5 Tips to Improve Your Productivity in C# 8.0

Introduction

Microsoft added a lot of new syntax goodies in their latest release of C# that will make you more productive, namely:

• Index from the end operator ^
• Range operator ..
• Null coalescing operator ??=
• Using variables
• Verbatim string with interpolation $@ @$

Index from the end operator 

^

^

e.g., Get the second last item of an array

var array = new[] {1,2,3,4,5};

// Before
array[array.Length - 2]; // 4

// Now this is also allowed
array[^2]; // 4

For more details, please take a look at my article on indices and ranges.

Range operator 

..

Selecting sub-arrays in C# used to imply a lot of boilerplate code. With .., there's now a super simple way to do it.

e.g., Get a subarray

var array = new[] {1,2,3,4,5};

// Before
var newArray = new List<int>();
for (var i = 1; i < 3; i++)
{
    newArray.Add(array[i]);
}

// Now this is also allowed
var newArray = array[1..3]; // 2,3

For more details, please take a look at my article on indices and ranges.

Null coalescing operator 

??=

??=

// Before
var possibleNullValue = possibleNullValue ?? "default value";

// Now this is also allowed
var possibleNullValue ??= "default value";

Using variables

using

using 

So why not just dispose of them at the end of the method's scope? It's what Microsoft did with the new 

using var

// Before
using (var stream = new FileStream("", FileMode.Open))
{
    using (var sr = new StreamReader(stream))
    {
        ...
    }
}

// Now this is also allowed
using var stream = new FileStream("", FileMode.Open);
using var sr = new StreamReader(stream);
...

Verbatim string with interpolation 

$@

 

@$

Verbatim strings @ and string interpolation $ are two useful concepts to build string literals. However, if you wanted to use both on the same string literal, you had to specify them in the correct order; otherwise, you were getting an error from the compiler.

Not anymore! You can now specify them in any order, and the compiler will figure it out for you.

// Before
$@"This -> {nameof(this)}";

// Now this is also allowed
@$"This -> {nameof(this)}";

Closing word

I hope you enjoyed learning about these tips and tricks. If you are curious about other new features introduced with C# 8.0.

All code samples are available on github

Previously published at https://blog.miguelbernard.com/5-tips-to-improve-your-productivity-in-c-8-0/