What’s new in .NET

What’s new in .NET
ADRIAN STANULA

What is .NET Standard?
• .NET Standard is a specification, not an implementation
• .NET Standard provides a common base .NET Interface to all platforms that implement it so that no matter which
version of .NET you use you'll always see at least the same base feature set.
• .NET Standard describes what a specific implementation like .NET Core, Mono, Xamarin or .NET 4.6 has to implement
- at minimum - in terms of API surface in order to be compliant with a given version of .NET Standard.

.NET platforms support
The following table lists all versions of .NET Standard and the platforms supported:
• The higher the version, the more APIs are available to you.The lower the version, the more platforms implement it.
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api (see also https://apisof.net)

What’s new in .NET Standard 2.0

.NET Standard under the hood
• When .NET Standard class library
references .NET Framework library it uses
special version of mscorlib.dll that
translates types from .NET Framework to
.NET Standard
• Type forwarding is done for each .NET
Framework assembly

.NET Standard under the hood
• When specific .NET runtime, e.g. .NET
Core class library references .NET
Standard library it uses special version of
netstandard.dll that translates types from
.NET Standard to .NET Core

Migrating to .NET Standard
• .NET Portability Analyzer – plugin toVisual Studio
• https://github.com/Microsoft/dotnet-apiport

What’s new in .NET Core?
• .NET Core 1.1 released
• Official release of .NET Core tools (with change in the tooling layers)
• This shared SDK component is a set of MSBuild targets and associated tasks that are responsible for compiling your
code, publishing it, packing NuGet packages etc.
• Moving away from project.json to .csproj
• CLI commands are translated to MSBuild invocations.
• Visual Studio invokes MSBuild directly

What’s new in Visual Studio 2017

Performance improvements
• A new setup experience
• StartVisual Studio faster (The Performance Center lists all the extensions and tool windows that might slow down the
IDE startup)
• Decrease solution load time
• Faster on-demand loading of extensions

Productivity improvements
• Manage your extensions with Roaming Extensions Manager
• When you use the Roaming Extension Manager, you will notice 3 icon types on your list: Roamed, Roamed & Installed, Installed
• Live architecture dependency validation
• Live UnitTesting

Visual Studio IDE enhancements
• View and navigate code with StructureVisualizer
• Experience improved navigation controls
• GoTo (Ctrl+F12) – navigate from any base type or member to its
various implementations.
• GoTo All (Ctrl+T or Ctrl+,) – navigate directly to any
file/type/member/symbol declaration.You can filter your result list or
use the query syntax (for example, “f searchTerm” for files, “t
searchTerm” for types, etc.).
• Find All References (Shift+F12) – with syntax colorization, you can
group FindAll Reference results by a combination of project,
definition, and path.You can also “lock” results so that you can
continue to find other references without losing your original results.
• Indent Guides – dotted, gray vertical lines act as landmarks in code
to provide context within your frame of view.
• Live edit and reload of .csproj file

Debugging and Diagnostics
• Run to Click
• New Exception Helper

Docker Containers support
• Develop, Run, Debug, Update your Web & Console Applications in a Docker Container
• Multi-container debugging
• Edit & Refresh of code
• Publish to Azure App Service

New C# language features
• More expression-bodied members
• throw Expressions
• Generalized async return types
• Numeric literal syntax improvements
• out variables
• Tuples
• Pattern Maching
• ref locals and returns
• Local Functions

out variables
int numericResult;
if (!int.TryParse(input, out numericResult))
{
return 0;
}
return numericResult;
if (!int.TryParse(input, out var numericResult))
{
return 0;
}
return numericResult;
• Previously, you would need to separate the declaration of the out variable and its initialization into two different
statements:
• You can now declare out variables in the argument list of a method call, rather than writing a separate declaration
statement:
• The code is easier to read.
• No need to assign an initial value.
• Support for explicit type as well as var

Tuples creation
• Unnamed tuple:
• Named tuple:
• The new tuples features require the System.ValueTuple type. It can be referenced via NuGet.
var unnamed = ("one", 10);
Console.WriteLine(unnamed.Item1 + unnamed.Item2);
var named = (First: "one", Second: 10);
Console.WriteLine(named.First + named.Second);
(string First, int Second) named = ("one", 10);
Console.WriteLine(named.First + named.Second);
(string First, int Second) named = (A: "one", B: 10);
Console.WriteLine(named.First + unnamed.Second);

