Outline of the C sharp programming language

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to C#:

C# (pronounced “C-sharp”) is a free and open-source multi-paradigm programming language developed by Microsoft as part of its .NET initiative. C# was designed by Anders Hejlsberg and first appeared in 2000 with the release of .NET Framework. The language emphasizes type safety, component-oriented programming, and modern object-oriented programming concepts. C# syntax is similar to C++ and Java, but is tightly integrated with the .NET runtime environment. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

What type of language is C#?

• Programming language — artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a computer
• Compiled language — compiled to Common Intermediate Language and executed by the Common Language Runtime
• General-purpose programming language
• Imperative programming – paradigm using statements that change program state, focusing on how to perform computation.
• Functional programming – treating computation as evaluation of functions, avoiding mutable state, focusing on what to compute.
• Component-oriented programming – reusable components with well-defined interfaces for modularity and code reuse.
• Statically typed programming language — type checking performed at compile time
• Managed code — runs in a virtual machine environment (.NET runtime) that handles memory management via garbage collection
• Object-oriented programming language

History of C#

See also: History of C#

• Anders Hejlsberg — lead architect and creator of C#
• Microsoft — developer and maintainer of C#
• 2000 — C# first appeared as part of .NET Framework development ^[4]
• 2002 — C# 1.0 released with Visual Studio .NET
• 2007 — C# 3.0 added LINQ, lambda expressions, and extension methods
• 2012 — C# 5.0 added async and await and caller info attributes
• 2015 — C# 6.0 added expression-bodied members, string interpolation, and Roslyn.
• 2014 — .NET Core introduced as an open-source and cross-platform implementation
• 2020 — .NET 5 unified .NET Framework and .NET Core
• 2024 — C# 13 added params collections and partial properties ^[5]

General C# concepts

See also: C Sharp syntax

• Assemblies ^[6]
• Attributes ^[7]
• Async/await ^[8]
• Asynchronous programming ^[9]
• Classes and objects ^[10]
• Collections ^[11]
• Delegates ^[12]
• Encapsulation ^[13]
• Events ^[14]
• Exception handling ^[15]
• Garbage collection ^{[16] [17]}
• Generics ^{[18] [19]}
• Inheritance ^[20]
• Interfaces ^[21]
• Lambdas ^[22]
• Language Integrated Query ^[23]
• Memory management ^{[24] [25]}
• Namespaces ^[26]
• Nullable type ^[27]
• Operator overloading ^[28]
• Pattern matching ^[29]
• Properties ^[30]
• Records ^[31]
• Reflection ^[32]
• Serialization ^[33]
• Structs ^[34]
• Threads ^[35] and tasks ^[36]
• Type inference ^[37]
• Unit testing ^[38]
• Value type and reference type ^[39]

Issues / Limitations

• Garbage collection overhead ^[40]
• Platform dependencies ^[41]

C# toolchain

See also: List of Visual Basic .NET software and tools

Compilers

See also: List of C# compilers

• Roslyn — open-source compiler platform for C# and VB.NET
• Mono — cross-platform implementation of C# and .NET
• Bartok — experimental AOT compiler by Microsoft Research
• CoreRT — .NET Foundation project for AOT and JIT compilation
• IL2CPU — AOT compiler used by the COSMOS operating system
• RemObjects C# — AOT compiler supporting multiple platforms
• RyuJIT — JIT compiler used in .NET Core and .NET 5+
• SharpDevelop — open-source IDE and C# compiler under LGPL
• Visual C# — Microsoft’s primary JIT compiler for C#
• Visual C# Express — freeware edition of Visual C# for beginners
• Portable.NET — discontinued AOT compiler from the DotGNU project

Build and package management

• MSBuild — Microsoft’s official build engine
• NuGet — official .NET package manager and registry
• dotnet CLI — command-line interface for building, running, and publishing C# applications. ^[42]

C# libraries and frameworks

• .NET Standard — specification ensuring API compatibility across .NET implementations
• ASP.NET Core — framework for building web applications and APIs
• Entity Framework Core — object-relational mapper (ORM)
• Xamarin — framework for building cross-platform mobile applications
• Blazor — framework for building interactive web UIs with C#
• Unity — game engine using C# as its primary scripting language

Testing and benchmarking

• xUnit — popular open-source testing framework
• NUnit — testing framework for .NET
• MSTest — Microsoft’s built-in test framework
• BenchmarkDotNet — library for performance benchmarking in C# ^[43]

Notable projects written in C#

• Unity
• VS Code extensions
• Godot with C# scripting support
• Microsoft Office add-ins
• Visual Studio Tools for Office

