First, notice that this method has a boolean return value. The method call itself will always return a true value. Second, the method expects three parameters. The first parameter is an integer that is passed by value so it cannot be changed by the method. The next two parameters are an integer and string that are each passed by reference. Because both these parameters have the ref keyword, they can be modified during the execution of the method and any changes will be reflected back in the calling routine. The body of the method should be strightforward. It assigns new values to the Output and Message parameters before returning true from the method call. Here is an example of calling the above method.

bool ReturnValue    = false;
int IntInput        = 5;
int IntOutput       = 1;
string StringOutput = "Initial Text";

Debug.Print(String.Format("Initial Values:\r\nReturnValue:
   {0}\r\nIntInput:
   {1}\r\nIntOutput:
   {2}\r\nStringOutput:
   {3}\r\n", ReturnValue, IntInput, IntOutput, StringOutput));
ReturnValue = RefParameters(IntInput, ref IntOutput,
                            ref StringOutput);
Debug.Print(String.Format("New Values:\r\nReturnValue:
   {0}\r\nIntInput:
   {1}\r\nIntOutput:
   {2}\r\nStringOutput:
   {3}\r\n", ReturnValue, IntInput, IntOutput, StringOutput));

A variable to hold the return value of the method is declared and initialized as well as variables to hold the input and output parameters to the method. The call to the method has Debug statements before and after it to print out the values of all the variables. One point to notice is that the ref keyword also must precede all ref parameters in the method call itself. Your code will not compile if you forget to include the ref keyword on a call to a method that has ref paremeters. You can see from the following output that the value of the IntOutput and StringOutput variable have changed after the method call.

Initial Values:
ReturnValue:  False
IntInput:     5
IntOutput:    1
StringOutput: Initial Text

New Values:
ReturnValue:  True
IntInput:     5
IntOutput:    50
StringOutput: Your input value was: 5

If you look at the example calling code, you will notice that the variables passed in as ref parameters have been intialized when they were delcared. The ref keyword requires that any variable passed as a ref parameter be initialized before the method call. As an alternative, you can use the out keyword in the method declaration and method call instead of ref. Parameters that use the out keyword are not required to be initialized before the method call. Other than the initialization requirement, the out and ref keywords have the same behavior.

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