Get ready from programming in F# ( F Sharp)

Explore F#

F# is a strongly-typed, functional-first, open-source, cross-platform programming language for writing simple code to solve complex problems. From the business perspective, the primary role of F# is to reduce the time-to-deployment for analytical software components in the modern enterprise. Its interoperability with other languages and libraries and its ability to tackle the complexity of components such as calculation engines and data-rich analytical services offer a compelling story for businesses.

F# is both open-source under the OSI-approved Apache 2.0 license and a first-class language in Visual Studio. It is cross-platform and can be used on Mac OS X, Linux, Android, HTML5 and other platforms.

Why F#?

Simple Code for Complex Problems 
F# is expressive and concise, which allows developers to implement their algorithms more directly. This means less code to read and maintain.

Rapid Prototyping 
Using F# Interactive, code can be executed immediately without first compiling, which enables fluid problem exploration. Developers can use F# Interactive to iteratively refine algorithms to production quality.

Fewer Bugs 
Case studies and user reports consistently show that F#'s strong type system reduces software bugs. Units of Measure further increase these benefits by preventing code from accidentally combining such elements as inches and centimeters, dollars and euros, or any custom units.

Seamless Interoperability 
F# interoperates seamlessly with C#, and F# can be used with HTML5, JavaScript and other web standards. F# type providers can be used to integrate data sources and thousands of statistical libraries from packages such as R. The NuGet package environment provides over 8,000 new packages. Enterprises can use F# effectively without having to use different libraries and frameworks, and can leverage their existing assets and domain knowledge.

Efficient Execution 
F# features modern, high-performance just-in-time (JIT) compilation to native code. F# code runs unchanged on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems by using the instructions available on the target architecture. The resulting code runs at the speeds much faster than languages such as Python, JavaScript or R, and in some cases significantly faster than C#.

Reduced Complexity 
F# makes it easier to write functional programs, which eliminates complex time and state dependencies. This helps prevent bugs, makes unit testing more straightforward, simplifies refactoring, and promotes code reuse.

Information-Rich Programming with F# 3.0 
"The idea of integrating internet-scale information services directly into the program's variable and type space that is in F# 3.0 is probably the most innovative programming language idea I have heard of in a decade.", -Dr. James R. Cordy, Queen's University, Canada

A growing trend in the theory and practice of programming is the interaction between programming and rich information spaces. From databases and web services, to the semantic web and cloud-based data, the need to integrate programming with heterogeneous, connected, richly structured, streaming, and evolving information sources is ever-increasing.

The new type provider mechanism in F# 3.0 makes F# a uniquely extensible and adaptable data-rich language. Using type providers, F# programmers can integrate a wide range of information spaces and emerging industry data standards. Over time, we expect to see a number of new type provider projects samples, community projects, internal enterprise utilities, or products which each configure F# for use in a particular domain. So, not only would you have a near-seamless programming experience using SQL, OData and WSDL sources (to name a few), but anyone could create type providers that work against NoSQL data, semantic web data stores, social network graphs, scientific data repositories, data markets, SharePoint, WMI, streaming data, and high-performance cloud data stores. To learn more, read the F# 3.0 white paper from Microsoft Research.

Learning F#

F# Books & Tutorials

To learn more about F# or to teach it, you can find more information in one of the existing F# books or other available online tutorials. There is an increasing selection of F# books becoming available all the time.

There are also many F# tutorials available online that complement the interactive Try F# tutorials available on this web site. Find out more on the Learn F# page at F# Developer Center .

Installing F#

To use F# outside of this learning environment choose from the following options:

On Windows 7, Windows 8 and Azure

F# is a first-class language in Visual Studio, a powerful integrated development environment that supports many languages, including C# and JavaScript. You can download a free Express edition of Visual Studio and add F# to it. You can also download a full free trial of Visual Studio to get started. If you are a student or academic, then you can also get Visual Studio via the Dreamspark program.

On Mac OS X, Linux, Android, iOS and GPGPU

For using F# on these platforms, see the instructions provided by The F# Open Source Group