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Comment by pjc50

11 hours ago

OK then, what is the opposite of this, the adhoc union?

I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing something like

(Dog, Cat) pet = new Cat();

So without defining the union with an explicit name beforehand.

  • Well, you can do this in c#:

      var someUser = new { Name = "SideburnsOfDoom", CommentValue = 3 };
    
    

    What type is `someUser` ? Not one that you can reference by name in code, it is "anonymous" in that regard. But the compiler knows the type.

    A type can be given at compile-time in a declaration, or generated at compile-time by the compiler like this. But it is still "Compiler-verified" and not ad-hoc or at runtime.

    the type (Dog, Cat) pet seems similar, it's known at compile-time and won't change. A type without a usable name is still a type.

    Is this "ad-hoc"? It depends entirely on what you mean by that.