e.g. Just a very simple example to illustrate the point
if (customer != null)
{
customer.Order = GetCurrentOrder();
}
vs if (customer is not null)
{
customer.Order = GetCurrentOrder();
}
Is there really any benefit in adding "is/is not"? I would argue no. So I categorise that as being of "dubious benefit" and there are many similar small features, keywords etc. that get added each release where they might save a few lines of code somewhere but I've never seem them used that often.if (obj is string s) { ... }
if (date is { Month: 10, Day: <=7, DayOfWeek: DayOfWeek.Friday }) { ... }
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-ref... https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-ref...
> Would you say that these samples show no benefit to using the "is" operator?
I didn't say no benefit. I said dubious benefit.
I didn't really want to get into discussing specific operators, but lets just use your date example:
if (date is { Month: 10, Day: <=7, DayOfWeek: DayOfWeek.Friday }) { ... }
This following would do the same thing before the is operator: static bool IsFirstFridayOfOctober(DateTime date)
{
return date.Month == 10
&& date.Day <= 7
&& date.DayOfWeek == DayOfWeek.Friday;
}
And then: if IsFirstFridayOfOctober(date) {
...
}
I understand it is more verbose. But do we really need a new operator for this? I was getting on fine without it.Each release there seems to be more of these language features and half the time I have a hard time remembering that they even exist.
Each time I meet with other .NET developers either virtually or in Person they all seem to be salivating over this stuff and I feel like I've walked in on some sort of cult meeting.
It isn't any one language feature it is the mentality of both the developer community and Microsoft.
> I agree that they should not add new stuff lightly
It seems though kinda do though. I am not the first person to complain that they add syntactic sugar that doesn't really benefit anything.
e.g. https://devclass.com/2024/04/26/new-c-12-feature-proves-cont...
I have a raft of other complaints outside of language features. Some of these are to do with the community itself which only recognise something existing when Microsoft has officially blessed it, it is like everyone has received the official permission to talk about a feature. Hot Reload was disabled in .NET 6 IIRC for dubious reasons.
Microsoft give the same example though. I understand what hes saying, theres conceptual overlap between is and ==. Many ways to do the same thing.
Why couldnt it just be...
if (obj == string s) { ... }