Microsoft Visual C# Step by Step

John Sharp is a principal technologist at Content Master, part of CM Group Ltd., a technical authoring and consulting company based in Gloucester, in the UK. An expert on developing Microsoft .NET applications, he has created many tutorials, white papers, and presentations on distributed systems, web services, cloud applications, and the C# language. He is the author of Windows Communication Foundation Step by Step and helped develop Microsoft Certification Course 70-480: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3.

Introduction xix
PART I: INTRODUCING MICROSOFT VISUAL C# AND MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO 2015
Chapter 1: Welcome to C# 3
Beginning programming with the Visual Studio 2015 environment 3
Writing your first program 8
Using namespaces 14
Creating a graphical application 17
Examining the Universal Windows Platform app 26
Adding code to the graphical application 29
Summary 32
Quick Reference 32
Chapter 2: Working with variables, operators, and expressions 33
Understanding statements 33
Using identifiers 34
Identifying keywords 34
Using variables 36
Naming variables 36
Declaring variables 37
Working with primitive data types 37
Unassigned local variables 38
Displaying primitive data type values 38
Using arithmetic operators 45
Operators and types 45
Examining arithmetic operators 47
Controlling precedence 52
Using associativity to evaluate expressions 53
Associativity and the assignment operator 53
Incrementing and decrementing variables 54
Prefix and postfix 55
Declaring implicitly typed local variables 56
Summary 57
Quick Reference 58
Chapter 3: Writing methods and applying scope 59
Creating methods 59
Declaring a method 60
Returning data from a method 61
Using expression-bodied methods 62
Calling methods 63
Applying scope 66
Defining local scope 66
Defining class scope 67
Overloading methods 68
Writing methods 68
Using optional parameters and named arguments 77
Defining optional parameters 79
Passing named arguments 79
Resolving ambiguities with optional parameters and named arguments 80
Summary 85
Quick reference 86
Chapter 4: Using decision statements 87
Declaring Boolean variables 87
Using Boolean operators 88
Understanding equality and relational operators 88
Understanding conditional logical operators 89
Short circuiting 90
Summarizing operator precedence and associativity 90
Using if statements to make decisions 91
Understanding if statement syntax 91
Using blocks to group statements 93
Cascading if statements 94
Using switch statements 99
Understanding switch statement syntax 100
Following the switch statement rules 101
Summary 104
Quick reference 105
Chapter 5: Using compound assignment and iteration statements 107
Using compound assignment operators 107
Writing while statements 108
Writing for statements 114
Understanding for statement scope 115
Writing do statements 116
Summary 125
Quick reference 125
Chapter 6: Managing errors and exceptions 127
Coping with errors 127
Trying code and catching exceptions 128
Unhandled exceptions 129
Using multiple catch handlers 130
Catching multiple exceptions 131
Propagating exceptions 136
Using checked and unchecked integer arithmetic 138
Writing checked statements 139
Writing checked expressions 140
Throwing exceptions 143
Using a finally block 148
Summary 149
Quick reference 150
PART II: UNDERSTANDING THE C# OBJECT MODEL
Chapter 7: Creating and managing classes and objects 153
Understanding classification 153
The purpose of encapsulation 154
Defining and using a class 154
Controlling accessibility 156
Working with constructors 157
Overloading constructors 158
Understanding static methods and data 167
Creating a shared field 168
Creating a static field by using the const keyword 169
Understanding static classes 169
Static using statements 170
Anonymous classes 172
Summary 174
Quick reference 174
Chapter 8: Understanding values and references 177
Copying value type variables and classes 177
Understanding null values and nullable types 183
Using nullable types 185
Understanding the properties of nullable types 186
Using ref and out parameters 187
Creating ref parameters 188
Creating out parameters 188
How computer memory is organized 190
Using the stack and the heap 192
The System.Object class 193
Boxing 194
Unboxing 194
Casting data safely 196
The is operator 196
The as operator 197
Summary 199
Quick reference 199
