Object-oriented programming in F#: Introduction

In this series, we’ll look at how F# supports object-oriented classes and methods.

As has been stressed many times before, F# is fundamentally a functional language at heart, yet the OO features have been nicely integrated and do not have a “tacked-on” feeling. As a result, it is quite viable to use F# just as an OO language, as an alternative to C#, say.

Whether to use the OO style or the functional style is, of course, up to you. Here are some arguments for and against.

Reasons in favor of using OO features:

• If you just want to do a direct port from C# without refactoring. (For more on this, there is a entire series on how to port from C# to F#.)
• If you want to use F# primarily as an OO language, as an alternative to C#.
• If you need to integrate with other .NET languages

Reasons against using OO features:

• If you are a beginner coming from an imperative language, classes can be a crutch that hinder your understanding of functional programming.
• Classes do not have the convenient “out of the box” features that the “pure” F# data types have, such as built-in equality and comparison, pretty printing, etc.
• Classes and methods do not play well with the type inference system and higher order functions (see discussion here), so using them heavily means that you are making it harder to benefit from the most powerful parts of F#.

In most cases, the best approach is a hybrid one, primarily using pure F# types and functions to benefit from type inference, but occasionally using interfaces and classes when polymorphism is needed.

If you do decide to use the object-oriented features of F#, the following series of posts should cover everything you need to know to be productive with classes and methods in F#.

First up, how to create classes!