Beginning C# 2008 Objects: From Concept to Code

13.7. More About the Main Method

In Chapter 1, we introduced the Main method as the initial point of execution for a C# program. We'd now like to go into a little more detail on some features and nuances of the Main method.

13.7.1. Main Method Variants

It turns out that there are actually four variations of the Main method header:

• The first is the version we introduced in Chapter 1—a parameterless method with a return type of void:

  static void Main()

• The next version returns a result of type int instead:

  static int Main()

  Returning an int value is a way to signal to the execution environment (operating system) the status of how the program terminated:

  public class Foo
  {
    static int Main() {
      if (something goes awry) { return −1; } else { // All ...