C# — Functional Programming with LINQ

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Functional programming is a programming paradigm that treats computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids changing state and mutable data. While C# is primarily an object-oriented language, you can apply functional programming concepts, such as immutability and pure functions, using LINQ and custom extension methods.

Here’s an example of using functional programming concepts to transform a list of numbers:

using System.Data;

public class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        List<int> numbers = new List<int> { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };

        // Using LINQ and functional-style operations to transform the list
        var result = numbers
            .Where(n => n % 2 == 0)  // Filter even numbers
            .Select(n => n * 2)      // Double each number
            .ToList();

        Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", result)); // Output: 4, 8
    }
}

In this example:

• We use Where to filter even numbers.
• We use Select to double each number.
• The result is collected into a new list.

By chaining these LINQ methods, you can apply transformations to collections in a functional and declarative way, avoiding explicit loops and mutable variables. This approach can make your code more readable and maintainable.

While C# is primarily an object-oriented language, you can apply functional programming principles to specific parts of your code where it makes sense, such as data transformations using LINQ, to improve code clarity and maintainability.