Example source code

• Articles with example C# code

C# publications

Books about C#

• Andrew Troelsen – Pro C# and the .NET Platform
• Bill Wagner – Effective C#
• Herbert Schildt – C#: A Beginner's Guide and C# 4.0: The Complete Reference
• Jeff Prosise – Programming Microsoft .NET
• Jeffrey Richter – CLR via C#
• Jennifer Greene – Head First C#
• Jon Skeet – C# in Depth
• Mark J. Price – C# 12 and .NET 8 – Modern Cross-Platform Development
• Rob Miles – The C# Programming Yellow Book ^[44]

C# dialects and related languages

• Visual Basic .NET — shares the same runtime and type system
• F# — functional-first language on the .NET platform
• PowerShell — built on .NET and C#
• Q# — quantum programming language from Microsoft influenced by C#

C# learning resources

See also: List of online integrated development environments

• Introduction to C#
• Official Microsoft C# documentation
• C# overview page
• W3Schools – C# tutorials
• GeeksforGeeks – C# basics

Competitive programming

See also: List of online competitive programming platforms

• LeetCode — supports C# submissions
• HackerRank — includes C# challenges
• Codeforces — supports C# in contests

See also

• Comparison of C Sharp and Java
• Outline of computer programming
• Outline of software
• Outline of software engineering

Outlines of other programming languages

• Outline of the C programming language
• Outline of the C++ programming language
• Outline of the Java programming language
• Outline of the JavaScript programming language
• Outline of the Perl programming language
• Outline of the Python programming language
• Outline of the Rust programming language

References

1. "C# Guide - .NET managed language". learn.microsoft.com.
2. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/csharp-programming-language-introduction/ ^{[ permanent dead link ]}
3. "C# - a modern, open-source programming language | .NET". Microsoft.
4. "Introduction - C# language specification". learn.microsoft.com.
5. "The history of C#". learn.microsoft.com.
6. "Assemblies in .NET - .NET". learn.microsoft.com.
7. "Attributes - C# language specification". learn.microsoft.com.
8. "Async and Await in C#". GeeksforGeeks. August 1, 2022.
9. "Asynchronous programming - C#". learn.microsoft.com.
10. "Classes and objects tutorial - C#". learn.microsoft.com.
11. "Collections - C# reference". learn.microsoft.com.
12. "Work with delegate types in C# - C#". learn.microsoft.com.
13. "Encapsulation in C#". GeeksforGeeks. October 15, 2018.
14. "Events - C#". learn.microsoft.com.
15. "Exception Handling - C#". learn.microsoft.com.
16. ".NET garbage collection - .NET". learn.microsoft.com.
17. "Garbage Collection in C# | .NET Framework". GeeksforGeeks. April 17, 2019.
18. "C# generics (With Examples)". www.programiz.com.
19. "Generic classes and methods - C#". learn.microsoft.com.
20. "Tutorial: Introduction to Inheritance - C#". learn.microsoft.com.
21. "Interfaces - define behavior for multiple types - C#". learn.microsoft.com.
22. "Lambda Expressions in C#". GeeksforGeeks. September 20, 2019.
23. "Language Integrated Query (LINQ) - C#". learn.microsoft.com.
24. "C# Memory Management". GeeksforGeeks. September 19, 2025.
25. "Memory management and patterns in ASP.NET Core". learn.microsoft.com.
26. "Namespaces - C# language specification". learn.microsoft.com.
27. "Nullable reference types - C#". learn.microsoft.com.
28. "Operator overloading - Define unary, arithmetic, equality, and comparison operators. - C# reference". learn.microsoft.com.
29. "Pattern matching overview - C#". learn.microsoft.com.
30. "Properties - C#". learn.microsoft.com.
31. "Records - C# reference". learn.microsoft.com.
32. "Reflection in .NET". learn.microsoft.com.
33. "Serialization - .NET". learn.microsoft.com.
34. "Structs - C# language specification". learn.microsoft.com.
35. "Using threads and threading - .NET". learn.microsoft.com.
36. "Task-based asynchronous programming - .NET". learn.microsoft.com.
37. Chand, Mahesh. "Type Inference in C#". www.c-sharpcorner.com.
38. Kumar, Ravi Ranjan. "A Basic Introduction To C# Unit Test For Beginners". www.c-sharpcorner.com.
39. "Reference types - C# reference". learn.microsoft.com.
40. "Garbage Collection and Performance - .NET". learn.microsoft.com.
41. "Dependency loading - .NET". learn.microsoft.com.
42. ".NET CLI". learn.microsoft.com.
43. "Home | BenchmarkDotNet". benchmarkdotnet.org.
44. "Top C# Books recommended by experts - MentorCruise". mentorcruise.com.

External links

• Official C# documentation
• Roslyn compiler GitHub repository
• Official .NET website