Beginning in Visual C# 3.0, variables that are declared at method scope can have an implicit typevar. An implicitly typed local variable is strongly typed just as if you had declared the type yourself, but the compiler determines the type. The following two declarations ofiare functionally equivalent:
For more information, seeImplicitly Typed Local Variables (C# Programming Guide)andType Relationships in LINQ Query Operations (C#).
The following example shows two query expressions. In the first expression, the use ofvaris permitted but is not required, because the type of the query result can be stated explicitly as anIEnumerable<string>. However, in the second expression,varmust be used because the result is a collection of anonymous types, and the name of that type is not accessible except to the compiler itself. Note that in Example #2, theforeachiteration variableitemmust also be implicitly typed.
// Example #1: var is optional because // the select clause specifies a string string[] words = { "apple", "strawberry", "grape", "peach", "banana" }; var wordQuery = from word in words where word[0] == 'g' select word; // Because each element in the sequence is a string, // not an anonymous type, var is optional here also. foreach (string s in wordQuery) { Console.WriteLine(s); } // Example #2: var is required because // the select clause specifies an anonymous type var custQuery = from cust in customers where cust.City == "Phoenix" select new { cust.Name, cust.Phone }; // var must be used because each item // in the sequence is an anonymous type foreach (var item in custQuery) { Console.WriteLine("Name={0}, Phone={1}", item.Name, item.Phone); }