Beginning C# 2008 (eBook)

Christian Gross is a consultant with vast experience in the client/server world. He has consulted for Microsoft on DNA solutions, and he has held consulting positions with Daimler Benz, Microsoft, NatWest, and other major corporations. Gross was a contributor to Professional Active Server Pages, Professional SQL Server 6.5 Administration, Professional NT Internet Information Server Administration, and Programming Microsoft Windows 2000 Unleashed. He is the author of A Programmer's Introduction to Windows DNA.

Contents at a Glance 5
Contents 6
About the Author 15
About the Technical Reviewer 16
Introduction 17
Ready, Steady, Go! 18
Downloading and Installing the Tools 18
Choosing the Application Type 21
Creating Projects and Solutions 21
Creating the Windows Application 22
Navigating the User Controls of the Solution 30
Creating the Console Application 33
Creating the Class Library 34
Understanding How the . NET Framework Works 40
The Important Stuff to Remember 42
Some Things for You to Do 43
Learning About .NET Number and Value Types 44
Focusing and Organizing Your Development 44
Implementing the Class Library 49
Understanding Numeric and Value Data Types 61
Finishing the Calculator 66
The Important Stuff to Remember 67
Some Things for You to Do 67
Learning About String Manipulations 69
Organizing the Translation Application 69
Building the Translator Application 70
Dealing with Languages and Cultures 85
The Important Stuff to Remember 90
Some Things for You to Do 91
Learning About Data Structures, Decisions, and Loops 92
Understanding the Depth- First Search Algorithm 92
Implementing User- Defined Types 96
Organizing the Search Algorithm 102
Writing the Depth- First Search Code 104
The Important Stuff to Remember 127
Some Things for You to Do 128
Learning About C# Exception Handling 129
Understanding Errors, Exceptions, and Exception Handling 129
Running the Debugger 130
Handling Exceptions 131
Writing Exception- Safe Code 144
The Important Stuff to Remember 149
Some Things for You to Do 150
Learning the Basics of Object- Oriented Programming 151
Understanding Currency Spreads 152
Organizing the Currency Exchange Application 153
Writing Tests for the Currency Exchange Application 153
Writing the Active Trader and Hotel Trader Currency Converters 168
Learning More About Preprocessor Directives, Properties, and Abstract Methods 172
The Important Stuff to Remember 176
Some Things for You to Do 177
Learning About Components and Object Hierarchies 178
Understanding Some Basic Tax Concepts 178
Organizing the Tax Application 179
Programming Using Ideas 180
Implementing a Tax Engine 189
Using the Base Functionality of the Tax Engine to Calculate Taxes 198
Learning More About Inheritance and Type Casting 203
The Important Stuff to Remember 210
Some Things for You to Do 211
Learning About Component- Oriented Architecture 212
Understanding Kernels 212
Organizing the Lighting Application 213
Building the Kernel 214
Building a Complete Application 237
Learning More About Private Classes and Object Initialization 240
The Important Stuff to Remember 242
Some Things for You to Do 242
Learning About Lists, Delegates, and Lambda Expressions 243
Managing Collections 243
The Case of the Code That Feels Wrong 249
Understanding Lambda Expressions 261
Learning More About Collection Types 264
The Important Stuff to Remember 267
Some Things for You to Do 267
Learning About Persistence 268
Organizing the Lottery- Prediction System 268
Piping Data Using a Console 269
Piping Binary Data 289
Tweaking Serialization 298
Completing Custom Types 300
The Important Stuff to Remember 305
Some Things for You to Do 305
Learning About .NET Generics 306
Why Use . NET Generics? 306
The Theory of a Server- Side Spreadsheet 309
Architecting a Server- Side Spreadsheet 312
Implementing the Server Spreadsheet 322
Using the Spreadsheet 335
The Important Stuff to Remember 338
Some Things for You to Do 339
Learning About Application Configuration and Dynamic Loading 340
Convention over Configuration 340
Setting Up the Dynamic Loading Projects 343
Defining and Processing a Configuration File 347
Dynamically Loading an Assembly 350
Loading a Strongly Named Assembly 359
Implementing a Convention- Based Architecture 365
Dynamically Loading Base Class or Interface Types 367
The Important Stuff to Remember 368
Some Things for You to Do 369
Learning About Multithreading 370
Understanding Multitasking 370
Using Threads 374
Implementing a Reader/ Writer Threaded Architecture 387
Implementing a Producer/ Consumer Architecture 391
The Important Stuff to Remember 397
Some Things for You to Do 398
Learning About Relational Database Data 399
Understanding Relational Databases 399
Accessing Relational Databases 404
Designing a Database Using Visual C# Express 405
Accessing the Database Using ADO. NET 413
Using the Dataset Designer 418
The Important Stuff to Remember 424
Some Things for You to Do 424
Learning About LINQ 425
Finding the Frequency of Winning Numbers 425
Learning More LINQ Tricks 435
Using LINQ in Other Contexts 446
The Important Stuff to Remember 448
Some Things for You to Do 448
Writing Functional Code in C# 449
Why Functional Programming? 449
The Essence of Functional Programming 451
The Important Stuff to Remember 463
Some Things for You to Do 463
Learning About Other C# Techniques 464
Operators 464
The goto Statement 471
. NET Generics Constraints 472
Nullable Types 475
Partial Classes and Methods 477
The Important Stuff to Remember 479
Some Things for You to Do 479
Index 480