We all have to get zero errors when compiling solutions, but we all aim for zero warnings, too, right?

Supressing Code Analysis errors is easy enough – and I recommend using code analysis rules (though you don’t need to enforce ALL of them. Consider what rules are relevant.)

However – what do you do if you have errors like this, it can be a problem:

6>  blah\Caching\TokenCacheItem.cs(39,48,39,65): warning CS0067: The event ‘TokenCacheItem.DataLengthChanged’ is never used

The thing is, I need DataLengthChanged to fulfil an interface. But yes, it isn’t used. Oh, the conundrum.

What I hadn’t realised was you can disable compiler warnings (steady – careful!). See: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3820985/suppressing-is-never-used-and-is-never-assigned-to-warnings-in-c-sharp/3821035#answer-3821035

We’re instructing the compiler to disable the warning for rule 0067, which is the error given above, and then immediately after the problematic line, we’re re-enabling it.

And as noted on the post…

Caveat: As per the comment by @Jon Hanna, perhaps a few warnings is in order for this, for future finders of this question and answer.

• First, and foremost, the act of suppressing a warning is akin to swallowing pills for headache. Sure, it might be the right thing to do sometimes, but it’s not a catch-all solution. Sometimes, a headache is a real symptom that you shouldn’t mask, same with warnings. It is always best to try to treat the warnings by fixing their cause, instead of just blindly removing them from the build output.

• Having said that, if you need to suppress a warning, follow the pattern I laid out above. The first code line, #pragma warning disable XYZK, disables the warning for the rest of that file, or at least until a corresponding #pragma warning restore XYZKis found. Minimize the number of lines you disable these warnings on. The pattern above disables the warning for just one line.

• Also, as Jon mentions, a comment as to why you’re doing this is a good idea. Disabling a warning is definitely a code-smell when done without cause, and a comment will prevent future maintainers from spending time either wondering why you did it, or even by removing it and trying to fix the warnings.

Roll on zero-warning compilations.