Keywords

Keywords are predefined reserved words with special syntactic meaning.^[2] The language has two types of keyword — contextual and reserved. The reserved keywords such as false or byte may only be used as keywords. The contextual keywords such as where or from are only treated as keywords in certain situations.^[3] If an identifier is needed which would be the same as a reserved keyword, it may be prefixed by an at sign to distinguish it. For example, @out is interpreted as an identifier, whereas out as a keyword. This syntax facilitates reuse of .NET code written in other languages.^[4]

The following C# keywords are reserved words:^[2]

A contextual keyword is used to provide a specific meaning in the code, but it is not a reserved word in C#. Some contextual keywords, such as partial and where, have special meanings in multiple contexts. The following C# keywords are contextual:^[5]

Digit separators

Starting in C# 7.0, the underscore symbol can be used to separate digits in number values for readability purposes. The compiler ignores these underscores.

int bin = 0b1101_0010_1011_0100;
int hex = 0x2F_BB_4A_F1;
int dec = 1_000_500_954;
double real = 1_500.200_2e-1_000;

Generally, it may be put only between digit characters. It cannot be put at the beginning (_121) or the end of the value (121_ or 121.05_), next to the decimal in floating point values (10_.0), next to the exponent character (1.1e_1), or next to the type specifier (10_f).

Local variable type inference

This is a feature of C# 3.0.

C# 3.0 introduced type inference, allowing the type specifier of a variable declaration to be replaced by the keyword var, if its actual type can be statically determined from the initializer. This reduces repetition, especially for types with multiple generic type-parameters, and adheres more closely to the DRY principle.

var myChars = new char[] {'A', 'Ö'}; // or char[] myChars = new char[] {'A', 'Ö'};

var myNums = new List<int>();  // or List<int> myNums = new List<int>();

const

When declaring a local variable or a field with the const keyword as a prefix the value must be given when it is declared. After that it is locked and cannot change. They can either be declared in the context as a field or a local variable. Constants are implicitly static.

const double PI = 3.14;

This shows both uses of the keyword.

public class Foo
{
    private const double X = 3;

    public Foo()
    {
        const int y = 2;
    }
}

readonly

The readonly keyword does a similar thing to fields. Like fields marked as const they cannot change once initialized. The difference is that you can choose to initialize them in a constructor, or to a value that is not known until run-time. This only works on fields. readonly fields can either be members of an instance or static class members.

Async Main

This is a feature of C# 7.1.

Asynchronous Tasks can be awaited in the Main method by declaring it to return type Task.

static async Task Main(string[] args)
{
    await DoWorkAsync(42);
}

All the combinations of Task, or Task<int>, and with, or without, the string[] args parameter are supported.

using static directive

The using static directive loads the static members of a specified type into the current scope, making them accessible directly by the name of the member.

using static System.Console;

WriteLine("Hello, World!");

as operator

The as operator will attempt to do a silent cast to a given type. It will return the object as the new type if possible, and otherwise will return null.

Stream stream = File.Open(@"C:\Temp\data.dat");
FileStream fstream = stream as FileStream; // Will return an object.

String str = stream as String; // Will return null.

if statement

The if statement is entered when the given condition is true. Single-line case statements do not require block braces although it is mostly preferred by convention.

Simple one-line statement:

if (i == 3) ... ;

Multi-line with else-block (without any braces):

if (i == 2)
    ...
else
    ...

Recommended coding conventions for an if-statement.

if (i == 3)
{
    ...
}
else if (i == 2)
{
    ...
}
else
{
    ...
}

switch statement

The switch construct serves as a filter for different values. Each value leads to a "case". It is not allowed to fall through case sections and therefore the keyword break is typically used to end a case. An unconditional return in a case section can also be used to end a case. See also how goto statement can be used to fall through from one case to the next. Many cases may lead to the same code though. The default case handles all the other cases not handled by the construct.

switch (ch)
{
    case 'A':
        statement;
        ...
        break;
    case 'B':
        statement;
        break;
    case 'C': // A switch section can have multiple case labels.
    case 'D':
        ...
        break;
    default:
        ...
        break;
}

while loop

while (i == true)
{
    ...
}

do ... while loop

do
{

}
while (i == true);

for loop

The for loop consists of three parts: declaration, condition and counter expression. Any of them can be left out as they are optional.

for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
    ...
}

Is equivalent to this code represented with a while statement, except here the i variable is not local to the loop.

int i = 0;
while (i < 10)
{
    //...
    i++;
}

foreach loop

The foreach statement is derived from the for statement and makes use of a certain pattern described in C#'s language specification in order to obtain and use an enumerator of elements to iterate over.

