Table of Contents

Introduction xxxiii
Part I: The C# Ec osystem


Chapter 1: The C# Environment 3


Visual Studio 3


The C# Compiler 4


The CLR 6


The .NET Framework 8


Summary 9


Exercises 10


Chapter 2: Writing a First Program 11


Types of Projects 11


Console Applications 14


Windows Forms Applications 16


WPF Applications 19


Windows Store Applications 21


Summary 23


Exercises 24


Chapter 3: Program and Code File Structure 27


Hidden Files 28


Preprocessor Directives 31


#define and #undef 31


#if, #else, #elif, and #endif 33


#warning and #error 34


#line 34


#region and #endregion 35


#pragma 36


Code File Structure 37


The using Directive 38


The namespace Statement 40


Class Definitions 42


Comments 43


End-of-line and Multiline Comments 43


XML Comments 45


Summary 48


Exercises 48


Part II: C# Language Elements


Chapter 4: Data Types, Variables, and Constants 53


Data Types 54


Value Versus Reference Types 57


The var Keyword 58


Variable Declaration Syntax 59


Name 62


Attributes 62


Accessibility 63


Static, Constant, and Volatile Variables 64


Initialization 65


Classes and Structures 66


Arrays 67


Collections 68


Literal Type Characters 69


Data Type Conversion 72


Implicit Conversion 73


Casting 74


Using the as Operator 76


Casting Arrays 77


Parsing 77


Using System.Convert 78


Using System.BitConverter 78


ToString 79


Scope 79


Block Scope 79


Method Scope 80


Class Scope 81


Restricting Scope 81


Parameter Declarations 82


By Value 82


By Reference 83


For Output 84


Unusual Circumstances and Exceptions 85


Properties 86


Enumerations 88


Nullable Types 92


Delegates 93


Summary 95


Exercises 96


Chapter 5: Operators 99


Arithmetic Operators 100


Result Data Type 100


Shift Operators 101


Increment and Decrement Operators 101


Comparison Operators 102


Logical Operators 103


Bitwise Operators 105


Conditional and Null-coalescing Operators 106


Assignment Operators 107


Operator Precedence 108


The StringBuilder Class 110


DateTime and TimeSpan Operations 111


Operator Overloading 112


Comparison Operators 113


Logical Operators 115


Type Conversion Operators 115


Summary 117


Exercises 118


Chapter 6: Methods 121


Method Declarations 122


Attributes 122


Accessibility 124


Modifiers 124


Name 128


Return Type 128


Parameters 129


Implementing Interfaces 133


Extension Methods 135


Lambda Expressions 136


Expression Lambdas 136


Statement Lambdas 137


Async Lambdas 138


Variance 139


Asynchronous Methods 140


Calling EndInvoke Directly 140


Handling a Callback 141


Using Async and Await 144


Summary 146


Exercises 147


Chapter 7: Program Control Statements 151


Decision Statements 151


if-else Statements 152


switch Statements 153


Enumerated Values 156


Conditional and Null-coalescing Operators 157


Looping Statements 157


for Loops 157


Noninteger for Loops 159


while Loops 160


do Loops 161


foreach Loops 161


Enumerators 163


Iterators 164


break Statements 165


continue Statements 165


Summary 166


Exercises 166


Chapter 8: LINQ 169


Introduction to LINQ 171


Basic LINQ Query Syntax 173


from 173


where 174


orderby 175


select 175


Using LINQ Results 177


Advanced LINQ Query Syntax 178


join 178


join into 179


group by 179


Aggregate Values 181


Set Methods 182


Limiting Results 183


Other LINQ Methods 184


LINQ Extension Methods 185


Method-Based Queries 185


Method-Based Queries with Lambda Functions 187


Extending LINQ 188


LINQ to Objects 189


LINQ to XML 189


XML Literals 190


LINQ into XML 191


LINQ out of XML 192


LINQ to ADO.NET 194


LINQ to SQL and LINQ to Entities 194


LINQ to DataSet 195


PLINQ 198


Summary 200


Exercises 201


Chapter 9: Error Handling 205


Bugs Versus Undesirable Conditions 206


Catching Bugs 206


Code Contracts 209


Catching Undesirable Conditions 213


Global Exception Handling 216


try catch Blocks 220


Exception Objects 223


Throwing Exceptions 224


Rethrowing Exceptions 226


Custom Exceptions 227


Summary 229


Exercises 229


Chapter 10: Tracing and Debugging 231


The Debug Menu 232


The Debug ? Windows Submenu 234


The Breakpoints Window 235


The Immediate Window 237


Trace Listeners 238


Summary 240


Exercises 241


Part III: Object-Oriented Programming


Chapter 11: OO P Concepts 245


Classes 245


Encapsulation 248


Inheritance 250


Inheritance Hierarchies 251


Refinement and Abstraction 252


Has-a and Is-a Relationships 257


Adding and Modifying Class Features 257


Hiding and Overriding 258


abstract 261


sealed 262


Polymorphism 263


Summary 266


Exercises 266


Chapter 12: Classes and Structures 269


Classes 270


attributes 270


accessibility 271


abstract | sealed | static 272


partial 273


Structures 275


Value Versus Reference Types 275


Memory Requirements 276


Heap and Stack Performance 277


