Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION xix
PART I: THE OOP LANGUAGE


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCING C# 3


What Is the .NET Framework? 4


What’s in the .NET Framework? 4


Writing Applications Using the .NET Framework 5


What Is C#? 8


Applications You Can Write with C# 9


C# in this Book 10


Visual Studio 2015 10


Visual Studio Express 2015 Products 10


Solutions 11


CHAPTER 2: WRITING A C# PROGRAM 13


The Visual Studio 2015 Development Environment 14


Console Applications 17


The Solution Explorer 20


The Properties Window 21


The Error List Window 22


Desktop Applications 22


CHAPTER 3: VARIABLES AND EXPRESSIONS 29


Basic C# Syntax 30


Basic C# Console Application Structure 33


Variables 34


Simple Types 34


Variable Naming 39


Literal Values 39


Expressions 42


Mathematical Operators 42


Assignment Operators 47


Operator Precedence 48


Namespaces 49


CHAPTER 4: FLOW CONTROL 53


Boolean Logic 54


Boolean Bitwise and Assignment Operators 56


Operator Precedence Updated 58


Branching 59


The Ternary Operator 59


The if Statement 59


The switch Statement 63


Looping 66


do Loops 66


while Loops 69


for Loops 71


Interrupting Loops 72


Infinite Loops 73


CHAPTER 5: MORE ABOUT VARIABLES 77


Type Conversion 78


Implicit Conversions 78


Explicit Conversions 80


Explicit Conversions Using the Convert Commands 83


Complex Variable Types 85


Enumerations 85


Structs 89


Arrays 92


String Manipulation 99


CHAPTER 6: FUNCTIONS 107


Defining and Using Functions 108


Return Values 110


Parameters 112


Variable Scope 119


Variable Scope in Other Structures 122


Parameters and Return Values versus Global Data 123


The Main() Function 125


Struct Functions 127


Overloading Functions 128


Using Delegates 130


CHAPTER 7: DEBUGGING AND ERROR HANDLING 135


Debugging in Visual Studio 136


Debugging in Nonbreak (Normal) Mode 136


Debugging in Break Mode 144


Error Handling 153


try…catch…finally 153


Listing and Configuring Exceptions 160


CHAPTER 8: INTRODUCTION TO OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING 163


