Summary

In this chapter we looked at some of the features of C# that aren’t directly related to object-orientation, including many drawn from imperative or functional paradigms. Some have been with the language since the beginning, such as the static keyword, while others have recently been added, like pattern matching.

Each addition has greatly expanded the power and usability of C# - consider generics, whose introduction brought entirely new (and much more performant) library collections like List<T>, Dictionary<T>, and HashSet<T>. Others have lead to simpler and cleaner code, like the use of Lambda expressions. Perhaps most important is the realization that programming languages often continue to evolve beyond their original conceptions.