Each item in the given collection will be returned and reachable in the context of the code block. When the block has been executed the next item will be returned until there are no items remaining.

foreach (int i in intList)
{
    ...
}

Labels and goto statement

Labels are given points in code that can be jumped to by using the goto statement.

start:
    .......
    goto start;

Note that the label need not be positioned after the goto statement; it may be before it in the source file.

The goto statement can be used in switch statements to jump from one case to another or to fall through from one case to the next.

switch (n)
{
    case 1:
        Console.WriteLine("Case 1");
        break;
    case 2:
        Console.WriteLine("Case 2");
        goto case 1;
    case 3:
        Console.WriteLine("Case 3");
    case 4: // Compilation will fail here as cases cannot fall through in C#.
        Console.WriteLine("Case 4");
        goto default; // This is the correct way to fall through to the next case.
    case 5:  // Multiple labels for the same code are OK
    case 6:
    default:
        Console.WriteLine("Default");
        break;  // Even default must not reach the end point
}

break statement

The break statement breaks out of the closest loop or switch statement. Execution continues in the statement after the terminated statement, if any.

int e = 10;
for (int i = 0; i < e; i++)
{
    while (true)
    {
        break;
    }
    // Will break to this point.
}

continue statement

The continue statement discontinues the current iteration of the current control statement and begins the next iteration.

int ch;
while ((ch = Console.Read()) != -1)
{
   	if (ch == ' ')
      		continue;    // Skips the rest of the while-loop

   	// Rest of the while-loop
   	...
}

The while loop in the code above reads characters by calling GetChar(), skipping the statements in the body of the loop if the characters are spaces.

try ... catch ... finally statements

Exceptions are managed within try ... catch blocks.

try
{
    // Statements which may throw exceptions
    ...
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    // Exception caught and handled here
    ...
}
finally
{
    // Statements always executed after the try/catch blocks
    ...
}

The statements within the try block are executed, and if any of them throws an exception, execution of the block is discontinued and the exception is handled by the catch block. There may be multiple catch blocks, in which case the first block with an exception variable whose type matches the type of the thrown exception is executed.

If no catch block matches the type of the thrown exception, the execution of the outer block (or method) containing the try ... catch statement is discontinued, and the exception is passed up and outside the containing block or method. The exception is propagated upwards through the call stack until a matching catch block is found within one of the currently active methods. If the exception propagates all the way up to the top-most Main() method without a matching catch block being found, the entire program is terminated and a textual description of the exception is written to the standard output stream.

The statements within the finally block are always executed after the try and catch blocks, whether or not an exception was thrown. Such blocks are useful for providing clean-up code.

Either a catch block, a finally block, or both, must follow the try block.

Structures

Structures are more commonly known as structs. Structs are user-defined value types that are declared using the struct keyword. They are very similar to classes but are more suitable for lightweight types. Some important syntactical differences between a class and a struct are presented later in this article.

struct Foo
{
    ...
}

The primitive data types are all structs.

Enumerations

Enumerated types (declared with enum) are named values representing integer values.

enum Season
{
    Winter = 0,
    Spring = 1,
    Summer = 2,
    Autumn = 3,
    Fall = Autumn    // Autumn is called Fall in American English.
}

Enum variables are initialized by default to zero. They can be assigned or initialized to the named values defined by the enumeration type.

