Unable to return Tuple from a method using Visual Studio 2017 and C# 7.0

Question

I've installed Visual Studio 2017 Community that was released a week ago, and I started exploring the new features of C# 7.

So I created a simple method that returns two values:

public class Program
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        (int sum, int count) a = ReturnTwoValues();
    }

    static (int sum, int count) ReturnTwoValues() => (1, 1);
}

Compiler is generating an error:

Error CS8137 Cannot define a class or member that utilizes tuples because the compiler required type 'System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TupleElementNamesAttribute' cannot be found. Are you missing a reference?

I tried finding a reference in the framework with this name, but with no luck !

If we need additional stuff to use C# 7.0 features, then it is very weird that we need to do that for every project ?!

Possible duplicate of [Enabling c# 7 in a asp.net application](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42744689/enabling-c-sharp-7-in-a-asp-net-application) — Hassan Abdullah, Jul 04 '17 at 10:22

score 138 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 11 '18 at 22:47

138

I Just ran through this page on Roslyn which describes the following steps to get this working:

Start a C# project
Add a reference to the System.ValueTuple package from NuGet (pre-release)

Following those steps, it is now working. But it is really very weird that we need to do that for every single project that we start! Hope this is fixed when we reach the Official release!

edited Aug 11 '18 at 22:47

AustinWBryan

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answered Nov 27 '16 at 07:39

Zein Makki

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One thing that should be in the next release is a code fix that lets you easily add the package. – svick Nov 27 '16 at 12:19
7

This solution helped me; even with the full release version of VS2017 Professional, downloaded in March 2017! – Nij Mar 09 '17 at 23:27
This does get the ball rolling using tuples – Leo Gurdian Mar 14 '17 at 23:34
2

Very annoyed that this isn't in the official language. Ran into the same problem with this being the fix. They are marketing this as a C# 7 language feature when in fact it's more of a C# 7 extension feature. I guess things can get hairy like that when you're using the new Roslyn compiler (which I'm a fan of)... either way, this is a sad side effect IMO. – Michael Puckett II Mar 15 '17 at 21:29
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@MichaelPuckettII I think this is because this feature needs classe(s) to exist in the .NET framework and they haven't released a new one yet, that's why a temporary solution was to include this as a Nuget Package. When the next .NET framework is released, the classes needed for this feature should be already built-in. If not, then that is a problem that needs some explanation. – Zein Makki Mar 16 '17 at 07:16
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After just upgrading to .NET Framework 4.7 I received this error, turns out ValueTuple is now part of 4.7, so uninstalling the tuple package was the solution for me – chad.mellor Apr 16 '17 at 05:16
Still using .NET Framework 4.6 so this worked for me. – Spencer Dec 05 '17 at 23:39

score 74 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 26 '17 at 23:53

74

I started getting this error after I installed .Net 4.7 Framework, and changed my project to target .Net 4.7

ValueTuple is now included with .Net 4.7, so you don't have to reference the ValueTuple manually.

All I had to do to correct the compile error was remove the reference to System.ValueTuple from my project's references.

answered Jun 26 '17 at 23:53

aaaa bbbb

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Great, followed your suggestion, now it is included in .NET 4.7, don't need to install from NuGet any more. Thanks. – Gengjun Wu Mar 01 '18 at 01:43
can we use that on .net already. It's 2019. I target for .net 4.7.2 – user4951 May 16 '19 at 06:22

score 11 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 25 '19 at 10:44

11

I got this error too after updating to .NET 4.7.2 and was able to fix it by re-installing nuget packages using:

Update-Package -Reinstall

answered Oct 25 '19 at 10:44

martinoss

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score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 03 '19 at 18:38

I also came accross this issue as I upgraded from .NET 4.6.2 to .NET 4.7.2. Unfortunately, I was not able to remove the package reference to System.ValueTuple because another NuGet package I use depends on it.

Finally I was able to locate the root cause: There was a .NET 4.6.2 version of mscorlib.dll lying around in the project folder (output of a publish operation) and MSBuild decided to reference this assembly instead of the official .NET 4.7.2 reference assembly located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.7.2.

Due to the fact that System.ValueTuple was introduced in .NET 4.7, MSBuild failed the compilation because it could not find the type in the reference assembly of .NET 4.6.2.

Unable to return Tuple from a method using Visual Studio 2017 and C# 7.0

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