c# - Is it better coding practice to define variables outside a foreach even though more verbose?

Question

In the following examples:

• the first seems more verbose but less wasteful of resources
• the second is less verbose but more wasteful of resources (redefines string each loop)

Which is better coding practice?

First example:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace TestForeach23434
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            List<string> names = new List<string> { "one", "two", "two", "three", "four", "four" };

            string test1 = "";
            string test2 = "";
            string test3 = "";
            foreach (var name in names)
            {
                test1 = name + "1";
                test2 = name + "2";
                test3 = name + "3";
                Console.WriteLine("{0}, {1}, {2}", test1, test2, test3);
            }
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

Second example:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace TestForeach23434
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            List<string> names = new List<string> { "one", "two", "two", "three", "four", "four" };

            foreach (var name in names)
            {
                string test1 = name + "1";
                string test2 = name + "2";
                string test3 = name + "3";
                Console.WriteLine("{0}, {1}, {2}", test1, test2, test3);
            }
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

The second form is no more wasteful - it's simply better.

There's no advantage to declaring the variables outside the loop, unless you want to maintain their values between iterations.

(Note that usually this makes no behavioural difference, but that's not true if the variables are being captured by a lambda expression or anonymous method.)