C# Version History: Detailed List of C# Features From Version 1 to 10

In this post, we would be talking about a c# version history i.e list of C# new features along with their version from C#1.0 to C#10.

If you are looking for an in-depth article for each and every feature with respect to the version it was released with, then you may stop here and skip this post.

Introduction

C#(Pronounced as CSharp) is an object-oriented programming language designed by Anders Hejlsberg and developed by Microsoft in the year 2000. It has been now 20+ years since its inception.

C# Version History

We have mentioned the features of the C# language and demonstrated the evolution of C# from version C#1.0 to C#10 (the current version at the time of writing this post).

C# 1.0

Microsoft released the first version of C# with Visual Studio 2002. The use of Managed Code was introduced with this version. C# 1.0 was the first language that the developer adopted to build .NET applications.

The major features of C# 1.0 include:

1. Classes
2. Structs
3. Interfaces
4. Events
5. Properties
6. Delegates

C# 2.0

Microsoft released the second version of C# language with Visual Studio 2005. C# 2.0 has introduced a few new features in this edition which helped the developers to code their applications in a more generic way.

Here are the new features that were introduced with C# 2.0:

1. Partial Class
2. Generics
3. Static Classes
4. Nullable Types
5. Co-variance and Contravariance

C# 3.0

Visual Studio 2008 came with C# version 3.0 and it has a bunch of new features. It was the life-changing language for Microsoft platform developers to build their applications. Till now, many developers are still using this version to build their apps. The new features that came with C# 3.0 were:

1. Lambda Expression
2. Extension Methods
3. Expression Trees
4. Anonymous Types
5. LINQ
6. Implicit Type (var)

C# 4.0

Though C# 4.0 was released with Visual Studio 2010 with .NET Framework 4, very few developers use its new features. Here is a list of new features of C# that came with this version:

1. Late Binding
2. Named Arguments
3. Optional Parameters
4. More COM Support
5. Dynamic Keyword

C# 5.0

Visual Studio 2012 came up with C# 5.0 and it was made available to the audience in the year 2012. In C# version 5.0, there are two key features:

1. Async Programming
2. Caller Information

C# 6.0

The C# 6.0 release contained many features that improve productivity for developers. Some of the features in this release were:

1. Read-only Auto-properties
2. String Interpolation
3. await in catch and finally blocks
4. index initializers
5. Null- conditional operators

C# 7.0

With Visual Studio 2017 (March 7 – 2017) we got a new version of C# – C# 7.0. There is a lot of new exciting features that nicely build on top of existing ones.

• Out variables
• Pattern matching
• Tuples
• Deconstruction
• Discards
• Local Functions
• Binary Literals
• Digit Separators
• Ref returns and locals
• Generalized async return types
• More expression-bodied members
• Throw expressions

C# 8.0

C# 8.0 adds the following features and enhancements to the C# language:

• Readonly members
• Default interface methods
• Pattern matching enhancements
• Using declarations
• Nullable reference types
• Asynchronous stream

C# 9.0

C#9 is the new version getting ready to be made available. Mads Torgersen, C# Lead Designer from .NET Team has shared some of the major features being added to C#9:

• Init-only properties
• Init accessors & read-only fields
• Records With-expressions
• Value-based equality
• Data members
• Positional records
• Records and mutation
• Top-level programs
• Improved pattern matching

C# 10

C# 10.0 is supported on .NET 6. In C#10, the following features & enhancements are being added to the C# language:

• Global usings
• Null parameter checking
• File-scoped namespaces
• Record structs
• Extended property patterns

At the time of updating this blog post, C#10 is the latest available version, you can refer to Language Feature Status on the Roslyn (C#/VB Compiler) GitHub repo.

To know these features in detail follow our post on C# 10 features.

C# Version History Table

The table below highlights the evolution of the C# Language from the year 2000 to date.

We have also written a dedicated post on New Features of C#8

That’s all as per this post is concerned. We will update this list as soon as the new version is out in the market.

Reference: Microsoft Docs

If you like to read about C# interview questions, check our post below:

CSharp Interview Questions for Beginners 2021 

C# Mastery – Mosh Hamedani

One of the best courses to master your C# skills right from level zero. This series is divided into 4 sections:

1. C# Basics
2. C# Intermediate
3. C# Advanced
4. Unit Testing for C# Developers

We hope that you like the summary post on C# Version History and now know How C# evolved from version 1.0 through 9.0?

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Happy Coding!