.net - The significance of <> in C#

Question

I'm studying C# and caught a piece of code that I don't understand. I was hoping that you could clearify it for me.

CreateCustomerTask.<>c__DisplayClass0 cDisplayClass0 =
         new CreateCustomerTask.<>c__DisplayClass0();

What does the <> signify? And why is there a . (dot) in front of it?

Answer 1

You're looking at some decompiled code - specifically, something that was generated by the compiler.

The compiler uses <> (this is an implementation detail) because, whilst it's valid for a CLR identifier to start with such characters, it's not valid in C# - so it's guaranteed that the name will not conflict with any names in the C# code.

why the compiler has generated this code varies - it can be the implementation of a lambda, or an iterator or async block, and possibly some other reasons also.

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And, hopefully the other part of your question is also answered - there's a . in front of it for the usual reasons - to separate namespace portions, or more likely in this case, to separate the name of a nested class from the name of the enclosing class.