Over the past few months, I’ve been publishing posts around new features inside .NET 6 and C# 10. I put those as two separate feature lanes but in reality, they somewhat blur together now as a new release of .NET generally means a new release of C#. And features built inside .NET, are typically built on the back of new C# 10 features.
That being said, I thought it might be worthwhile doing a recap of the features I’m most excited about. This is not an exhaustive list of every single feature we should expect come release time in November, but instead, a nice little retrospective on what’s coming, and what it means going forward as a C#/.NET Developer.
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Minimal API Framework
The new Minimal API framework is in full swing, and allows you to build an API without the huge ceremony of startup files. If you liked the approach in NodeJS of “open the main.js file and go”, then you’ll like the new Minimal API framework. I highly suggest that everyone take a look at this feature because I suspect it’s going to become very very popular given the modern day love for microservices architectures.
DateOnly and TimeOnly Types
This is a biggie in my opinion. The ability to now specify types as being *only* a date or *only* a time is huge. No more rinky dink coding around using a DateTime with no time portion for example.
LINQ OrDefault Enhancements
Not as great as it sounds on the tin, but being able to specify what exactly the “OrDefault” will return as a default can be handy in some cases. S
Implicit Using Statements
Different project types can now implicitly import using statements globally so you don’t have to. e.g. No more writing “using System;” at the top of every single file. However, this particular feature has slightly been walked back to not be turned on by default. Still interesting none the less.
IEnumerable Chunk
Much handier than it sounds at first glance. More sugar than anything, but the ability for the framework to handle “chunking” a collection for you will see a lot of use in the future.
SOCKS Proxy Support
Somewhat surprisingly, .NET has never supported SOCKS proxies until now. I can’t say I’ve ever run into this issue myself, but I could definitely see this being a right pain when you are half way down a project build and realize that you can’t use SOCKS. But it’s here now atleast!
Priority Queue
Another feature that is surprising it’s never been here till now. The ability to have a priority on queue items will be a huge help to many. This is likely to see a whole heap of use in the coming years.
MaxBy/MinBy
How have we lived without this until now? The ability to find the “max” of a property on a complex object, but then return the complete object. Replaces the cost of doing a full order by then picking the first item. Very handy!
Global Using Statements
The feature that makes Implicit Using Statements possible. Essentially the ability to declare a using statement once in your project, and not have to clutter the top of every single file importing the exact same things over and over again. Will see use from day 1.
File Scoped Namespaces
More eye candy than anything. Being able to declare a namespace without braces services to save you one tab to the right.
What’s Got You Excited?
For me, I’m super pumped about the minimal API framework. The low ceremony is just awesome for quick API’s that need be shipped yesterday. Besides that, I think the DateOnly and TimeOnly will see a tonne of use from Day 1, and I imagine that new .NET developers won’t even think twice that we went 20 odd years with only DateTime.
How about you? What are you excited about?
Great article