Season season;
season = Season.Spring;

Enum type variables are integer values. Addition and subtraction between variables of the same type is allowed without any specific cast but multiplication and division is somewhat more risky and requires an explicit cast. Casts are also required for converting enum variables to and from integer types. However, the cast will not throw an exception if the value is not specified by the type definition.

season = (Season)2;  // cast 2 to an enum-value of type Season.
season = season + 1; // Adds 1 to the value.
season = season + season2; // Adding the values of two enum variables.
int value = (int)season; // Casting enum-value to integer value.

season++; // Season.Spring (1) becomes Season.Summer (2).
season--; // Season.Summer (2) becomes Season.Spring (1).

Values can be combined using the bitwise-OR operator <nowiki> | </nowiki>.

Color myColors = Color.Green | Color.Yellow | Color.Blue;

Arrays

An array type is a reference type that refers to a space containing one or more elements of a certain type. All array types derive from a common base class, System.Array. Each element is referenced by its index just like in C++ and Java.

An array in C# is what would be called a dynamic array in C++.

int[] numbers = new int[2];
numbers[0] = 2;
numbers[1] = 5;
int x = numbers[0];

// Long syntax
int[] numbers = new int[5]{ 20, 1, 42, 15, 34 };
// Short syntax
int[] numbers2 = { 20, 1, 42, 15, 34 };
// Inferred syntax
var numbers3 = new[] { 20, 1, 42, 15, 34 };

int[,] numbers = new int[3, 3];
numbers[1,2] = 2;

int[,] numbers2 = new int[3, 3] { {2, 3, 2}, {1, 2, 6}, {2, 4, 5} };

Classes

Classes are self-describing user-defined reference types. Essentially all types in the .NET Framework are classes, including structs and enums, that are compiler generated classes. Class members are private by default, but can be declared as public to be visible outside of the class or protected to be visible by any descendants of the class.

string text = "Hello World!";
string substr = text.Substring(0, 5);
string[] parts = text.Split(new char[]{ ' ' });

var sb = new StringBuilder();
sb.Append('H');
sb.Append("el");
sb.AppendLine("lo!");

Interface

Interfaces are data structures that contain member definitions with no actual implementation. A variable of an interface type is a reference to an instance of a class which implements this interface. See #Interfaces.

Delegates

C# provides type-safe object-oriented function pointers in the form of delegates.

class Program
{
    // Delegate type:
    delegate int Operation(int a, int b);

    static int Add(int i1, int i2)
    {
        return i1 + i2;
    }

    static int Sub(int i1, int i2)
    {
        return i1 - i2;
    }

    static void Main()
    {
        // Instantiate the delegate and assign the method to it.
        Operation op = Add;

        // Call the method that the delegate points to.
        int result1 = op(2, 3);  // 5

        op = Sub;
        int result2 = op(10, 2); // 8
    }
}

Initializing the delegate with an anonymous method.

addition = delegate(int a, int b) { return a + b; };

Initializing the delegate with lambda expression.

addition = (a, b) => a + b;

Events

Events are pointers that can point to multiple methods. More exactly they bind method pointers to one identifier. This can therefore be seen as an extension to delegates. They are typically used as triggers in UI development. The form used in C# and the rest of the Common Language Infrastructure is based on that in the classic Visual Basic.

delegate void MouseEventHandler(object sender, MouseEventArgs e);

public class Button : System.Windows.Controls.Control
{
    private event MouseEventHandler _onClick;

    /* Imaginary trigger function */
    void Click()
    {
        _onClick(this, new MouseEventArgs(data));
    }
}

An event requires an accompanied event handler that is made from a special delegate that in a platform specific library like in Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Forms usually takes two parameters: sender and the event arguments. The type of the event argument-object derive from the EventArgs class that is a part of the CLI base library.

Once declared in its class the only way of invoking the event is from inside of the owner. A listener method may be implemented outside to be triggered when the event is fired.

public class MainWindow : System.Windows.Controls.Window
{
    private Button _button1;

    public MainWindow()
    {
        _button1 = new Button();
        _button1.Text = "Click me!";

        /* Subscribe to the event */
        _button1.ClickEvent += Button1_OnClick;

        /* Alternate syntax that is considered old:
        _button1.MouseClick += new MouseEventHandler(Button1_OnClick); */
    }

    protected void Button1_OnClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Clicked!");
    }
}

Custom event implementation is also possible:

	private EventHandler _clickHandles = (s, e) => { };

	public event EventHandler Click
	{
		add
		{
			// Some code to run when handler is added...
			...

