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Extension methods enable you to "add" methods to existing types without creating a new derived type, recompiling, or otherwise modifying the original type. Extension methods are a special kind of static method, but they are called as if they were instance methods on the extended type. For client code written in C# and Visual Basic, there is no apparent difference between calling an extension method and the methods that are actually defined in a type.




The most common extension methods are the LINQ standard query operators that add query functionality to the existing System.Collections.IEnumerable and System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<T> types. To use the standard query operators, first bring them into scope with a using System.Linq directive. Then any type that implements IEnumerable<T> appears to have instance methods such as GroupBy, OrderBy, Average, and so on. You can see these additional methods in IntelliSense statement completion when you type "dot" after an instance of an IEnumerable<T> type such as List<T> or Array.



The following example shows how to call the standard query operator OrderBy method on an array of integers. The expression in parentheses is a lambda expression. Many standard query operators take lambda expressions as parameters, but this is not a requirement for extension methods. For more information, see Lambda Expressions (C# Programming Guide).