I noticed this function in a .NET project I am working on.
private static void RemoveAllElements(ref List<int> listToBeRemoved)
{
foreach (var i in listToBeRemoved)
{
listToBeRemoved.Remove(i);
}
}
Is this the quickest way to remove all elements from a list? I also noticed this function doesn't catch any exceptions. Should I change this? This is in existing code.
list.Clear()
See the documentation: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dwb5h52a.aspx
Changing the collection that you are enumerating makes the enumerator invalid, so this is very bad practice. See the remarks on List.GetEnumerator:
An enumerator remains valid as long as the collection remains unchanged. If changes are made to the collection, such as adding, modifying, or deleting elements, the enumerator is irrecoverably invalidated and its behavior is undefined.
The Clear method itself will not throw an exception, but if listToBeRemoved is null, you will get a NullReferenceException.