C# Getting a raise

Question

why can i do this:

static void Sqr(ref int x)
{
x = x * x;
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
int a = 3;
Sqr(ref a);

Console.WriteLine(a);

but not this one:

static void Sqr(ref int x)
{
x * x;
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
int a = 3;
Sqr(ref a);

Console.WriteLine(a);

Answer 1

In programming languages, words and symbols and the order they appear change how they are interpreted.

In your first example (x*x), you declared a pointer (using the *) x of type x (which is not what you wanted and doesn't even make sense syntactically speaking).

However,
x*=x
would have the same effect as x=x*x. I think that's what I wanted to do in the first example.

Answer 2

I guess I'd say "because that's the way C# works". The syntax is the syntax.