What Is Object-Oriented Programming? 164


What Is an Object? 165


Everything’s an Object 168


The Life Cycle of an Object 168


Static and Instance Class Members 169


OOP Techniques 170


Interfaces 171


Inheritance 172


Polymorphism 175


Relationships between Objects 177


Operator Overloading 179


Events 180


Reference Types versus Value Types 180


OOP in Desktop Applications 180


CHAPTER 9: DEFINING CLASSES 187


Class Definitions in C# 188


Interface Definitions 190


System.Object 193


Constructors and Destructors 195


Constructor Execution Sequence 196


OOP Tools in Visual Studio 200


The Class View Window 200


The Object Browser 202


Adding Classes 203


Class Diagrams 204


Class Library Projects 206


Interfaces versus Abstract Classes 209


Struct Types 212


Shallow Copying versus Deep Copying 214


CHAPTER 10: DEFINING CLASS MEMBERS 217


Member Definitions 218


Defining Fields 218


Defining Methods 219


Defining Properties 220


Refactoring Members 225


Automatic Properties 226


Additional Class Member Topics 227


Hiding Base Class Methods 227


Calling Overridden or Hidden Base Class Methods 229


Using Nested Type Defi nitions 230


Interface Implementation 232


Implementing Interfaces in Classes 233


Partial Class Definitions 235


Partial Method Definitions 237


Example Application 238


Planning the Application 238


Writing the Class Library 239


A Client Application for the Class Library 246


The Call Hierarchy Window 248


CHAPTER 11: COLLECTIONS, COMPARISONS, AND CONVERSIONS 251


Collections 252


Using Collections 253


Defining Collections 258


Indexers 259


Adding a Cards Collection to CardLib 262


Keyed Collections and IDictionary 264


Iterators 266


Iterators and Collections 270


Deep Copying 271


Adding Deep Copying to CardLib 273


Comparisons 275


Type Comparisons 275


Value Comparisons 279


Conversions 295


Overloading Conversion Operators 295


The as Operator 297


CHAPTER 12: GENERICS 301


What Are Generics? 302


Using Generics 303


Nullable Types 303


The System.Collections.Generic Namespace 311


Defining Generic Types 321


Defining Generic Classes 322


Defining Generic Interfaces 332


Defining Generic Methods 333


Defining Generic Delegates 334


Variance 335


Covariance 336


Contravariance 336


CHAPTER 13: ADDITIONAL C# TECHNIQUES 341


The : : Operator and the Global Namespace Qualifi er 342


Custom Exceptions 343


Adding Custom Exceptions to CardLib 343


Events 345


What Is an Event? 345


Handling Events 347


Defining Events 350


Expanding and Using CardLib 357


Attributes 365


Reading Attributes 366


Creating Attributes 367


Initializers 368


Object Initializers 368


Collection Initializers 371


Type Inference 374


Anonymous Types 376


Dynamic Lookup 380


The dynamic Type 381


Advanced Method Parameters 384


Optional Parameters 385


Named Parameters 386


Lambda Expressions 391


Anonymous Methods Recap 391


Lambda Expressions for Anonymous Methods 392


Lambda Expression Parameters 396


Lambda Expression Statement Bodies 396


Lambda Expressions as Delegates and Expression Trees 398


Lambda Expressions and Collections 399


PART II: WINDOWS PROGRAMMING


CHAPTER 14: BASIC DESKTOP PROGRAMMING 407


XAML 408


Separation of Concerns 409


XAML in Action 409


The Playground 411


WPF Controls 412


Properties 413


Events 417


Control Layout 422


Stack Order 423


Alignment, Margins, Padding, and Dimensions 423


Border 424


Canvas 424


DockPanel 426


StackPanel 428


WrapPanel 429


Grid 430


The Game Client 433


The About Window 433


The Options Window 439


Data Binding 448


Starting a Game with the ListBox Control 453


CHAPTER 15: ADVANCED DESKTOP PROGRAMMING 461


The Main Window 462


The Menu Control 462


Routed Commands with Menus 462


Creating and Styling Controls 466


Styles 467


Templates 467


Value Converters 472


Triggers 473


Animations 475


WPF User Controls 478


Implementing Dependency Properties 478


Putting It All Together 489


Refactoring the Domain Model 489


The View Models 494


Completing the Game 502


PART III: CLOUD PROGRAMMING


CHAPTER 16: BASIC CLOUD PROGRAMMING 515


The Cloud, Cloud Computing, and the Cloud Optimized Stack 516


Cloud Patterns and Best Practices 519


Using Microsoft Azure C# Libraries to Create a Storage Container 520


Creating an ASP.NET 4.6 Web Site That Uses the Storage Container 530


CHAPTER 17: ADVANCED CLOUD PROGRAMING AND DEPLOYMENT 539


Creating an ASP.NET Web API 540


Deploying and Consuming an ASP.NET Web API on Microsoft Azure 544


Scaling an ASP.NET Web API on Microsoft Azure 551


PART IV: DATA ACCESS


CHAPTER 18: FILES 561


File Classes for Input and Output 562


The File and Directory Classes 563


The FileInfo Class 564


The DirectoryInfo Class 566


Path Names and Relative Paths 566


Streams 567


Classes for Using Streams 567


The FileStream Object 568


The StreamWriter Object 575


The StreamReader Object 577


Asynchronous File Access 580


Reading and Writing Compressed Files 580


Monitoring the File System 584


CHAPTER 19: XML AND JSON 593


XML Basics 594


JSON Basics 594


XML Schemas 595


XML Document Object Model 597


The XmlDocument Class 598


The XmlElement Class 598


Changing the Values of Nodes 603


Converting XML to JSON 609


Searching XML with XPath 611


CHAPTER 20: LINQ 617


LINQ to XML 618


LINQ to XML Functional Constructors 618


Working with XML Fragments 621


LINQ Providers 624


LINQ Query Syntax 624


Declaring a Variable for Results Using the var Keyword 626


Specifying the Data Source: from Clause 627


Specify Condition: where Clause 627


Selecting Items: select Clause 627


Finishing Up: Using the foreach Loop 628


Deferred Query Execution 628


LINQ Method Syntax 628


LINQ Extension Methods 629


Query Syntax versus Method Syntax 629


Lambda Expressions 630


Ordering Query Results 632


Understanding the orderby Clause 633


Querying a Large Data Set 634


Using Aggregate Operators 636


Using the Select Distinct Query 640


Ordering by Multiple Levels 642


Using Group Queries 644


Using Joins 646


CHAPTER 21: DATABASES 651


Using Databases 651


Installing SQL Server Express 652


Entity Framework 652


A Code First Database 653


But Where Is My Database? 660


Navigating Database Relationships 661


Handling Migrations 668


Creating and Querying XML from an


Existing Database 669


PART V: ADDITIONAL TECHNIQUES


CHAPTER 22: WINDOWS COMMUNICATION FOUNDATION 677


What Is WCF? 678


WCF Concepts 679


WCF Communication Protocols 679


Addresses, Endpoints, and Bindings 680


Contracts 682


Message Patterns 683


Behaviors 683


Hosting 683


WCF Programming 684


The WCF Test Client 690


Defining WCF Service Contracts 693


Self-Hosted WCF Services 700


CHAPTER 23: UNIVERSAL APPS 709


Getting Started 709


Universal Apps 710


App Concepts and Design 711


Screen Orientation 711


Menus and Toolbars 711


Tiles and Badges 712


App Lifetime 712


Lock Screen Apps 712


App Development 712


Adaptive Displays 713


Sandboxed Apps 721


Navigation between Pages 725


The CommandBar Control 728


Managing State 729


Common Elements of Windows Store Apps 732


The Windows Store 733


Packaging an App 733


Creating the Package 734


APPENDIX: EXERCISE SOLUTIONS 737


INDEX 781

About the Author

About the authors


Benjamin Perkins is Senior Support Escalation Engineer at Microsoft, and an avid C# programmer with 15 years experience in enterprise-level IT solutions.


Jacob Vibe Hammer is a software engineer at Terma and co-author of a number of .NET books.


Jon D. Reid is a Product Solution Manager for IFS R&D (www.ifsworld.com) where he develops in C# for the Microsoft environment.