In earlier versions of C#, anonymous functions—such as lambdas and anonymous methods—were introduced to simplify code and increase flexibility. However, while anonymous functions offer many advantages, they come with certain costs, particularly in terms of memory allocation and performance. In C# 9, to mitigate these concerns, the concept of static anonymous functions was introduced. This feature allows developers to use lambda expressions and anonymous methods with the static modifier, reducing the overhead associated with allocations and improving performance.
Static anonymous functions in C# 9 bring significant performance benefits, especially in scenarios where unnecessary object allocations could hinder the efficiency of the application. By marking an anonymous function as static, you instruct the compiler to avoid capturing any outer variables, which means the function can execute more efficiently without relying on the allocation of closures. This is particularly useful in high-performance or memory-sensitive applications where minimizing allocations is critical.
This article explores how to work with static anonymous functions in C# 9, providing clear examples of when and how to use them effectively. It highlights the differences between static and non-static anonymous functions, demonstrating the practical benefits of static functions through code samples. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a solid understanding of how to incorporate static anonymous functions into your C# projects to enhance performance while keeping your code clean and maintainable.
To follow along with the code examples presented in this article, you’ll need to have Visual Studio 2019 installed on your machine. If you don’t have it already, you can easily download it from the official Microsoft website. Once Visual Studio is set up, we will walk through the process of creating a .NET Core console application project, which will serve as the foundation for exploring static anonymous functions in the upcoming sections. With the project set up, you can experiment with the examples and start using static anonymous functions in your own C# applications.