Chapter 9: Creating value types with enumerations
and structures 201
Working with enumerations 201
Declaring an enumeration 202
Using an enumeration 202
Choosing enumeration literal values 203
Choosing an enumeration's underlying type 204
Working with structures 206
Declaring a structure 208
Understanding differences between structures and classes 209
Declaring structure variables 210
Understanding structure initialization 211
Copying structure variables 215
Summary 219
Quick reference 219
Chapter 10: Using arrays 221
Declaring and creating an array 221
Declaring array variables 221
Creating an array instance 222
Populating and using an array 223
Creating an implicitly typed array 224
Accessing an individual array element 225
Iterating through an array 225
Passing arrays as parameters and return values for a method 227
Copying arrays 228
Using multidimensional arrays 230
Creating jagged arrays 231
Summary 241
Quick reference 242
Chapter 11: Understanding parameter arrays 243
Overloading-a recap 243
Using array arguments 244
Declaring a params array 245
Using params object[ ] 247
Using a params array 249
Comparing parameter arrays and optional parameters 252
Summary 254
Quick reference 254
Chapter 12: Working with inheritance 255
What is inheritance? 255
Using inheritance 256
The System.Object class revisited 258
Calling base-class constructors 258
Assigning classes 259
Declaring new methods 261
Declaring virtual methods 262
Declaring override methods 263
Understanding protected access 265
Understanding extension methods 271
Summary 275
Quick reference 276
Chapter 13: Creating interfaces and defining abstract classes 277
Understanding interfaces 277
Defining an interface 278
Implementing an interface 279
Referencing a class through its interface 280
Working with multiple interfaces 281
Explicitly implementing an interface 282
Interface restrictions 283
Defining and using interfaces 284
Abstract classes 293
Abstract methods 295
Sealed classes 295
Sealed methods 295
Implementing and using an abstract class 296
Summary 302
Quick reference 303
Chapter 14: Using garbage collection and resource management 305
The life and times of an object 305
Writing destructors 306
Why use the garbage collector? 308
How does the garbage collector work? 310
Recommendations 310
Resource management 311
Disposal methods 311
Exception-safe disposal 312
The using statement and the IDisposable interface 312
Calling the Dispose method from a destructor 314
Implementing exception-safe disposal 316
Summary 325
Quick reference 325
PART III: DEFINING EXTENSIBLE TYPES WITH C#
Chapter 15: Implementing properties to access fields 329
Implementing encapsulation by using methods 329
What are properties? 331
Using properties 333
Read-only properties 334
Write-only properties 334
Property accessibility 335
Understanding the property restrictions 336
Declaring interface properties 337
Replacing methods with properties 339
Generating automatic properties 343
Initializing objects by using properties 345
Summary 349
Quick reference 350
Chapter 16: Using indexers 353
What is an indexer? 353
An example that doesn't use indexers 353
The same example using indexers 355
Understanding indexer accessors 357
Comparing indexers and arrays 358
Indexers in interfaces 360
Using indexers in a Windows application 361
Summary 367
Quick reference 368
Chapter 17: Introducing generics 369
The problem with the object type 369
The generics solution 373
Generics vs. generalized classes 375
Generics and constraints 375
Creating a generic class 376
The theory of binary trees 376
Building a binary tree class by using generics 379
Creating a generic method 389
Defining a generic method to build a binary tree 389
Variance and generic interfaces 391
Covariant interfaces 393
Contravariant interfaces 395
Summary 397
Quick reference 397
Chapter 18: Using collections 399
What are collection classes? 399
The List collection class 401
The LinkedList collection class 403
The Queue collection class 404
The Stack collection class 405
The Dictionary collection class 407
The SortedList collection class 408
The HashSet collection class 409
Using collection initializers 411
The Find methods, predicates, and lambda expressions 411
The forms of lambda expressions 413
Comparing arrays and collections 415
Using collection classes to play cards 416
Summary 420
Quick reference 420
Chapter 19: Enumerating collections 423
Enumerating the elements in a collection 423
