Name Tuples/Anonymous Types in F#?

The OP does not describe the best use of anonymous type. They are best used when using LINQ to map to an arbitrary class. For example:

var results = context.Students
              .Where(x => x.CourseID = 12)
              .Select(x => new { 
                 StudentID = x.ID, 
                 Name = x.Forename + " " + x.Surname
              });

I know this can be done by defining a new record type, but then you have two places to maintain code, (1) the record type definition (2) where you've used it.

It could instead be done with a tuple, but to access individual fields you have to use the deconstruction syntax (studentId, name) all the time. This becomes unwieldy if you have 5 items in the tuple. I would rather type in x and hit dot and have intellisense tell me what fields are available.

I find it easier to do

let route = routes.MapRoute(
    "Default", // Route name
    "{controller}/{action}/{id}" // URL with parameters
    )
route.Defaults.Add("controller", "Home")
route.Defaults.Add("action", "Index")

or

[ "controller", "Home"
  "action", "Index" ]
|> List.iter route.Defaults.Add

In F#, I would avoid calling overloads that accept anonymous types much as I would avoid calling an F# method accepting FSharpList from C#. Those are language-specific features. Usually there is a language-agnostic overload/workaround available.

EDIT

Just looked at the docs--here's yet another way to do it

let inline (=>) a b = a, box b

let defaults = dict [
  "controller" => "Home"
  "action"     => "Index" 
]
route.Defaults <- RouteValueDictionary(defaults)

Now in F# 4.6 (preview) we have Anonymous Records

So we can have this code syntax:

let AwesomeAnonymous = {|  ID = Guid.NewGuid()
                           Name = "F#"
                        |}

AwesomeAnonymous.Name |> Debug.WriteLine

It is also supported on the Visual Studio Intellisense:

So that code could be like this:

routes.MapRoute(
    "Default", // Route name
    "{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
    {| controller = "Home"; action = "Index"; id = UrlParameter.Optional |} // Parameter defaults
  )

See also: Announcing F# 4.6 Preview

You can't create "anonymous records" in F# - when using types, you can either use tuples which are anonymous, but don't carry labels or you can use records which have to be declared in advance and have labels:

// Creating an anonymous tuple
let route = ("Home", "Index", UrlParameter.Optional)

// Declaration and creating of a record with named fields
type Route = { controller : string; action : string; id : UrlParameter } 
let route = { controller = "Home"; action = "Index"; id = UrlParameter.Optional } 

Technically, the problem with anonymous records is that they would have to be defined as actual classes somewhere (the .NET runtime needs a type), but if the compiler put them in every assembly, then two anonymous records with same members might be different types if they were defined in different assemblies.

Honestly, I think that the example you posted is just a poor design decision in ASP.NET - it is misusing a particular C# feature to do something for which it wasn't designed. It may not be as bad as this, but it's still odd. The library takes a C# anonymous type, but it uses it as a dictionary (i.e. it uses it just as a nice way to create key-value pairs, because the properties that you need to specify are dynamic).

So, if you're using ASP.NET from F#, it is probably easier to use an alternative approach where you don't have to create records - if the ASP.NET API provides some alternative (As Daniel shows, there is a nicer way to write that).