With C# 8 on our doorstep, I figure it is a good time to reflect on recent additions to the language that have come before. There are some great improvements you may have missed, some that I really enjoy using, and some I consider have reached canonical usage status that I think are all worth some reflection.

It was back in 2016 with the release of Roslyn, a complete rewrite C# compiler platform written in C# that we started to see a ramp up on language features not seen since .Net 4.0 (probably). Most people probably remember async await and then an explosion of language features started flooding in.

2016 we saw the release of C# 6 and Visual Studio 2015. This had some great features to look forward to revisiting soon. Visual Studio 2017 followed two years later with C# 7, and quick on its heels was 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 alongside three of the 8 minor Visual Studio 2017 releases. That is a few features over the last 4 years to learn and know.

Now we have a Preview of Visual Studio 2019 (well three actually) that give us a chance to play with C# 8 features in a Preview capacity. There are plenty of great blogs out there talking about the new stuff, so I will try and avoid duplication at this point, and probably revisit after a few months of using these features in real development life.

In the meantime, I hope going over what you already have, and can start using today will be beneficial.

First, up will be the Elvis Operator. Stay tuned.

Have a favourite language feature you want to me to review? Leave a comment below.