The name 'nameof' does not exist in the current context

Question

Yes, to use C# 6 features, you need a C# 6 compiler. Visual Studio 2013 doesn't have a C# 6 compiler. Visual Studio 2015 does.

There have been Roslyn pre-releases for Visual Studio 2013, but they don't implement the final C# 6: they actually don't implement all the features, and what they do implement is different from the final C# 6 behaviour.

yes you need to use Visual Studio 2015. It's not supported in VS 2013. Related link : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn986596.aspx

In pre-VS2015 you can add the following class to your solution and replace all instances of nameof( with NameOf.nameof(() => as suggested in get name of a variable or parameter

using System;
using System.Linq.Expressions;

namespace ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib
{
    public class NameOf
    {
        public static String nameof<T>(Expression<Func<T>> name)
        {
            MemberExpression expressionBody = (MemberExpression)name.Body;
            return expressionBody.Member.Name;
        }
    }
}

Installing this nuget package fixed it for my project.

Install-Package Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform

You will not be able to use C#6 in VS2013. The compiler will not understand the new C# 6 syntax you are trying to use. How can I add C# 6.0 to Visual Studio 2013?

If you are getting this error in Teamcity, make the following changes to build step to correct it.

1. Open your MSBuild step in teamcity
2. Change the MSBuild version to Microsoft Build Tools 2015
3. Change the MSBuild ToolVersion to 14.0

I got this error when using DotNetFiddle, I just switched to .NET Core instead of .NET 4.7.X.