Cannot implicitly convert type 'void' to 'int'?

Question

Oke so I am fairly new to programming and I don't get why I get this error.

My method should store mails which it does in this method:

    public void StoreMail(PhishingMail PhishingMail)
    {
        using (var phishingMailStorage = new PhishFinderModel())
        {
            phishingMailStorage.PhishingMail.Attach(PhishingMail);

            phishingMailStorage.SaveChanges();

        }

And then in my processPhishingMail method it calls the Store method. But then I get the error: Cannot implicitly convert type 'void' to 'int'.

public void ProcessPhishingMail(PhishingMail phishingMail)
{                     
      Hashtable phishingUrls;
      int phishingMailId;
      int phishingUrlId;
      //Error convertion
      phishingMailId = _storageAgent.StoreMail(phishingMail);

So I can't really find a solution to convert from void to int. Maybe it's not possible?

My question is: how do I convert these types in my code?

Please don't be harsh I am really new to this. It feels like I am swimming in an ocean of information and I don't know where to look or start. So any suggested tutorials are very welcome.

Answer 1

The method

public void StoreMail(PhishingMail PhishingMail)

is not returning any value. So when you do:

phishingMailId = _storageAgent.StoreMail(phishingMail);

You are getting that error, since StoreMail is declared as void, which means it does not return anything.

To fix this, simply call StoreMail like this:

_storageAgent.StoreMail(phishingMail);

If you intend to return a value from StoreMail, then you must change it to return an int value:

public int StoreMail(PhishingMail PhishingMail)
{
    using (var phishingMailStorage = new PhishFinderModel())
    {
        phishingMailStorage.PhishingMail.Attach(PhishingMail);

        phishingMailStorage.SaveChanges();
    }

    return someIdWhichYouNeedToFigureOut;
}