.NET Gotcha – Loop Variables and Closures

try to guess the output of this simple console application:

class program
{
    static void main()
    {
        var actions = new list();

        for (var i = 0 ; i < 10; i++)             
        {                 
            var writetoconsoleaction = new action(() =>
                {
                    console.writeline(i);
                });
            actions.add(writetoconsoleaction);
        }

        foreach (var action in actions)
        {
            action();
        }

        console.readline();
    }
}

one would expect to see numbers from 0 to 9. but here is the actual output of the app:

okay, that’s strange, right?

turns out it's like that by design. what you have there is a closure over the loop variable. and closures in c# are done around variables and not around specific values of those variables – so that means that lambda expression gets to use the actual reference to the closed variable.

let me explain in a little bit more detail:

in the first loop we iterate increasing the counter variable from 0 to 9 and then use it in the lambda expression. that means each lambda gets its access to the counter via closure.

so at the end of this first loop, value of the counter is 10 (it's 10 because we used a post-increment operator: counter++ , so in the last iteration of the loop we increase counter to 10 and then check if it's <10. we see it's not, so we exit the loop).

afterward, we start executing those actions we created in first loop, and they all have a closure over this same variable counter – which has a value of 10 and therefore each action prints out its current value -- 10 -- to the console.

so it works as expected, once you know what to expect.

and this is a really common mistake among c# developers.

how do you fix it?

the solution is very simple, once you know what's going on. all you need to do is this: instead of passing the variable counter to the lambda expression, create a local copy of this variable and pass this copy to the lambda instead of passing the counter .

now each time, closure will occur around that copy variable that has the current value of the counter at that moment of execution, and this local copy value will stay that way and will not be changed afterwards by the loop.

later, when the actions are executed (in the second loop), each will use their own closure around copies of the counter and therefore each will have its own different, expected value.

here is the code that works as we expect:

class program
{
    static void main()
    {
        var actions = new list();

        for (var i = 0 ; i < 10; i++)             
        {                 
                int countercopy = i;                 
                var writetoconsoleaction = new action(() =>
                {
                    console.writeline(countercopy);
                });
            actions.add(writetoconsoleaction);
        }

        foreach (var action in actions)
        {
            action();
        }

        console.readline();
    }
}

as you see, we create a copy of the counter called countercopy and pass this to the lambda expression each time.

this may be old news to some, but there are many c# developers out there who are unaware of this behavior (or tend to forget it from time to time), so make sure to spread the word and always remember it.