Since the first release, С# has gone through a lot of changes and now we will review the most important changes from the C# 1.0 to the C# 10.0
C# 1.0 (.NET Framework 1.0)
Together with Visual Studio 2002, Microsoft released the first version of C#, looked a lot like Java.
The major features of C# 1.0 include:
- Classes
- Structs
- Interfaces
- Events
- Properties
- Delegates
- Attributes
- Operators and expressions
As we can see in this version there are basic functionality for building applications, no generic classes and sugar syntax.
C# 2.0 (.NET Framework 2.0\3.0)
Now things start to get interesting. Microsoft released a second version of the language with Visual Studio 2005.
- Generics
- Static and Partial types
- Nullable value types
- Co-variance and Contravariance
- Iterators
- Anonymous methods
These features are quite useful, because they allow you to write code in more generic and prettier way.
C# 3.0 (.NET Framework 2.0\3.0\3.5)
C# 3.0 — game changer in C# world :) Version came late in 2007 with Visual Studio 2008 and it established C# as a truly formidable programming language.
Some major features in this version:
- Lambda Expression
- LINQ
- Implicit Type (var)
- Extensions Methods
- Expression Trees
C# 4.0 (.NET Framework 4.0)
The fourth version, which was released in 2010 with Visual Studio 2010, was not as breakthrough as the third version, but still brought some useful features:
- Named Arguments
- Optional Parameters
- Late Binding
- More COM Support
- Dynamic Keyword
C# 5.0 (.NET Framework 4.5)
In the next version, which was released with Visual Studio 2012, there are also few updates, but no less important:
- Async Programming (async/await)
- Caller info attributes
C# 6.0 (.NET Framework 4.6, .NET Core 1.0\1.1)
With version 6.0 released with Visual Studio 2015, many small features have been released that improve productivity:
- Null propagator
- Exception filters
- Auto-property initializers
- String interpolation
- nameof operator
- Expression bodied members
- await in catch and finally blocks
- Index initializers
- Static imports
C# 7.0 (.NET Framework 4.6.2\4.7)
With Visual Studio 2017 we got a new version of C# — C# 7.0. In this version, a lot of interesting things have been added, as in C# 6.0.
- Out variables
- Tuples and deconstruction
- Pattern matching
- Local functions
- Ref returns and locals
- Discards
- Binary Literals
- Digit Separators
- Generalized async return types
- More expression-bodied members
- Throw expressions
C# 8.0 (.NET Framework 4.8, .NET Core 3.0\3.1)
Feature list that were added to C# 8:
- Readonly members
- Nullable reference types
- Using declarations
- Asynchronous stream
- Default interface methods
- Pattern matching enhancements
- Null-coalescing assignment
C# 9.0 (.NET 5.0)
C# 9.0 adds the following features and enhancements to the C# language:
- Records and mutation
- Top-level programs
- Init-only properties
- Data members
- Init accessors & read-only fields
- Records With-expressions
- Value-based equality
C# 10.0 (.NET 6.0)
And the latest version brought us:
- Global usings
- Record structs
- File-scoped namespaces
- Null parameter checking
C# 10 is the latest version of the C#. You can also follow the status of features that Microsoft want to add — GitHub.
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