Where can I find the C# 5 language specification?

Question

C# 5.0 is out now since August 2012. Where can I find the specification? They've stopped doing ECMA specs, but how about MSDN?

Hmm. I was going to point to [this](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms228593.aspx), but it looks like it still leads to the 4.0 spec right now. — Adam Lear, Nov 20 '12 at 05:31
Nothing much anywhere about c# 5.0 but you can get some interesting facts here in this link though - http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/113752/5-nice-things-to-have-in-C-5-0 — hridya pv, Nov 20 '12 at 05:38

Dima · Answer 1 · 2017-02-07T02:20:51.203

66

If you have Visual Studio 2012 installed, you will find specification somewhere there:

c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC#\Specifications\1033\CSharp Language Specification.docx

similar with VS2013:

c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC#\Specifications\1033\CSharp Language Specification.docx

VS2015:

c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC#\Specifications\1033\CSharp Language Specification.docx

edited Feb 07 '17 at 02:20

answered Nov 20 '12 at 05:38

Dima

9

Be aware that for me, the document says it's “C# Language Specification Version 4.0”, but it actually is spec for C# 5.0. – svick Dec 16 '12 at 16:14
1

@AaronAnodide: by now it's also available online, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/ms228593.aspx – Zarat May 25 '13 at 16:52
Correcting myself, the online version is not the same version you find installed with VS 2012 - even though the MSDN page makes it look like that. – Zarat May 25 '13 at 16:55
@Zarat DO you know what are the differences? – svick Jun 20 '13 at 16:24
@svick I believe the whole async/await syntax was missing (and the copyright dates differed), so the online version probably was C# 4 instead of C# 5. I've just checked it again though, and they seem to have updated it. Now I can't find any obvious differences between the online version and the copy with VS 2012 anymore. – Zarat Jun 22 '13 at 12:36
Jon Skeet has a page about this. http://csharpindepth.com/articles/chapter1/Specifications.aspx – Sam Leach Nov 12 '14 at 14:48
1

VS2015: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC#\Specifications\1033\CSharp Language Specification.docx – Vertexwahn Feb 03 '17 at 20:11

score 18 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 23 '19 at 05:47

18

It was originally unavailable online but since June 2013 it is available for download from Microsoft.

edited Apr 23 '19 at 05:47

peeyush singh

answered Jun 11 '13 at 13:05

Excommunicated

7

Is there a PDF version for it? – kiss my armpit Feb 07 '14 at 14:57
1

@AminM By now it is still available only for C# 3 and C# 5 – demonplus Aug 08 '15 at 12:57
The C# 6 specification (currently a draft) can be found [here](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/language-specification/). – Wai Ha Lee Mar 05 '19 at 12:00

2 Answers2