Learning F# | The F# Software Foundation (2024)

To learn F# use one of the free online resources, courses or books below.

F# Basics

A simple, clear resource explaining what F# is and what it is for.Learn about the tools for F#, the F# community, using F# with the .NET platform and access getting-started material.

Join Luis to get started with F# through a sequence of short, 10-minute videos.This series explains how F# is an open-source, cross-platform programming language that makes it easy to write succinct, performant, robust, and practical codeand gives you what you need to get started.

F# from the Ground Up (Course)

Whether it’s your first programming language or your next, F# will transform your experience as a software developer. Requiring nothing more than basic computer literacy, this course teaches you how to write software in F#.

F# for C#, Java or Python developers

Introduces you to F# and show you ways that F# can help in day-to-day developmentof mainstream commercial business software.

F# Cheat Sheet

The cheat sheet is a small and concise guide to F# syntax for newcomers to get started with the language. It’s available in HTML and PDF format.

F# Guide for Python developers

Very short tutorial/guide that shows the most important differences between Python and F#, with clear and concise examples.

F# Guide for C# developers

Very short tutorial/guide that shows the most important differences between C# and F#, with clear and concise examples.

Exercism

Learn F# by solving problems, testing your solutions, getting feedback from other developers, and reviewing other developers’ solutions! At last check, there are 112 F# problems just waiting for you to solve them.

F# Bite-sized (course)

Eager to learn F#? Learning a new language, yet a new paradigm, can be very daunting. This course aims to give you an interactive, gentle and fun introduction to F#. Video lectures, presentation slides, code samples, quizzes and exercises (with solution) will be present throughout the course – all at your pace. I’ll take you through topics such as introduction to Functional Programming, Function Composition, Partial Application, Testing in F#, Async Programming in F#, Algebraic Types (Records and Unions), Railway Oriented Programming (ROP) and many more.

F# Workshops and Dojos

The F# Koans

Learn F# by just filling in the gaps! The F# Koans are a fun set of code snippets where you have to fill in gaps to get tests to pass, and you learn the language along the way. Also available as a snippet which can be loaded into interactive environments or your editor of choice.

F# Workshop Materials

Material from the F# Introduction Workshop created by Jorge Fioranelli.

Community for F# Coding Dojos

A range of coding dojos for F# from Community for F# including the famousDigits Recognizer, Fractal Forest, Canopy 2048,Markov Bot, Type Provider Treasure Hunt, Classics Mash-up and Ham or Spam dojos.

F# Books - General

Get Programming with F#

Isaac Abraham

Get Programming with F#: A guide for .NET Developers shows you how to upgrade your .NET development skills by adding a touch of functional programming in F#. In just 43 bite-sized chunks, you’ll learn how to use F# to tackle the most common .NET programming tasks.Examples use the familiar Visual Studio environment, so you’ll be instantly comfortable. Packed with enlightening examples, real-world use cases, and plenty of easy-to-digest code, this easy-to-follow tutorial will make you wonder why you didn’t pick up F# years ago! In addition to the language itself, other topics covered include:

Interop with C# /VB projects
Working with disparate data sources
SQL database access
Web Programming
Unit testing

By the end of the book, you’ll be able to use F# in your day-to-day development, and know how and where to deepen your knowledge.

Stylish F#

Kit Eason

Stylish F# covers every design decision that a developer makes in constructing F# programs, helping you make the most educated and valuable design choices at every stage of code development. You will learn about the design of types and function signatures, the benefits of immutability, and the uses of partial function application. You will understand best practices for writing APIs to be used by F#, C#, and other languages. Each carefully vetted design choice is supported with compelling examples, illustrations, and rationales.

What You’ll Learn

Know why, when, and how to code in immutable style
Use collection functions, piping, and function composition to build working software quickly
Be aware of the techniques available to bring error handling into the mainstream of program logic
Optimize F# code for maximum performance
Identify and implement opportunities to use function injection to improve program design
Appreciate the methods available to handle unknown data values
Understand asynchronous and parallel programming in F#, and how it differs from C# asynchronous programming

Essential Functional-First F#

Ian Russell

This is a practical book aimed at efficiently getting you up to speed with the essentials functional-first programming in F#.