Tuples as method return values
• Methods can return tuple results:
private (string First, int Second) GetResult()
{
string first = "one";
int second = 10;
return (first, second);
}
{
var result = (First: "one", Second: 10);
return result;
}
var result = GetResult();
Console.WriteLine(result.First + result.Second);
(double first, var second) = GetResult();
Console.WriteLine(first + second);
{
var result = new Tuple<string, int>("one", 10);
return result; //THIS WILL NOT COMPILE
}
{
var (first, second) = new Tuple<string, int>("one", 10);
return (first, second);
}
• Method result can be assigned to single value or deconstructed:

Tuples as method return values
• Methods can return generic types with tuple:
private IEnumerable<(string First, int Second)> GetResult()
{
yield return ("one", 10);
}
• As well as array of tuple values:
IEnumerable<(string First, int Second)> result = GetResult();
IEnumerable<(string, int)> result2 = GetResult();
var result3 = GetResult();
private (string First, int Second)[] GetResult()
{
return new (string, int)[] {("one", 10)};
}
(string First, int Second)[] result = GetResult();
(string, int)[] result2 = GetResult();
var result3 = GetResult();

Tuples - deconstruction
• Reconstructing a tuple:
• Deconstructing user defined types:
(string first, int second) = GetTupleResult();
var (first, second) = GetTupleResult();
public class Person
{
public string FirstName { get; }
public string LastName { get; }
public void Deconstruct(out string firstName, out string lastName)
{
firstName = FirstName;
lastName = LastName;
}
}
var p = new Person("Althea", "Goodwin");
var (first, last) = p;
• Deconstructing using extension method:
public static class PersonExtensions
{
public static void Deconstruct(this Person person,
out string firstName, out string lastName)
{
firstName = person.FirstName;
lastName = person.LastName;
}
}

Pattern Matching
if (shape is Square)
{
var s = shape as Square;
return s.Side * s.Side;
}
• is operator:
• Pattern matching switch statement :
• The order of the case expressions now matters.
• If you accidentally order match expressions such that a less
explicit case has already been handled, the compiler will flag that
and generate an error.
• The default case is always evaluated last, regardless of the order it
appears in the source.
if (shape is Square s)
{
}
• The is type pattern expression:
switch (shape)
{
case 0:
return 0;
case int val:
return val^2;
case Square s when s.Side == 0:
case Triangle t when t.Base == 0 || t.Height == 0:
return 0;
case Square s:
case Triangle t:
return t.Base * t.Height * 2;
case null:
throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(shape));
default:
throw new ArgumentException(nameof(shape));
}

ref locals and returns
public static ref int Find(int number, int[] numbers)
{
for (int i = 0; i < numbers.Length; i++)
{
if (numbers[i] == number)
{
return ref numbers[i]; // return the storage location, not the value
//return numbers[i]; // this will not compile
}
}
throw new InvalidOperationException("Not found");
}
• Just like you can pass things by reference (with the ref modifier) in C#, you can now return them by reference, and also
store them by reference in local variables.
• You could only accomplish this by using unsafe code and returning a pointer to an int in previous versions.
• When you declare that a method returns a ref variable, you must also add the ref keyword to each return statement.
That indicates return by reference, and helps developers reading the code later remember that the method returns by
reference.
int[] array = { 1, 15, -39, 0, 7, 14, -12 };
ref int place = ref Find(7, array); // gets reference to 7's place in the array
place = 9; // replaces 7 with 9 in the array
Console.WriteLine(array[4]); // prints 9

var place = Find(7, array); // in this case 7 is printed
• The variable place is an int, not a ref int.The var keyword enables the compiler to specify the type, but will not
implicitly add the ref modifier. Instead, the value referred to by the ref return is copied to the variable on the left-hand
side of the assignment. The variable is not a ref local.
• You must initialize a ref variable when it is declared, you cannot split the declaration and the initialization.
int place = Find(7, array); // in this case 7 is printed
var place = ref Find(7, array); // this will not compile
ref int place = Find(7, array); // this will not compile

• You cannot assign a value to a ref variable. That disallows statements like
• You cannot return a ref to a variable whose lifetime does not extend beyond the execution of the method.
That means you cannot return a reference to a local variable, or similar scope.
ref int i = sequence.Count();
The C# language has two other rules that protect you from misusing the ref locals and returns:
These rules ensure that you cannot accidentally mix value variables and reference variables. They also ensure
that you cannot have a reference variable refer to storage that is a candidate for garbage collection.

