It seems that enumerating a list enumerator to a "byval" function is completely different than passing it a "byref". Essentially, passing a byval regularly does NOT change the caller's enumerator.Current value, even if the function advances the counter. I was wondering if anyone knows why this is so. Is the enumerator primitive, as a whole, without reference to the object, and, therefore, changes in it are not reflected in the caller?
Here is a sample code:
This function is a byte and gets stuck in an infinite loop, spitting out messages "1", because the enumerator "current" never moves into the past 5:
Public Sub listItemsUsingByValFunction()
Dim list As New List(Of Integer)(New Integer() {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10})
Dim enumerator = list.GetEnumerator()
enumerator.MoveNext()
While enumerator.Current <= 5
listFirstItemByVal(enumerator)
End While
End Sub
Private Sub listFirstItemByVal(ByVal enumerator As List(Of Integer).Enumerator)
MsgBox(enumerator.Current)
enumerator.MoveNext()
End Sub
This, on the other hand, works as one would expect:
Public Sub listItemsUsingByRefFunction()
Dim list As New List(Of Integer)(New Integer() {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10})
Dim enumerator = list.GetEnumerator()
enumerator.MoveNext()
While enumerator.Current <= 5
listFirstItemByRef(enumerator)
End While
End Sub
Private Sub listFirstItemByRef(ByRef enumerator As List(Of Integer).Enumerator)
MsgBox(enumerator.Current)
enumerator.MoveNext()
End Sub
, listFirstItem__ byref.