Everywhere you look, programming languages are gaining functional features. The problem is that it’s not the individual features that make functional programmers happy, it’s the way that your approach to writing software and the features work together to help you write simple code to solve interesting problems. This book will help you to discover why F# is such a popular language with those who have spent time learning its secrets.

This book started life as a series of blog posts on my Company’s website (https://www.softwarepark.cc/blog). The sum of the content is what a developer needs to know to be able to work on one of our F# Line of Business codebases. I have improved and extended the content, upgraded the code to F# 5 and ensured that the code will run in VS Code.

All of the author’s royalties from this book are going to the F# Software Foundation to help them to support the F# community around the world.

F# Programming Wikibook

The wikibook contains a comprehensive guide to F# programming. It coversF# language basics and essential functional programming concepts such asworking with functions and immutable data structures. It also discussesimperative and object-oriented programming in F# and advanced langaugefeatures such as active patterns and computation expressions.

Beginning F# 4.0

Robert Pickering, Kit Eason

This book is a great foundation for exploring functional-first programming andits role in the future of application development. The best-selling introduction to F#,now thoroughly updated to version 4.0, will help you learn the language and exploreits new features.

Expert F# 4.0

Don Syme, Adam Granicz, Antonio Cisternino

Expert F# 4.0 is about practical programming in a beautiful language that puts the power and elegance of data-rich functional programming into the hands of professional developers. In combination with .NET, F# achieves unrivaled levels of programmer productivity and program clarity.

A comprehensive guide to F# by the inventor of F#
A treasury of F# techniques for practical problem-solving
An in-depth case book of how F# applications and of F# 4.0 concepts, syntax, and features

The world’s experts in F# show you how to program in F# the way they do!

Functional Programming Using F#

Michael R. Hansen, Hans Rischel

This comprehensive introduction to the principles of functional programming using F#shows how to apply basic theoretical concepts to produce succinct and elegant programs.It demonstrates the role of functional programming in a wide spectrum of applicationsincluding databases and systems. Coverage also includes advanced features in the .NETlibrary, the imperative features of F# and topics such as text processing, sequences,computation expressions and asynchronous computation. With a broad spectrum of examplesand exercises, the book is perfect for courses in functional programming and for self-study.Enhancing its use as a text is an accompanying website with downloadable programs, lectureslides, a mini-projects and links to further F# sources.

Real World Functional Programming

Tomas Petricek with Jon Skeet

Real World Functional Programming is a unique tutorial that explores thefunctional programming model through the F# and C# languages. The clearlypresented ideas and examples teach readers how functional programmingdiffers from other approaches. It explains how ideas look in F#-afunctional language-as well as how they can be successfully used to solveprogramming problems in C#.

F# for Quantitative Finance

Johan Astborg

This book will cover everything you need to know about using functionalprogramming for quantitative finance. Using a functional programming languagewill enable you to concentrate more on the problem itself rather thanimplementation details. Tutorials and snippets are summarized into an automatedtrading system throughout the book.

In this book you will:

Use Visual Studio as your main tool for writing F#
Utilize F# to aggregate data and calculate statistics
Plot and visualize data in F#
Learn about volatility, delta hedging, and volatility arbitrage
Understand basic numerical analysis and algorithm implementation
Model orders and market data together with basic pre-trade risk
Structure and write object-oriented code
Develop larger programs using F#
Explore automated trading systems and quantitative trading models

The Book of F#

Dave Fancher

The Book of F# aims to introduce intermediate and experienced developers to functional-first programming with F#. Throughout the book, you’ll learn how this robust language can help you focus on creating correct solutions by introducing a variety of important concepts including currying, partial application, pattern matching, units of measure, asynchronous workflows, query expressions, type providers, and computation expressions. Furthermore, you’ll discover how F#’s rich object-oriented capabilities allow it to naturally fit into existing applications.

