How to force a number to be in a range in C#? [duplicate]

Answer 1

An alternative way to write your LimitToRange function is as follows.

public int LimitToRange(int value, int inclusiveMinimum, int inclusiveMaximum)
{
    if (value < inclusiveMinimum) { return inclusiveMinimum; }
    if (value > inclusiveMaximum) { return inclusiveMaximum; }
    return value;
}

I think this is a little easier to understand while still being efficient.

Answer 2

To clamp values without giving users any feedback that the value entered by them is wrong, in general, might not be a great idea (IMHO). This might lead to subtle bugs later, which are difficult to debug, especially when min/max values are determined at run time.

Think of this. You have $100 in your bank account, and you want to transfer $150 to your friend. Would you like your banking system to throw an InsufficientFundsException or get into a discussion with your friend that you transferred $150 but he received only $100 (assuming the bank clamped the transfer amount to 100 since your did not have sufficient funds)

That being said, you should also look at code contracts.

public void MyFunction (Type input)
{
   Contract.Requires(input > SomeReferenceValue);
   Contract.Requires (input < SomeOtherReferencValue);

}

This will force the user input to be within the range.