Breaking changes in Roslyn after .NET 7.0.100 through .NET 8.0.100

This document lists known breaking changes in Roslyn after .NET 7 general release (.NET SDK version 7.0.100) through .NET 8 general release (.NET SDK version 8.0.100).

Ref modifiers of dynamic arguments should be compatible with ref modifiers of corresponding parameters

Introduced in Visual Studio 2022 version 17.10

Ref modifiers of dynamic arguments should be compatible with ref modifiers of corresponding parameters at compile time. This can cause an overload resolution involving dynamic arguments to fail at compile time instead of runtime.

Previously, a mismatch was allowed at compile time, delaying the overload resolution failure to runtime.

For example, the following code used to compile without an error, but was failing with exception: "Microsoft.CSharp.RuntimeBinder.RuntimeBinderException: The best overloaded method match for 'C.f(ref object)' has some invalid arguments" It is going to produce a compilation error now.

public class C
{
    public void f(ref dynamic a) 
    {
    }
    
    public void M(dynamic d)
    {
        f(d); // error CS1620: Argument 1 must be passed with the 'ref' keyword
    }
}

Collection expression for type implementing IEnumerable must have elements implicitly convertible to object

Introduced in Visual Studio 2022 version 17.10

Conversion of a collection expression to a struct or class that implements System.Collections.IEnumerable and does not have a strongly-typed GetEnumerator() requires the elements in the collection expression are implicitly convertible to the object. Previously, the elements of a collection expression targeting an IEnumerable implementation were assumed to be convertible to object, and converted only when binding to the applicable Add method.

This additional requirement means that collection expression conversions to IEnumerable implementations are treated consistently with other target types where the elements in the collection expression must be implicitly convertible to the iteration type of the target type.

This change affects collection expressions targeting IEnumerable implementations where the elements rely on target-typing to a strongly-typed Add method parameter type. In the example below, an error is reported that _ => { } cannot be implicitly converted to object.

class Actions : IEnumerable
{
    public void Add(Action<int> action);
    // ...
}

Actions a = [_ => { }]; // error CS8917: The delegate type could not be inferred.

To resolve the error, the element expression could be explicitly typed.

a = [(int _) => { }];          // ok
a = [(Action<int>)(_ => { })]; // ok

Collection expression target type must have constructor and Add method

Introduced in Visual Studio 2022 version 17.10

Conversion of a collection expression to a struct or class that implements System.Collections.IEnumerable and does not have a CollectionBuilderAttribute requires the target type to have an accessible constructor that can be called with no arguments and, if the collection expression is not empty, the target type must have an accessible Add method that can be called with a single argument.

Previously, the constructor and Add methods were required for construction of the collection instance but not for conversion. That meant the following call was ambiguous since both char[] and string were valid target types for the collection expression. The call is no longer ambiguous because string does not have a parameterless constructor or Add method.

Print(['a', 'b', 'c']); // calls Print(char[])

static void Print(char[] arg) { }
static void Print(string arg) { }

ref arguments can be passed to in parameters

Introduced in Visual Studio 2022 version 17.8p2

Feature ref readonly parameters relaxed overload resolution allowing ref arguments to be passed to in parameters when LangVersion is set to 12 or later. This can lead to behavior or source breaking changes:

var i = 5;
System.Console.Write(new C().M(ref i)); // prints "E" in C# 11, but "C" in C# 12
System.Console.Write(E.M(new C(), ref i)); // workaround: prints "E" always

class C
{
    public string M(in int i) => "C";
}
static class E
{
    public static string M(this C c, ref int i) => "E";
}

var i = 5;
System.Console.Write(C.M(null, ref i)); // prints "1" in C# 11, but fails with an ambiguity error in C# 12
System.Console.Write(C.M((I1)null, ref i)); // workaround: prints "1" always

interface I1 { }
interface I2 { }
static class C
{
    public static string M(I1 o, ref int x) => "1";
    public static string M(I2 o, in int x) => "2";
}

Prefer pattern-based over interface-based disposal in async using

Introduced in Visual Studio 2022 version 17.10p3

An async using prefers to bind using a pattern-based DisposeAsync() method rather than the interface-based IAsyncDisposable.DisposeAsync().

For instance, the public DisposeAsync() method will be picked, rather than the private interface implementation:

await using (var x = new C()) { }

public class C : System.IAsyncDisposable
{
    ValueTask IAsyncDisposable.DisposeAsync() => throw null; // no longer picked

    public async ValueTask DisposeAsync()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("PICKED");
        await Task.Yield();
    }
}