Programming Language Concepts

Peter Sestoft

The book Programming Language Concepts (PLC) provides an introduction to programming language concepts and implementation technology, such as interpretation, compilation, type checking and type inference, abstract machines, and garbage collection. F# is used as a meta language throughout the book expressing all concepts and examples of programming language design in a modern strongly-typed language of the ML-family, enabling the reader to experiment with the ideas right away.

F# Deep Dives

Tomas Petricek and Phillip Trelford

F# Deep Dives presents a collection of real-world F# techniques, each written by expert practitioners. Each chapter presents a new use case where you’ll read how the author used F# to solve a complex problem more effectively than would have been possible using a traditional approach. You’ll not only see how a specific solution works in a specific domain, you’ll also learn how F# developers approach problems, what concepts they use to solve them, and how they integrate F# into existing systems and environments.

Machine Learning Projects for .NET Developers

Mathias Brandewinder

Machine Learning Projects for .NET Developers shows you how to build smarter .NET applications that learn from data, using simple algorithms and techniques that can be applied to a wide range of real-world problems.

Mastering .NET Machine Learning

Jamie Dixon

This book is packed with real-world examples to easily use machine learning techniques in your business applications. You will begin with introduction to F# and prepare yourselves for machine learning using .NET framework. You will be writing a simple linear regression model using an example which predicts sales of a product. Forming a base with the regression model, you will start using machine learning libraries available in .NET framework such as Math.NET, Numl.NET and Accord.NET with the help of a sample application. You will then move on to writing multiple linear regressions and logistic regressions.

F# for Scientists

Jon Harrop

F# for Scientists explains and demonstrates the powerful features of this important newprogramming language. The book assumes no prior experience and guides the reader fromthe basics of computer programming to the implementation of state-of-the-art algorithms.Written in a clear and concise style, F# for Scientists is well suited for researchers,scientists. It also serves as anideal supplemental text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students with a background in science or engineering.

Multi-Paradigm Programming Using F# and .NET

Ali Baghernejad

F# is the result of combining the power and capabilities of functional programming with with the imperative and object-oriented paradigms of .NET. Multi-Paradigm Programming In F# is a book that help developers to makeapplications using F# tools and the .NET libraries. This book is written in Persian language in 509 pages.In this book you will read:

Introduction to F# (History and Advantages)
Get Statring With F# (Installation, Interactive Environment, …)
F# Fundementals (Values, Primitive Types, Functions, Type Inference, Generic, …)
Advance Types (Lists, Tuples, Enums, Discriminated Union, Unit of Measures, …)
Functional Programming (Expressions, Imutability, Function Values, Pattern Matching, Piping, …)
Imperative Programming (Statements, Mutable Values, Side Effects, Arrays, Resource Management, …)
Object Oriented Programming (Objects, Classes, Inheritance, Abstraction, Polymorphism, …)
Error Handling (Exceptions, Exception Types, Throwing and Catching Exceptions, …)
Databases (Sql Server, Query Expressions, Type Providers, …)
User Interfaces (Windows Forms, WPF, GTK#)

F# Applied

Tamizhvendan S

“F# Applied” is an excellent introduction to applied, modern programming for the web. Starting with Suave, the F# server-side web framework, this book will teach you how to create complete applications using Functional-First Programming with F#In this book you will read:

How to create complete application using Functional Programming Principles using F#
An in-depth understanding of Web development in F# using Suave
How to develop applications using EventSourcing, CQRS, and DDD in F#
How to set up continuous integration and continuous deployment using FAKE and Docker
How to leverage libraries like Rx, FSharp.Data and Paket

F# 4.0 Design Patterns

Gene Belitski

This book will encourage enterprise developers coming to F# from other platforms to cultivate an idiomatic F# coding skillset by fully embracing the functional-first F# paradigm.

