ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull and ArgumentException.ThrowIfNullOrEmpty to simplify defensive programming.
However, many projects still target older frameworks where these APIs are missing.
This article explores how the NetEvolve.Arguments library delivers a unified, backward-compatible API that brings modern guard clause patterns to every .NET version, ensuring consistent validation, maintainability, and multi-framework compatibility.
It begins like many stories in software: a well-intentioned developer joining a project, determined to do things properly. You arrive at a codebase that has grown organically, perhaps even chaotically. You decide you will bring order. You set up unit testing, you configure continuous integration, you measure code coverage. You write dozens or hundreds of tests. Every public method is touched, every branch is at least executed. The dashboard lights up green. You feel, quite frankly, on top of things.
Then one day, production breaks under your watch
Let’s be honest: health checks are the broccoli of .NET projects. Everyone says they have them, but nobody’s excited to eat their greens. What starts as a humble SELECT 1 in a try/catch quickly explodes into a wild jungle of scripts, copy-pasted connection strings, and endpoints that only half the team remembers. Sure, it works—until it doesn’t. And when it breaks, it’s never at a good time.
string.Format() with the same format string, .NET parses it again. And again. And again. CompositeFormat changes that: parse once, reuse forever. The result? Up to 30% faster formatting, fewer allocations, and a one-line code change. Here’s why this matters and how to use it.While you’re busy optimizing database queries and adding cache layers, thousands of string searches per second are quietly eating your CPU budget. The problem isn’t visible in your APM dashboard because it’s distributed across every request. But it’s there. Compounding. Scaling linearly with load.
I discovered this the hard way when a log processing API started choking under production traffic. The bottleneck? String validation and sanitization. The fix? A .NET 8 feature that delivered a 5x performance improvement and let us shut down servers instead of adding them. And it’s gotten even better in .NET 9 and 10.
In every mature .NET landscape, legacy projects represent both heritage and hazard. They once powered entire business models — now they silently consume time, budget, and attention. The decision to retire or modernize them isn’t about technology fashion. It’s about sustaining the organization’s capacity for value creation.