Question

I have a file with a module with some routines that take parameters and return unit, these routines have side-effects. I noticed that when accessing these f# routines from c# they’re actually properties of type unit and when I try to access 1 property, it runs all properties in the module.

From the F# documentation all top level do bindings are run on type initialization.

What is the preferred way to write functions that should not be run on type initialization but are also not associated with other state i.e. a class with functions and member variables?

Should I put these functions inside a type and just have no records in the type?

Code example:

namespace test_space

open System.Diagnostics;

module test =
    let test_1 =
        Debug.WriteLine ("One")

    let test_2 =
        Debug.WriteLine ("Two")

I’m running this code with C#:

static void Main (string [] args)
{
    Object o;

    o = test.test_2;
}

And the output is:

One
Two

Answer 1

The problem is you didn’t create functions but value bindings. test_1 is a value. test_1() is a function of type unit -> unit. Make sure you put () after the function name.