C# in a Nutshell

Peter Drayton is an independent consultant, helping early-stage companies define and build systems that take advantage of technologies such as .NET, SOAP, XML, and COM+. Peter is also an instructor for DevelopMentor, where he teaches Essential C SHARP.NET. Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, Peter now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Julie. He spends his spare time researching .NET and tinkering with a small flotilla of computers cluttering up their a partment. Ted Neward is an independent software development architect and mentor in the Sacramento, California area. He is the author of a number of books, including Server-Based Java Programming (Manning), the forthcoming EffectiveEnterprise Java (Addison-Wesley) and Shared Source CLI Essentials (O'Reilly) and co-author of C SHARP In a Nutshell (O'Reilly) with Peter Drayton and Ben Albahari. He is also an instructor with DevelopMentor, where he teaches and authors both the Java and .NET curriculum. He speaks frequently for technology user groups and writes technical papers for www.javageeks.com and www.clrgeeks.com. He currently labors on behalf of the University of California, Davis, architecting a rebuild of the Davis Accounting and Financial Information Services software system. Past clients include companies like Pacific Bell, EdFund, Synergex and Intuit. Ben Albahari is cofounder of Genamics, a provider of tools for C SHARP and J++ programmers, as well as software for DNA and protein sequence analysis. He is author of A Comparative Overview of C SHARP, a frequently cited comparison of C SHARP with C/C++ and Java that was recently named by DevX as one of the top 10 .NET sites. Ben is a resident of Perth, Australia, and in his spare time enjoys composing music on his computer. He can be reached at ben@genamics.com.

Preface I. Programming with C SHARP 1. Introducing C SHARP and the .NET Framework The C SHARP Language The .NET Framework ECMA Standardization Changes in Visual C SHARP 2003 2. C SHARP Language Basics A First C SHARP Program Identifiers and Keywords Type Basics Value Types and Reference Types Predefined Types Arrays Variables and Parameters Expressions and Operators Statements Namespaces 3. Creating Types in C SHARP Classes Inheritance Access Modifiers Structs Interfaces Enums 4. Advanced C SHARP Features Delegates Delegates Versus Function Pointers Delegates Versus Interfaces Events Operator Overloading Try Statements and Exceptions Attributes Unsafe Code and Pointers Preprocessor Directives XML Documentation II. Programming with the .NET Framework 5. Framework Class Library Overview Core Types Text Collections Streams and I/O Networking Threading Security Reflection and Metadata Assemblies Serialization Remoting Web Services Data Access XML Graphics Rich Client Applications Web-Based Applications Globalization Configuration Advanced Component Services Diagnostics and Debugging Interoperating with Unmanaged Code Compiler and Tool Support Runtime Facilities Native OS Facilities Undocumented Types 6. String Handling String Class StringBuilder Class Regular Expression Support Regular Expression Basics Procedural- and Expression-Based Patterns Cookbook Regular Expressions 7. Collections Iterating Over Collections Standard Collection Interfaces Predefined Collection Classes Ordering Instances Generating Hash Code 8. XML I/O Accessing XML Documents Parsing an XML Stream Selecting Nodes Using XPath Transforming a Document Using XSLT 9. Networking Network Programming Models Generic Request/Response Architecture HTTP-Specific Support WebClient Adding New Protocol Handlers Using TCP, UDP, and Sockets Using DNS 10. Streams and I/O Streams and Backing Stores Encapsulating Raw Streams Directories and Files Isolated Storage 11. Serialization What Is Serialization? Serialization Support in the Framework Explicit Serialization Implicit Serialization [Serializable] {NonSerialized] IDeserializationCallback ISerializable [Serializable] and ISerializable 12. Assemblies Elements of an Assembly Assemblies and Modules Scoping Types and Type References Naming and Signing Assemblies Resolving and Loading Assemblies Deployment Security Permissions 13. Reflection Type Hierarchy Types, Members, and Nested Types Retrieving the Type for an Instance Retrieving a Type Directly Reflecting Over a Type Hierarchy Late Binding Advanced Uses of Reflection Creating New Types at Runtime 14. Custom Attributes Language Support Compiler Support Runtime Support Predefined Attributes Defining a New Custom Attribute Retrieving a Custom Attribute at Runtime 15. Memory Management The Garbage Collector Optimization Techniques Finalizers Dispose and Close Methods 16. Threading Thread Synchronization Common Thread Types Asynchronous Delegates 17. Integrating with Native DLLs Calling Into DLLs Ma