			_clickHandles += value;
		}
		remove
		{
			// Some code to run when handler is removed...
			...

			_clickHandles -= value;
		}
	}

See also

• Event-driven programming

Nullable types

This is a feature of C# 2.0.

Nullable types were introduced in C# 2.0 firstly to enable value types to be null (useful when working with a database).

int? n = 2;
n = null;

Console.WriteLine(n.HasValue);

In reality this is the same as using the Nullable<T> struct.

Nullable<int> n = 2;
n = null;

Console.WriteLine(n.HasValue);

Pointers

C# has and allows pointers to selected types (some primitives, enums, strings, pointers, and even arrays and structs if they contain only types that can be pointed^[6]) in unsafe context: methods and codeblock marked unsafe. These are syntactically the same as pointers in C and C++. However, runtime-checking is disabled inside unsafe blocks.

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    unsafe
    {
        int a = 2;
        int* b = &a;

        Console.WriteLine("Address of a: {0}. Value: {1}", (int)&a, a);
        Console.WriteLine("Address of b: {0}. Value: {1}. Value of *b: {2}", (int)&b, (int)b, *b);

        // Will output something like:
        // Address of a: 71953600. Value: 2
        // Address of b: 71953596. Value: 71953600. Value of *b: 2
    }
}

Structs are required only to be pure structs with no members of a managed reference type, e.g. a string or any other class.

public struct MyStruct
{
    public char Character;
    public int Integer;
}

public struct MyContainerStruct
{
    public byte Byte;
    public MyStruct MyStruct;
}

In use:

MyContainerStruct x;
MyContainerStruct* ptr = &x;

byte value = ptr->Byte;

Dynamic

This is a feature of C# 4.0 and .NET Framework 4.0.

Type dynamic is a feature that enables dynamic runtime lookup to C# in a static manner. Dynamic denotes a variable with an object with a type that is resolved at runtime, as opposed to compile-time, as normally is done.

This feature takes advantage of the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) and has been designed specifically with the goal of interoperation with dynamically typed languages like IronPython and IronRuby (Implementations of Python and Ruby for .NET).

Dynamic-support also eases interoperation with COM objects.

dynamic x = new Foo();
x.DoSomething();  // Will compile and resolved at runtime. An exception will be thrown if invalid.

Anonymous types

This is a feature of C# 3.0.

Anonymous types are nameless classes that are generated by the compiler. They are only consumable and yet very useful in a scenario like where you have a LINQ query which returns an object on select and you just want to return some specific values. Then you can define an anonymous type containing auto-generated read-only fields for the values.

When instantiating another anonymous type declaration with the same signature the type is automatically inferred by the compiler.

var carl = new { Name = "Carl", Age = 35 }; // Name of the type is only known by the compiler.
var mary = new { Name = "Mary", Age = 22 }; // Same type as the expression above

Object class

All types, even value types in their boxed form, implicitly inherit from the System.Object class, the ultimate base class of all objects. This class contains the most common methods shared by all objects. Some of these are virtual and can be overridden.

Classes inherit System.Object either directly or indirectly through another base class.

Members
Some of the members of the Object class:

• Equals - Supports comparisons between objects.
• Finalize - Performs cleanup operations before an object is automatically reclaimed. (Default destructor)
• GetHashCode - Gets the number corresponding to the value of the object to support the use of a hash table.
• GetType - Gets the Type of the current instance.
• ToString - Creates a human-readable text string that describes an instance of the class. Usually it returns the name of the type.

Differences between classes and structs

Although classes and structures are similar in both the way they are declared and how they are used, there are some significant differences. Classes are reference types and structs are value types. A structure is allocated on the stack when it is declared and the variable is bound to its address. It directly contains the value. Classes are different because the memory is allocated as objects on the heap. Variables are rather managed pointers on the stack which point to the objects. They are references.

