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Addition operators - + and +=

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The + and += operators are supported by the built-in integral and floating-point numeric types, the string type, and delegate types.

For information about the arithmetic + operator, see the Unary plus and minus operators and Addition operator + sections of the Arithmetic operators article.

String concatenation

When one or both operands are of type string, the + operator concatenates the string representations of its operands (the string representation of null is an empty string):

C# 
Console.WriteLine("Forgot" + "white space");
Console.WriteLine("Probably the oldest constant: " + Math.PI);
Console.WriteLine(null + "Nothing to add.");
// Output:
// Forgotwhite space
// Probably the oldest constant: 3.14159265358979
// Nothing to add.

String interpolation provides a more convenient way to format strings:

C# 
Console.WriteLine($"Probably the oldest constant: {Math.PI:F2}");
// Output:
// Probably the oldest constant: 3.14

You can use string interpolation to initialize a constant string when all the expressions used for placeholders are also constant strings.

Beginning with C# 11, the + operator performs string concatenation for UTF-8 literal strings. This operator concatenates two ReadOnlySpan<byte> objects.

Delegate combination

For operands of the same delegate type, the + operator returns a new delegate instance that, when invoked, invokes the left-hand operand and then invokes the right-hand operand. If any of the operands is null, the + operator returns the value of another operand (which also might be null). The following example shows how delegates can be combined with the + operator:

C# 
Action a = () => Console.Write("a");
Action b = () => Console.Write("b");
Action ab = a + b;
ab();  // output: ab

To perform delegate removal, use the - operator.

For more information about delegate types, see Delegates.

Addition assignment operator +=

An expression using the += operator, such as

C# 
x += y

Is equivalent to:

C# 
x = x + y

Except that x is only evaluated once.

The following example demonstrates the usage of the += operator:

C# 
int i = 5;
i += 9;
Console.WriteLine(i);
// Output: 14

string story = "Start. ";
story += "End.";
Console.WriteLine(story);
// Output: Start. End.

Action printer = () => Console.Write("a");
printer();  // output: a

Console.WriteLine();
printer += () => Console.Write("b");
printer();  // output: ab

You also use the += operator to specify an event handler method when you subscribe to an event. For more information, see How to: subscribe to and unsubscribe from events.

Operator overloadability

A user-defined type can overload the + operator. When a binary + operator is overloaded, the += operator is also implicitly overloaded. A user-defined type can't explicitly overload the += operator.

C# language specification

For more information, see the Unary plus operator and Addition operator sections of the C# language specification.

See also