Using .NET Standard or Use Shared Library for a new Xamarin Forms application

Question

When creating a new app in Xamarin Forms I see these two options:

Configure your Forms App

Shared Code:

• Use .NET Standard
• Use Shared Library

Can someone explain the difference? I looked at the help and I am still confused. I'd appreciate if someone can give me any advice on this. Not sure if it helps but this app is self contained and no code in the app will need to be shared with any other application.

Answer 1

In terms of what you can achieve with both, it is the same. So, in the end, it's mostly a matter of taste.

The biggest difference is that a shared project is compiled into the app itself. It is nothing more than it says on the tin: it's a shared folder that you can use in all platform projects. Using platform-specific code is done through compiler directives.

With a .NET Standard project, you will get a physical binary. It is a project of its own. You can reuse it in other .NET Standard projects, although you already mentioned you won't be using it for that. Executing platform-specific code requires a bit different approach, using the DependencyService.

Seeing that they made a choice to replace the PCL with .NET Standard but keep the shared project points out that the shared project is here to stay for a while. I tend to like the .NET Standard library more. It feels cleaner and forces you to write cleaner code. Also, .NET Standard isn't going anywhere soon and if you decide that code should be reused down the road, you have the ability to.

A good overview, together with pros and cons can be found in the Microsoft Docs: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/cross-platform/app-fundamentals/code-sharing