Structures differ from classes in several other ways. For example, while both offer an implicit default constructor which takes no arguments, you cannot redefine it for structs. Explicitly defining a differently-parametrized constructor will suppress the implicit default constructor in classes, but not in structs. All fields of a struct must be initialized in those kinds of constructors. Structs do not have finalizers and cannot inherit from another class like classes do. Implicitly, they are sealed and inherit from System.ValueType (which inherits from System.Object). Structs are more suitable for smaller amounts of data.

This is a short summary of the differences:

Declaration

A class is declared like this:

class Foo
{
    // Member declarations
}

// File1.cs
partial class Foo
{
    ...
}

// File2.cs
partial class Foo
{
    ...
}

Initialization

Before you can use the members of the class you need to initialize the variable with a reference to an object. To create it you call the appropriate constructor using the new keyword. It has the same name as the class.

var foo = new Foo();

For structs it is optional to explicitly call a constructor because the default one is called automatically. You just need to declare it and it gets initialized with standard values.

var person = new Person
{
    Name = "John Doe",
    Age = 39
};

// Equal to
var person = new Person();
person.Name = "John Doe";
person.Age = 39;

var list = new List<int> {2, 5, 6, 6};

// Equal to
var list = new List<int>();
list.Add(2);
list.Add(5);
list.Add(6);
list.Add(6);

Accessing members

Members of an instance and static members of a class are accessed using the . operator.

Accessing an instance member
Instance members can be accessed through the name of a variable.

string foo = "Hello";
string fooUpper = foo.ToUpper();

Accessing a static class member
Static members are accessed by using the name of the class or other type.

int r = string.Compare(foo, fooUpper);

Accessing a member through a pointer
In unsafe code, members of a value (struct type) referenced by a pointer are accessed with the -> operator just like in C and C++.

POINT p;
p.X = 2;
p.Y = 6;
POINT* ptr = &p;
ptr->Y = 4;

Modifiers

Modifiers are keywords used to modify declarations of types and type members. Most notably there is a sub-group containing the access modifiers.

public class Foo
{
    public static void Something()
    {
        ...
    }
}
// Calling the class method.
Foo.Something();

public class Foo
{
    public int Do()
    {
        return 0;
    }

    public class Bar
    {

    }
}

Constructors

A constructor is a special method that is called automatically when an object is created. Its purpose is to initialize the members of the object. Constructors have the same name as the class and do not return anything explicitly. Implicitly, they will return the newly-created object when called via the new operator. They may take parameters like any other method. The parameter-less constructor is special because it can be specified as a necessary constraint for a generic type parameter.

class Foo
{
    Foo()
    {
        ...
    }
}

Constructors can be public, private, protected or internal.

Destructor

The destructor is called when the object is being collected by the garbage collector to perform some manual clean-up. There is a default destructor method called finalize that can be overridden by declaring your own.

The syntax is similar to the one of constructors. The difference is that the name is preceded by a ~ and it cannot contain any parameters. There cannot be more than one destructor.

class Foo
{
    ...

    ~Foo()
    {
        ...
    }
}

Finalizers are always private.

Methods

Like in C and C++ there are functions that group reusable code. The main difference is that functions, just like in Java, have to reside inside of a class. A function is therefore called a method. A method has a return value, a name and usually some parameters initialized when it is called with some arguments. It can either belong to an instance of a class or be a static member.

class Foo
{
    int Bar(int a, int b)
    {
        return a%b;
    }
}

A method is called using . notation on a specific variable, or as in the case of static methods, the name of a type.

Foo foo = new Foo();
int r = foo.Bar(7, 2);

Console.WriteLine(r);

void PassRef(ref int x)
{
    if (x == 2)
        x = 10;
}
int Z = 7;
PassRef(ref Z);

void PassOut(out int x)
{
    x = 2;
}
int Q;
PassOut(out Q);

void Increment(ref int x, int dx = 1)
{
    x += dx;
}

int x = 0;
Increment(ref x);    // dx takes the default value of 1
Increment(ref x, 2); // dx takes the value 2

Stream OpenFile(string name, FileMode mode = FileMode.Open,
FileAccess access = FileAccess.Read) { ... }

