C# | Version History

C# is a general-purpose, modern and object-oriented programming language pronounced as “C Sharp”. It was developed by Microsoft led by Anders Hejlsberg and his team within the .NET initiative and was approved by the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) and International Standards Organization (ISO). The current version of C# is C# 7.3.

The below table shows some important features introduced in each version of C#:

Version	.NET Framework	Visual Studio	Major Features
C# 1.0	.NET Framework 1.0	Visual Studio .NET 2002	Classes Structs Interfaces Events Properties Delegates Expressions Statements Attributes Literals
C# 1.2	.NET Framework 1.1	Visual Studio .NET 2003	Basic features
C# 2.0	.NET Framework 2.0	Visual Studio 2005	Generics Partial types Anonymous methods Nullable types Iterators Covariance and contravariance Method group conversions (delegates) Static classes Delegate inference Getter/setter separate accessibility
C# 3.0	.NET Framework 2.0/3.0/3.5	Visual Studio 2008/2010	Auto-implemented properties Anonymous types Query expressions Lambda expressions Expression trees Extension methods Implicitly typed local variables Partial methods Object and collection initializers
C# 4.0	.NET Framework 4	Visual Studio 2010	Dynamic binding Named/optional arguments Generic covariant and contravariant Embedded interop types
C# 5.0	.NET Framework 4.5	Visual Studio 2012/2013	Asynchronous members Caller info attributes
C# 6.0	.NET Framework 4.6	Visual Studio 2015	Static imports Exception filters Auto-property initializers Expression bodied members Null propagator String interpolation nameof operator Index initializers Await in catch/finally blocks Default values for getter-only properties
C# 7.0	.NET Framework 4.6.2	Visual Studio 2017	Out variables Tuples and deconstruction Pattern matching Local functions Expanded expression bodied members Ref locals and returns Discards Binary Literals and Digit Separators Throw expressions
C# 7.1	.NET Framework 4.7	Visual Studio 2017 version 15.3	async Main method default literal expressions Inferred tuple element names Pattern matching on generic type parameters
C# 7.2	.NET Framework 4.7.1	Visual Studio 2017 version 15.5	Techniques for writing safe efficient code Non-trailing named arguments Leading underscores in numeric literals private protected access modifier Conditional ref expressions
C# 7.3	.NET Framework 4.7.2	Visual Studio 2017 version 15.7	You can access fixed fields without pinning. You can reassign ref local variables. You can use initializers on stackalloc arrays. You can use fixed statements with any type that supports a pattern. You can use additional generic constraints.

References:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_Sharp_(programming_language)#Versions
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/whats-new/csharp-version-history

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