30

2

Cannot guess what was expected answer but one comes to mind. It is mentioned in C# specs chapter 3.7 Scopes

within a nested block it is not possible to declare a local variable with the same name as a local variable in an enclosing block

answered Oct 20 '16 at 12:30

ASh

That's perfectly fair. However, this isn't unique to blocks inside nested loops: blocks inside top-level loops, inside `if`s, etc. all fall under this restriction. – Sergey Kalinichenko Oct 20 '16 at 13:44
@dasblinkenlight, I fully agree with you. extereme examples `{ { int t = 0; } { int t = 1; } }` - allowed, `{ int x = 0; { int x = 0; } }` - doesn't compile – ASh Oct 20 '16 at 13:59

2 Answers2