In this book you will:

Acquire the practical knowledge to use the main functional design patterns
Realign some imperative and object-oriented principles under the functional approach
Develop your confidence in building and combining first-order and higher-order functions
Learn to use core language pattern matching effectively
Make use of native F# algebraic data types in place of custom-built classes
Recognize and measure the difference in resource consumption between sequences and materialized data collections
Navigate and use F# Core libraries with ease by seeing patterns behind specific library functions
Master writing generic polymorphic code

Mastering F#

Alfonso García-Caro Núñez & Suhaib Fahad

This easy-to-follow guide with syntaxes will help you master the concepts of F#. Packed with in-depth examples of real-world uses, this book covers each topic in detail with a reference to C#, so you will understand the difference between the languages.

In this book you will:

Understand the basics of F# and organize F# source code with Visual Studio
Work with F# data structures and create functional data structures in F# interoperate with C#
Build and use asynchronous programming patterns with F#
Create and use type providers that help perform data analysis from within Visual Studio
Develop applications with pure F# code in WPF or ASP.NET MVC
Find out how to perform distributed programming with ServiceBus or ZeroMQ
Visualize data with charts, and work with Excel and R language Type providers

F# High Performance

Eriawan Kusumawardhono

This easy-to-follow guide is full of hands-on examples of real-world multithreading tasks. Each topic is explained and placed in context, and for the more inquisitive, there are also more in-depth details of the concepts used.

In this book you will:

Understand how the execution of functions in F# works
Identify common performance bottlenecks
Implement best practices to optimize performance
Use the available tooling to help measure performance
Combine the best practice of asynchronous and synchronous
Optimize further using various F# language constructs

Learning Basics of Functional Programming (Integrated Course)

Onur Gumus

Build end-to-end web applications with F#Develop web applications that includes server-side as well as the client-side programming using Fable, F# to JavaScript compiler.

Learn F# with this learner-friendly approach in this course
This single course covers all the basics so you can start building powerful applications
Get familiar with all the top modules and components included in this course

F# ile Fonksiyonel Programlama (Türkçe/Turkish)

Ali Özgür

This book is the first and the only F# book in Turkish. The book covers F# and general functional programming principles.

F#, aktif ve bağımsız geliştirici topluluğu tarafından yön verilen, özellikle bulut teknolojileri, veri analizi ve bilimsel çalışmalarda kullanımı her geçen gün artan sade ve şık bir programlama dilidir.F# ile Microsoft’un .NET platformu üzerinde Windows, Linux ve OSX işletim sistemlerinde çalışabilen her çapta ve özllikte uygulamalar geliştirebilirsiniz. Hatta sistem yönetimi scriptlerinizi bile F# ile oluşturabilirsiniz. F# ile Fonksiyonel Programlama kitabında F#’ın sunduğu tüm bu imkanlar ile sizi tanıştırmayı ve bol kod örnekleri ile F#’ı özümsem*nizi hedefliyoruz.

Building F# Applications (Video)

Richard Broida

Learn how to use F#’s functional features to rapidly turn requirements into software designs that are correct, complete, extensible, bug-free, and easy to read and understand.

Setup your IDE for F# development
Use F#-friendly tools for test automation, builds, and dependency management
Model your application’s problem domain using F#’s immutable data types and collections
Build simple-to-complex application behavior with F# functions
Interoperate between your F# applications and other .NET languages

F# Applied II

Tamizhvendan S

“F# Applied II” helps you to learn how to build a real-world, production-ready, end-to-end web application in F# using the functional programming principles by developing a Twitter clone from scratch.

In this book you will learn:

The Application of functional programming principles in a real-world application
Server-Side Rendering in Suave using DotLiquid
Authentication and Authorisation in Suave
Application Logging using Logary
Error handling in asynchronous operations using Chessie.
Database access using SQLProvider
Database schema management using Fluent Migrator
Realtime Tweet Feeds and Notifications using GetStream.io