VB -> C#: Return statement doesn't include type conversion

[GrahamTheCoder]

Input code

Public Function Empty() As String
    Return 4
End Function

Erroneous output

public string Empty()
{
    return 4;
}

Expected output

public string Empty()
{
    return Conversions.ToString(4);
}

Details

• Product in use: 7.6 web
• Haven't checked IL uses Conversions methods
• There's a special case in VB -> C#: Inferred empty array type missing #495

[Saibamen]

Why return Conversions.ToString(4); instead of return "4";?

[GrahamTheCoder]

Yep good question. The answer is that in the end I'd like to do what you say. But when something's broken, I try to aim to initially get it working as close to what VB produces in the general case as possible. i.e. If it was Return x + 1, I believe the VB compiler generates Return Conversions.ToString(x+1) under the covers.

Once it fundamentally works, I can iterate and cover special cases like:

• In this specific case we could use _semanticModel.GetConstantValue to optimize away the need for a conversion. In some similar cases this already happens in fact.
• I haven't checked whether (x+1).ToString() would do the same for an integer type. If so, I'd also like to move to using that.