Add note about NRT runtime behavior changes in libraries #47071
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.
Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.
Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.
You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.
Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.
This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.
Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.
Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.
Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
The nullable reference types documentation previously gave the impression that enabling NRT would never change runtime behavior. However, libraries like Entity Framework Core use reflection to read nullable attributes and modify their behavior accordingly.
The issue:
RequiredAttribute
is explicitly added?
)The fix:
Added an Important callout in the "Nullable references and static analysis" section of the language reference article to clarify that while the C# compiler doesn't introduce behavior changes, other libraries may use reflection to produce different runtime behavior based on nullable annotations.
The note specifically mentions Entity Framework Core as an example, explaining that it interprets nullable references as optional values and non-nullable references as required values.
This addresses the documentation gap and helps developers understand when NRT might indirectly affect runtime behavior through library implementations.
Fixes #19633.
💡 You can make Copilot smarter by setting up custom instructions, customizing its development environment and configuring Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. Learn more Copilot coding agent tips in the docs.
Internal previews