Local functions
• Used in public iterator methods:
• When checks and logic are in the same method exceptions are not thrown when method is invoked, but only when
result is iterated (because it is iterator method)
• When checks are in public method and logic in private then exceptions are thrown when the method is invoked
(because it is no longer an iterator method), but programmer is able to invoke private method without checks
• When logic is in local function then exception is thrown when method is invoked and programmer is not able to invoke
logic from local function without checks
public static IEnumerable<char> AlphabetSubset(char start, char end)
{
if ((start < 'a') || (start > 'z'))
throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(paramName: nameof(start), message: "start must be a letter");
if ((end < 'a') || (end > 'z'))
throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(paramName: nameof(end), message: "end must be a letter");
if (end <= start)
throw new ArgumentException($"{nameof(end)} must be greater than {nameof(start)}");
return AlphabetSubsetImplementation();
IEnumerable<char> AlphabetSubsetImplementation()
{
for(var c = start; c < end; c++)
yield return c;
}
}

Local functions
• Used for async methods:
• Without local function exception is thrown asynhronously as part of the awaitable
• With use of local function exceptions arising from argument validation are thrown before the asynchronous work
begins
public Task<string> PerformLongRunningWork(string address, int index, string name)
{
if(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(address))
throw new ArgumentException(message: "An address is required", paramName: nameof(address));
if (index < 0)
throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(paramName: nameof(index), message: "The index must be non-negative");
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(name))
throw new ArgumentException(message: "You must supply a name", paramName: nameof(name));
return LongRunningWorkImplementation();
async Task<string> LongRunningWorkImplementation()
{
var interimResult = await FirstWork(address);
var secondResult = await SecondStep(index, name);
return $"The results are {interimResult} and {secondResult}. Enjoy.";
}
}

Local functions compared to Lambda expressions
• For lambda expressions, the compiler must create an anonymous class and an instance of that class to store any
variables captured by the closure.
• Lambda expressions are implemented by instantiating a delegate (extra memory allocation) and invoking that
delegate.
• Lambda expressions must be declared before they are defined. This means local functions are easier to use in
recursive algorithms.
There are a number of reasons to prefer using local functions instead of defining and calling lambda expressions:
public static int LocalFunctionFactorial(int n)
{
return NthFactorial(n);
int NthFactorial(int number) => (number < 2) ? 1 : number * NthFactorial(number - 1);
}
public static int LambdaFactorial(int n)
{
Func<int, int> nthFactorial = default(Func<int, int>);
nthFactorial = (number) => (number < 2) ? 1 : number * nthFactorial(number - 1);
return nthFactorial(n);
}

More expression-bodied members
// Expression-bodied constructor
public ExpressionMembersExample(string label) => this.Label = label;
// Expression-bodied finalizer
~ExpressionMembersExample() => Console.Error.WriteLine("Finalized!");
private string label;
// Expression-bodied get / set accessors.
public string Label
{
get => label;
set => this.label = value ?? "Default label";
}

Throw expressions
string result = argument ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(argument));
string result = items.Length > 0 ? items[0] : throw new ArgumentException("items argument should have at least 1 element");
private string GetName() => throw new NotImplementedException();

Generalized async return types
• Methods declared with the async modifier can return other types in addition to Task,Task<T> and void
• Returning aTask object from async methods can introduce performance bottlenecks because of allocating memory for
Task which is a reference type.
• The returned type must still satisfy the async pattern, meaning a GetAwaiter method must be accessible.
• ValueTask type has been added to the .NET framework to make use of this new language feature. It can accept a result
orTask in constructor.
public ValueTask<int> CachedFunc()
{
return (cache) ? new ValueTask<int>(cacheResult) : new ValueTask<int>(LoadCache());
}
private bool cache = false;
private int cacheResult;
private async Task<int> LoadCache()
{
// simulate async work:
await Task.Delay(100);
cache = true;
cacheResult = 100;
return cacheResult;
}

Numeric literal syntax improvements
• The 0b at the beginning of the constant indicates that the number is written as a binary number.
• Binary numbers can get very long, so it's often easier to see the bit patterns by introducing the _ as a digit separator.
• The digit separator can appear anywhere in the constant. For base 10 numbers, it would be common to use it as a
thousands separator.
• The digit separator can be used with decimal, float and double types as well.
public const int One = 0b0001;
public const int Eight = 0b1000;
public const int Sixteen = 0b0001_0000;
public const int OneHundredTwentyEight = 0b1000_0000;
public const long BillionsAndBillions = 100_000_000_000;
public const double AvogadroConstant = 6.022_140_857_747_474e23;
public const decimal GoldenRatio = 1.618_033_988_749_894_848_204_586_834_365_638_117_720_309_179M;

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