Generics, nullable value types, iterators and partial types.

This release added 12 features, each with a before-and-after example.

Features in C# 2.0

• Anonymous methods - Create a delegate using an inline function body.
• Delegate covariance and contravariance - Allow a delegate to point at a method whose parameters or return type are less or more derived than the delegate's signature.
• Extern alias - Disambiguate types with the same fully-qualified name from different assemblies.
• Friend assemblies - Use InternalsVisibleTo to expose internal members to specific assemblies.
• Generics - Write type-safe code that works with multiple data types.
• Iterators - Produce and consume sequences.
• Null-coalescing operator - Provide a default value when an expression is null.
• Nullable value types - Give value-types "null" semantics to indicate missing values.
• Partial types - Split type definitions between files to separate generated and human-written code.
• Pragma directives - Use #pragma warning to selectively suppress or restore compiler warnings.
• Property accessor accessibility - Specify different access modifiers on a property's get and set accessors.
• Static classes - Declare a class as static to prevent instantiation and ensure only static members.

Nearby versions

C# 3.0 and later