OpenFile("file.txt"); // use default values for both "mode" and "access"
OpenFile("file.txt", mode: FileMode.Create); // use default value for "access"
OpenFile("file.txt", access: FileAccess.Read); // use default value for "mode"
OpenFile(name: "file.txt", access: FileAccess.Read, mode: FileMode.Create);
// name all parameters for extra readability,
// and use order different from method declaration

object fileName = "Test.docx";
object missing = System.Reflection.Missing.Value;

doc.SaveAs(ref fileName,
    ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
    ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
    ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
    ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
    ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);
console.writeline("File saved successfully");

doc.SaveAs(ref fileName);

[DllImport("win32.dll")]
static extern double Pow(double a, double b);

Fields

Fields, or instance variables, can be declared inside the class body to store data.

class Foo
{
    double foo;
}

Fields can be initialized directly when declared (unless declared in struct).

class Foo
{
    double foo = 2.3;
}

Modifiers for fields:

• const - Makes the field a constant.
• private - Makes the field private (default).
• protected - Makes the field protected.
• public - Makes the field public.
• readonly - Allows the field to be initialized only once in a constructor.
• static - Makes the field a static member, i.e. a class variable.

Properties

Properties bring field-like syntax and combine them with the power of methods. A property can have two accessors: get and set.

public class Person
{
    private string _name;

    string Name
    {
        get { return _name; }
        set { _name = value; }
    }
}

// Using a property
var person = new Person();
person.Name = "Robert";

Modifiers for properties:

• private - Makes the property private (default).
• protected - Makes the property protected.
• public - Makes the property public.
• static - Makes the property a static member.

Modifiers for property accessors:

• private - Makes the accessor private.
• protected - Makes the accessor protected.
• public - Makes the accessor public.

The default modifiers for the accessors are inherited from the property. Note that the accessor's modifiers can only be equal or more restrictive than the property's modifier.

public double Width { get; private set; }

Indexers

Indexers add array-like indexing capabilities to objects. They are implemented in a way similar to properties.

internal class IntList
{
    private int[] _items;

    int this[int index]
    {
        get { return _items[index]; }
        set { _items[index] = value; }
    }
}

// Using an indexer
var list = new IntList();
list[2] = 2;

Inheritance

Classes in C# may only inherit from one class. A class may derive from any class that is not marked as sealed.

class A
{
}


class B : A
{

}

class Operation
{
    public virtual int Do()
    {
        return 0;
    }
}

class NewOperation : Operation
{
    public override int Do()
    {
        return 1;
    }
}

class Operation
{
    public int Do()
    {
        return 0;
    }
}

class NewOperation : Operation
{
    public new double Do()
    {
        return 4.0;
    }
}

var operation = new NewOperation();

// Will call "double Do()" in NewOperation
double d = operation.Do();

Operation operation_ = operation;

// Will call "int Do()" in Operation
int i = operation_.Do();

abstract class Mammal
{
    public abstract void Walk();
}

class Human : Mammal
{
    public override void Walk()
    {

    }

    ...
}

internal sealed class Foo
{
    //...
}

public class Bar
{
    public virtual void Action()
    {
        //...
    }
}

public class Baz : Bar
{
    public sealed override void Action()
    {
        //...
    }
}

Implementing an interface

An interface is implemented by a class or extended by another interface in the same way you derive a class from another class using the : notation.

Implicit implementation

When implicitly implementing an interface the members of the interface have to be public.

public class Adder : IBinaryOperation
{
    public double A { get; set; }
    public double B { get; set; }

    public double GetResult()
    {
        return A + B;
    }
}

public class Multiplier : IBinaryOperation
{
    public double A { get; set; }
    public double B { get; set; }

    public double GetResult()
    {
        return A * B;
    }
}

In use:

IBinaryOperation op = null;
double result;

// Adder implements the interface IBinaryOperation.

op = new Adder();
op.A = 2;
op.B = 3;

result = op.GetResult(); // 5

// Multiplier also implements the interface.

op = new Multiplier();
op.A = 5;
op.B = 4;

result = op.GetResult(); // 20

Explicit implementation

You can also explicitly implement members. The members of the interface that are explicitly implemented by a class are accessible only when the object is handled as the interface type.