Manually implementing an enumerator 425
Implementing the IEnumerable interface 429
Implementing an enumerator by using an iterator 431
A simple iterator 432
Defining an enumerator for the Tree class by using an iterator 434
Summary 436
Quick reference 437
Chapter 20: Decoupling application logic and handling events 439
Understanding delegates 440
Examples of delegates in the .NET Framework class library 441
The automated factory scenario 443
Implementing the factory control system without using delegates 443
Implementing the factory by using a delegate 444
Declaring and using delegates 447
Lambda expressions and delegates 455
Creating a method adapter 455
Enabling notifications by using events 456
Declaring an event 456
Subscribing to an event 457
Unsubscribing from an event 457
Raising an event 458
Understanding user interface events 458
Using events 460
Summary 466
Quick reference 466
Chapter 21: Querying in-memory data by using query expressions 469
What is LINQ? 469
Using LINQ in a C# application 470
Selecting data 472
Filtering data 474
Ordering, grouping, and aggregating data 475
Joining data 477
Using query operators 479
Querying data in Tree objects 481
LINQ and deferred evaluation 487
Summary 491
Quick reference 491
Chapter 22: Operator overloading 493
Understanding operators 493
Operator constraints 494
Overloaded operators 494
Creating symmetric operators 496
Understanding compound assignment evaluation 498
Declaring increment and decrement operators 499
Comparing operators in structures and classes 500
Defining operator pairs 500
Implementing operators 501
Understanding conversion operators 508
Providing built-in conversions 508
Implementing user-defined conversion operators 509
Creating symmetric operators, revisited 510
Writing conversion operators 511
Summary 513
Quick reference 514
PART IV: BUILDING UNIVERSAL WINDOWS PLATFORM APPLICATIONS WITH C#
Chapter 23: Improving throughput by using tasks 517
Why perform multitasking by using parallel processing? 517
The rise of the multicore processor 518
Implementing multitasking by using the Microsoft .NET Framework 519
Tasks, threads, and the ThreadPool 520
Creating, running, and controlling tasks 521
Using the Task class to implement parallelism 524
Abstracting tasks by using the Parallel class 536
When not to use the Parallel class 541
Canceling tasks and handling exceptions 543
The mechanics of cooperative cancellation 543
Using continuations with canceled and faulted tasks 556
Summary 557
Quick reference 557
Chapter 24: Improving response time by performing
asynchronous operations 559
Implementing asynchronous methods 560
Defining asynchronous methods: The problem 560
Defining asynchronous methods: The solution 564
Defining asynchronous methods that return values 569
Asynchronous method gotchas 570
Asynchronous methods and the Windows Runtime APIs 572
Using PLINQ to parallelize declarative data access 575
Using PLINQ to improve performance while iterating through a collection 576
Canceling a PLINQ query 580
Synchronizing concurrent access to data 581
Locking data 584
Synchronization primitives for coordinating tasks 584
Canceling synchronization 587
The concurrent collection classes 587
Using a concurrent collection and a lock to implement thread-safe data access 588
Summary 598
Quick reference 599
Chapter 25: Implementing the user interface for a Universal Windows Platform app 601
Features of a Universal Windows Platform app 602
Using the Blank App template to build a Universal Windows Platform app 605
Implementing a scalable user interface 607
Applying styles to a UI 638
Summary 649
Quick reference 649
Chapter 26: Displaying and searching for data in a Universal Windows Platform app 651
Implementing the Model-View-ViewModel pattern 651
Displaying data by using data binding 652
Modifying data by using data binding 659
Using data binding with a ComboBox control 663
Creating a ViewModel 665
Adding commands to a ViewModel 669
Searching for data using Cortana 680
Providing a vocal response to voice commands 692
Summary 695
Quick reference 696
Chapter 27: Accessing a remote database from a Universal Windows Platform app 697
Retrieving data from a database 698
Creating an entity model 703
Creating and using a REST web service 712
Inserting, updating, and deleting data through a REST web service 728
Reporting errors and updating the UI 738
Summary 746
Quick reference 747
Index 749