What is the equivalent in F# of the C# default keyword ?

Question

Hi, I'm looking for the equivalent of C# default keyword, e.g:

public T GetNext()
{
    T temp = default(T);
            ...

Thanks

Answer 1

I found this in a blog: "What does this C# code look like in F#? (part one: expressions and statements)"

C# has an operator called "default" that returns the zero-initialization value of a given type:

default(int) 

It has limited utility; most commonly you may use default(T) in a generic. F# has a similar construct as a library function:

Unchecked.defaultof<int>

Answer 2

Technically speaking F# function Unchecked.defaultof<'a> is an equivalent to the default operator in C#. However, I think it is worth noting that defaultof is considered as an unsafe thing in F# and should be used only when it is really necessary (just like using null, which is also discouraged in F#).

In most of the situation, you can avoid the need for defaultof by using the option<'a> type. It allows you to represent the fact that a value is not available yet.

However, here is a brief example to demonstrate the idea. The following C# code:

T temp = default(T);
// Code that may call: temp = foo()
if (temp = default(T)) temp = bar(arg)
return temp;

Would be probably written like this in F# (using imperative features):

let temp = ref None
// Code that may call: temp := Some(foo())
match !temp with 
| None -> bar(arg)
| Some(temp) -> temp

Of course this depends on your specific scenario and in some cases defaultof is the only thing you can do. However, I just wanted to point out that defaultof is used less frequently in F#.