Do not assign a symbol and its member in the same statement
Do not assign a symbol and its member in the same statement
Microsoft docsDescription
Assigning a symbol and its member, that is, a field or a property, in the same statement is not recommended. It is not clear if the member access was intended to use the symbol's old value prior to the assignment or the new value from the assignment in this statement. For clarity, the multi-assign statement must be split into two or more simple assignment statements.
Cause
A symbol and its member were assigned in the same statement. For example:
How to fix violations
To fix violations, split the multi-assign statement into two or more simple assignment statements. For example, the following code snippet shows a violation of the rule and a couple of ways to fix it based on the user intent:
Example
public class C
{
public C Field;
}
public class Test
{
public void M(C a, C b)
{
// Let us assume 'a' points to 'Instance1' and 'b' points to 'Instance2' at the start of the method.
// It is not clear if the user intent in the below statement is to assign to 'Instance1.Field' or 'Instance2.Field'.
// CA2246: Symbol 'a' and its member 'Field' are both assigned in the same statement. You are at risk of assigning the member of an unintended object.
a.Field = a = b;
}
}When to suppress
Do not suppress violations from this rule.