How can I refer to F# names containing a single quote in a C# context?

Question

This mostly comes up while trying to debug F# code in the Visual Studio debugger, which expects C# syntax:

The debugger does not recognize F# expressions. To enter an expression in a debugger window or a dialog box during F# debugging, you must translate the expression into C# syntax. When you translate an F# expression into C#, make sure to remember that C# uses == as the comparison operator for equality and that F# uses a single =.

(from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/ee843932.aspx )

The problem is that I have variables and functions that contain single quote characters, like path' , but single quotes seem not to be valid in names in C#, so entering path' in the debugger window just says Newline expected in constant or words to that effect, because it thinks I am starting a character literal. Even right-clicking on it and adding a watch via the contextual menu gives a similar error.

How can I translate F# names containing single quotes into C# syntax, so that I can inspect them from the debugger or refer to them from C# code?

Answer 1

I do not think there is a way to do this - so the best option is probably to rename the variable path' to some other name that is a valid C# identifier like pathAux .

Although F# is more flexible with naming (and allows things like path' or even ``whatever !`` ), it is probably a good idea to use C#-compatible identifier names most of the times, because it will make the code readable to a wider audience - such as C# developers.