Heads up! To view this whole video, sign in with your Courses account or enroll in your free 7-day trial. Sign In Enroll
Start a free Courses trial
to watch this video
You've learned how to call methods written by others. Now let's learn how to write your own!
Here I have another C# program. The first three lines of the Main
method display a message that we're waiting, pause for 3 seconds, and print another message that we're done waiting. The next three lines count from 1 to 3.
These are two separate tasks in the same program, but it's hard to tell at a glance which lines belong to which task, or what task they're supposed to be doing.
using System;
using System.Threading;
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine("Waiting...");
Thread.Sleep(3000);
Console.WriteLine("Done");
Console.WriteLine(1);
Console.WriteLine(2);
Console.WriteLine(3);
}
}
-
static
keyword means you can call the method all by itself; it doesn't belong to an object.-
GetType()
is an example of a method you can only call on an object. - Have to place a dot operator after an object, then call the method:
42.GetType();
- On the other hand,
Console.WriteLine()
is an example of astatic
method; a method you can call all by itself: -
WriteLine
takes arguments in parentheses, but you don't have to refer to an object, add a dot operator, and then call the method.
-
-
void
means no return value; we'll talk about return values shortly
static void Wait()
{
}
static void CountToThree()
{
}
- Method body in curly braces: one or more lines of code that will be run when method is called
- Lines of method body are usually indented to make it clear they're a part of the method, although this isn't required
static void Wait()
{
Console.WriteLine("Waiting...");
Thread.Sleep(3000);
Console.WriteLine("Done");
}
- Calling methods
- Method name followed by parentheses
- End statement with semicolon, as always
using System;
using System.Threading;
class Program
{
static void Wait()
{
Console.WriteLine("Waiting...");
Thread.Sleep(3000);
Console.WriteLine("Done");
}
static void CountToThree()
{
Console.WriteLine(1);
Console.WriteLine(2);
Console.WriteLine(3);
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Wait();
CountToThree();
}
}
The rules regarding the names you can use with a C# method are similar to the rules for naming variables.
- Unlike variables, though, the first letter of the name should be capitalized.
- As with variables, you should use camel case if there are multiple words. So every word after the first should be capitalized as well.
- And of course, you can't use C# keywords, and there should be no spaces in the method name.
OK:
Average
CalculateTax
Not OK:
average
Calculatetax
Related Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign upRelated Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign up
You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to download course files.
Sign upYou need to sign up for Treehouse in order to set up Workspace
Sign up