C# standard specification

The C# language specification is the definitive source for the C# language. The ECMA C# standard committee (TC49-TG2) produces the specification. The committee is currently working on version 8 of the standard. The draft published here includes some, but not all, of the C# 8 features. The committee uses Microsoft specifications and language design meeting (LDM) notes to produce the specification.

This section contains the latest working draft of the C# language specification. The latest working draft is published here before being submitted to ECMA for approval. The committee works in the dotnet/csharpstandard repository. You can track the committee's progress and participate in the standard work there.

Because the committee has fallen behind the latest implementation, this section also contains the Microsoft specifications for those newer features that haven't been incorporated into the standard yet. You can read those specifications to get information on newer features. The feature specifications began as proposals for the design. They include proposed changes to the standard. The C# language design team and compiler team produce these feature specifications. The purpose of the proposals was to guide the design and implementation of the feature. They may include proposed features that haven't yet been implemented. The actual implementation may have been modified while implementing the feature. Those changes are captured in the LDM notes. The LDM notes are the minutes of the language design meetings. In most cases, the pertinent LDM notes are linked from the feature specifications.

As the committee works on newer versions, the feature specifications are removed from this site, and those links are redirected to the updated sections of the standard. In the meantime, the feature specifications represent the best information on those features.