With the arrival of C# 12, the language has introduced several new features that make programming more concise and expressive. Among them, Primary Constructors stand out for simplifying the way classes initialize their members. This feature is similar to what Scala has long offered with its primary constructors.
Primary Constructors allow a constructor to be defined directly in the class declaration, which reduces the need for repetitive code and simplifies the definition of immutable classes.
public class Person(string name, int age)
{
public string Name { get; } = name;
public int Age { get; } = age;
}
In this example, the `Person` class has a primary constructor that takes two parameters: name and age. And the Name and Age properties are initialized directly from the constructor parameters, making it cleaner and more concise.
Scala has offered a similar concept since its earliest versions. In Scala, the main constructor parameters are defined along with the class and can be used to initialize the class members directly.
class Person(val name: String, val age: Int)
Both C# 12 and Scala eliminate the need to define a separate constructor and assign the parameters to the class properties manually.
But in C#, properties are assigned inside the class body using an explicit assignment (= name;), while in Scala, this assignment is implicit. And in Scala, you can control the visibility of constructor parameters (val or var) more directly. In C#, the default pattern is to create immutable properties with get; only.
Scala, being a more functional programming oriented language, offers features such as eliminating the need for {} braces for simple class bodies, while C# remains more verbose in its syntax.
In conclusion, the addition of Primary Constructors in C# 12 is a step in the right direction, making the language more expressive and less verbose, approaching the simplicity that Scala has offered for years. This parallel not only demonstrates the influence of functional languages on more traditional languages like C#, but also highlights the trend toward more concise, declarative programming.
And with each passing day I see C# becoming more like Scala ...
