.NET 7 Release Candidate 2

Microsoft’s Release Candidate 2 (the final release candidate) for .NET 7 was released on October 11, 2022. In this programming tutorial, we look at some of the features and updates developers can expect.

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C# 11 Updates in .NET 7

New features and updates in C# 11 include the following.

Generic Attributes in C#

C# 11 introduces a new generic class, which encapsulates operations that are specific to a particular data type. A small example (from Microsoft) follows:

class BaseNode { }
class BaseNodeGeneric { }
// concrete type
class NodeConcrete : BaseNode { }
//closed constructed type
class NodeClosed : BaseNodeGeneric { }
//open constructed type
class NodeOpen : BaseNodeGeneric { }

An example of a generic class with the base class of System.Attribute in .NET follows:

public class GenericAttribute : Attribute { }

Required Members in C#

A Class and Struct type can make use of the required keyword to ensure that properties and fields must be properly initialized. Required members have a few rules:

• The required modifier can be applied to fields and properties in Struct and Class types
• Required members cannot be applied to members of an interface
• Required members must be initialized
• Required members must be visible as their containing type
• Derived classes cannot hide required members that are declared in the base class

Here is a code example showing how to use required members in C#:

public class Course
{
    public required string CourseName { get; init; }
    public required int CourseDuration {get; init; }

    [SetsRequiredMembers]
    public Course(string courseName, int courseDuration)
    {
        this.CourseName = coursetName;
        this.CourseDuration = courseDuration;
    }
    public Course() {}
}

For a more detailed look at some of the new and updated features of C#, please refer to the following link.

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.NET Library Updates

.NET libraries keep on improving, and there are always new features being added. In the most recent release, these include:

• Generic Math
• Regular Expression improvements

Generic Math Library in .NET

Generic Math gives .NET developers the ability to use operators on generic types. An example from Microsoft follows:

public static TResult Sum<T, TResult>(IEnumerable values)
    where T : INumber
    where TResult : INumber
{
    TResult result = TResult.Zero;

    foreach (var value in values)
    {
        result += TResult.Create(value);
    }

    return result;
}

public static TResult Average<T, TResult>(IEnumerable values)
    where T : INumber
    where TResult : INumber
{
    TResult sum = Sum<T, TResult>(values);
    return TResult.Create(sum) / TResult.Create(values.Count());
}

public static TResult StandardDeviation<T, TResult>(IEnumerable values)
    where T : INumber
    where TResult : IFloatingPoint
{
    TResult standardDeviation = TResult.Zero;

    if (values.Any())
    {
        TResult average = Average<T, TResult>(values);
        TResult sum = Sum<TResult, TResult>(values.Select((value) => {
            var deviation = TResult.Create(value) - average;
            return deviation * deviation;
        }));
        standardDeviation = TResult.Sqrt(sum / TResult.Create(values.Count() - 1));
    }

    return standardDeviation;
}

More information on Generic Math can be found here and Regular Expression improvements from the latest release can be seen here.

For a complete list of improvements and changes in .NET 7 Candidate Release 2, have a look here.

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