The Book of F#: Breaking Free with Managed Functional Programming

F# brings the power of functional-first programming to the .NET Framework, a platform for developing software in the Microsoft Windows ecosystem. If you’re a traditional .NET developer used to C# and Visual Basic, discovering F# will be a revelation that will change how you code, and how you think about coding.

In The Book of F#, Microsoft MVP Dave Fancher shares his expertise and teaches you how to wield the power of F# to write succinct, reliable, and predictable code. As you learn to take advantage of features like default immutability, pipelining, type inference, and pattern matching, you’ll be amazed at how efficient and elegant your code can be.

You’ll also learn how to:

• Exploit F#’s functional nature using currying, partial application, and delegation
• Streamline type creation and safety with record types and discriminated unions
• Use collection types and modules to handle data sets more effectively
• Use pattern matching to decompose complex types and branch your code within a single expression
• Make your software more responsive with parallel programming and asynchronous workflows
• Harness object orientation to develop rich frameworks and interact with code written in other .NET languages
• Use query expressions and type providers to access and manipulate data sets from disparate sources

Break free of that old school of programming. The Book of F# will show you how to unleash the expressiveness of F# to create smarter, leaner code.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Meet F#
Chapter 2. F# Interactive
Chapter 3. Fundamentals
Chapter 4. Staying Objective
Chapter 5. Let’s Get Functional
Chapter 6. Going to Collections
Chapter 7. Patterns, Patterns, Everywhere
Chapter 8. Measuring Up
Chapter 9. Can I Quote You on That?
Chapter 10. Data Access
Chapter 11. Asynchronous and Parallel Programming
Chapter 12. Compute This!