[c#] What does $ mean before a string?

It creates an interpolated string.

From MSDN

Used to construct strings. An interpolated string expression looks like a template string that contains expressions. An interpolated string expression creates a string by replacing the contained expressions with the ToString represenations of the expressions’ results.

ex :

 var name = "Sam";
 var msg = $"hello, {name}";

 Console.WriteLine(msg); // hello, Sam

You can use expressions within the interpolated string

 var msg = $"hello, {name.ToLower()}";
 Console.WriteLine(msg); // hello, sam

The nice thing about it is that you don't need to worry about the order of parameters as you do with String.Format.

  var s = String.Format("{0},{1},{2}...{88}",p0,p1,..,p88);

Now if you want to remove some parameters you have to go and update all the counts, which is not the case anymore.

Note that the good old string.format is still relevant if you want to specify cultural info in your formatting.