public class Adder : IBinaryOperation
{
    double IBinaryOperation.A { get; set; }
    double IBinaryOperation.B { get; set; }

    double IBinaryOperation.GetResult()
    {
        return ((IBinaryOperation)this).A + ((IBinaryOperation)this).B;
    }
}

In use:

Adder add = new Adder();

// These members are not accessible:
// add.A = 2;
// add.B = 3;
// double result = add.GetResult();

// Cast to the interface type to access them:
IBinaryOperation add2 = add;
add2.A = 2;
add2.B = 3;

double result = add2.GetResult();

Note: The properties in the class that extends IBinaryOperation are auto-implemented by the compiler and a backing field is automatically added (see #Automatic properties).

Extending multiple interfaces

Interfaces and classes are allowed to extend multiple interfaces.

class MyClass : IInterfaceA, IInterfaceB
{
    ...
}

Here is an interface that extends two interfaces.

interface IInterfaceC : IInterfaceA, IInterfaceB
{
    ...
}

Interfaces vs. abstract classes

Interfaces and abstract classes are similar. The following describes some important differences:

• An abstract class may have member variables as well as non-abstract methods or properties. An interface cannot.
• A class or abstract class can only inherit from one class or abstract class.
• A class or abstract class may implement one or more interfaces.
• An interface can only extend other interfaces.
• An abstract class may have non-public methods and properties (also abstract ones). An interface can only have public members.
• An abstract class may have constants, static methods and static members. An interface cannot.
• An abstract class may have constructors. An interface cannot.

Generic classes

Classes and structs can be generic.

public class List<T>
{
    ...
    public void Add(T item)
    {
         ...
    }
}

var list = new List<int>();
list.Add(6);
list.Add(2);

Generic interfaces

interface IEnumerable<T>
{
    ...
}

Generic delegates

delegate R Func<T1, T2, R>(T1 a1, T2 a2);

Generic methods

public static T[] CombineArrays<T>(T[] a, T[] b)
{
    T[] newArray = new T[a.Length + b.Length];
    a.CopyTo(newArray, 0);
    b.CopyTo(newArray, a.Length);
    return newArray;
}

string[] a = new string[] { "a", "b", "c" };
string[] b = new string[] { "1", "2", "3" };
string[] c = CombineArrays(a, b);

double[] da = new double[] { 1.2, 2.17, 3.141592 };
double[] db = new double[] { 4.44, 5.6, 6.02 };
double[] dc = CombineArrays(da, db);

// c is a string array containing { "a", "b", "c", "1", "2", "3"}
// dc is a double array containing { 1.2, 2.17, 3.141592, 4.44, 5.6, 6.02}

Covariance and contravariance

This is a feature of C# 4.0 and .NET Framework 4.0.

Generic interfaces and delegates can have their type parameters marked as covariant or contravariant, using keywords out and in, respectively. These declarations are then respected for type conversions, both implicit and explicit, and both compile-time and run-time. For example, the existing interface IEnumerable<T> has been redefined as follows:

interface IEnumerable<out T>
{
    IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator();
}

Therefore, any class that implements IEnumerable<Derived> for some class Derived is also considered to be compatible with IEnumerable<Base> for all classes and interfaces Base that Derived extends, directly, or indirectly. In practice, it makes it possible to write code such as:

void PrintAll(IEnumerable<object> objects)
{
    foreach (object o in objects)
    {
        System.Console.WriteLine(o);
    }
}

IEnumerable<string> strings = new List<string>();
PrintAll(strings); // IEnumerable<string> is implicitly converted to IEnumerable<object>

For contravariance, the existing interface IComparer<T> has been redefined as follows:

public interface IComparer<in T>
{
    int Compare(T x, T y);
}

Therefore, any class that implements IComparer<Base> for some class Base is also considered to be compatible with IComparer<Derived> for all classes and interfaces Derived that are extended from Base. It makes it possible to write code such as:

IComparer<object> objectComparer = GetComparer();
IComparer<string> stringComparer = objectComparer;