In the C# language, spaces, tabs, and newlines are considered to be whitespace (so named because you see only the white of the underlying “page”). Extra whitespace is generally ignored in C# statements. Thus, you can write:
myVariable = 5;
or:
myVariable = 5 ;
and the compiler will treat the two statements as identical. The key is to use whitespace to make the program more readable to the programmer; the compiler is indifferent.
The exception to this rule is that whitespace within a string is treated as literal; it is not ignored. If you write:
Console.WriteLine("Hello World")
each space between “Hello” and “World” is treated as another character in the string. (In this case, there is only one space character.)
Problems arise only when you do not leave space between logical program elements that require it. For instance, the expression:
int myVariable = 5 ;
is the same as:
int myVariable=5;
but it is not the same as:
intmyVariable =5;
The compiler knows that the whitespace on either side of the
assignment operator is extra, but at least some whitespace between the
type declaration int
and the variable
name myVariable
is
not extra; it is required.
This is not surprising; the whitespace allows the compiler to
parse the keyword int
rather than some unknown term intmyVariable
. You are free to add as much or
as little whitespace between int
and
myVariable
as you care to, but there
must be at least one whitespace character (typically a space or
tab).