Object Assignment 277


Parameter Passing 277


Boxing and Unboxing 281


Constructors 282


Structure Instantiation Details 285


Garbage Collection 286


Destructors 286


Dispose 288


Events 290


Declaring Events 290


Raising Events 292


Catching Events 292


Using Event Delegate Types 292


Using Static Events 296


Hiding and Overriding Events 296


Raising Parent Class Events 296


Implementing Custom Events 297


Static Methods 298


Summary 300


Exercises 301


Chapter 13: Namespaces 303


Collisions in .NET 304


The using Directive 304


Project Templates 307


Item Templates 309


The Default Namespace 311


Making Namespaces 311


Resolving Namespaces 313


The global Namespace 314


Summary 315


Exercises 315


Chapter 14: Collection Classes 317


Arrays 318


Dimensions 318


Lower Bounds 318


Resizing 319


Speed 320


Other Array Class Features 320


System.Collections 321


ArrayList 321


StringCollection 324


NameValueCollection 325


Dictionaries 326


ListDictionary 327


Hashtable 328


HybridDictionary 329


StringDictionary 329


SortedList 329


CollectionsUtil 331


Stacks and Queues 331


Stack 331


Queue 333


Generic Collections 335


Collection Initializers 337


Iterators 338


Summary 339


Exercises 340


Chapter 15: Generics 343


Advantages of Generics 344


Defining Generics 344


Generic Constructors 345


Multiple Types 346


Constrained Types 348


Default Values 352


Instantiating Generic Classes 352


Generic Collection Classes 352


Generic Methods 352


Generics and Extension Methods 353


Summary 354


Exercises 355


Part IV: Interacting with the Environment


Chapter 16: Printing 359


Windows Forms Printing 359


Basic Printing 360


Drawing Basics 365


WPF Printing 380


Using a Paginator 381


Creating Documents 385


Summary 390


Exercises 390


Chapter 17: Configuration and Resources 393


Environment Variables 394


Setting Environment Variables 394


Using System.Environment 395


Registry 397


Configuration Files 402


Resource Files 405


Application Resources 405


Embedded Resources 406


Localization Resources 407


Summary 408


Exercises 408


Chapter 18: Streams 411


Stream 412


FileStream 414


MemoryStream 415


BinaryReader and BinaryWriter 416


TextReader and TextWriter 418


StringReader and StringWriter 419


StreamReader and StreamWriter 421


Exists, OpenText, CreateText, and AppendText 422


Custom Stream Classes 423


Summary 423


Exercises 424


Chapter 19: File System Objects 425


Filesystem Permissions 426


.NET Framework Classes 426


Directory 426


File 428


DriveInfo 430


DirectoryInfo 431


FileInfo 432


FileSystemWatcher 434


Path 436


Using the Recycle Bin 438


Using the FileIO.FileSystem Class 438


Using API Functions 439


Using Shell32.Shell 440


Summary 443


Exercises 444


Chapter 20: Networking 445


Networking Classes 446


Downloading Information 448


Downloading with WebClient 448


Downloading with WebRequest 451


Uploading Information 455


Uploading with WebClient 455


Uploading with WebRequest 455


Getting FTP Information 456


Sending E?mail 458


Sending Text Messages 460


Summary 462


Exercises 463


Part V: Advanced Topics


Chapter 21: Regular Expressions 469


Building Regular Expressions 470


Character Escapes 471


Character Classes 472


Anchors 473


Grouping Constructs 474


Quantifiers 475


Alternation Constructs 476


Sample Regular Expressions 476


Using Regular Expressions 478


Matching Patterns 479


Finding Matches 480


Making Replacements 481


Parsing Input 482


Summary 483


Exercises 483


Chapter 22: Parallel Programming 485


Interacting with the User Interface 488


BackgroundWorker 491


TPL 492


Parallel.For 492


Parallel.ForEach 494


Parallel.Invoke 495


Tasks 496


Threads 498


Coordinating Tasks 499


Race Conditions 499


Deadlocks 501


Thread-Safe Objects 503


Summary 504


Exercises 505


Chapter 23: ADO .NET 509


Selecting a Database 510


Using Bound Controls 511


Making a Data Source 511


Making a DataGridView Interface 516


Making a Details Interface 518


Making a DataGrid Interface 518


Loading DataSets 525


Using ADO.NET 527


Summary 530


Exercises 531


Chapter 24: XML 533


Basic XML Syntax 534


Writing XML Data 538


XmlWriter 538


Document Object Model 541


XML Literals 547


Reading XML Data 547


XmlTextReader 547


Document Object Model 550


Related Technologies 551


XPath 552


XSLT 555


Summary 559


Exercises 559


Chapter 25: Serialization 563


XML Serialization 564


Performing Serialization 565


Controlling Serialization 569


JSON Serialization 573


Performing Serialization 574


Controlling Serialization 575


Binary Serialization 576


Summary 578


Exercises 578


Chapter 26: Reflection 581


Learning About Classes 582


Getting and Setting Properties 585


Getting Assembly Information 589


Invoking Methods 591


Running Scripts 593


Summary 597


Exercises 597


Chapter 27: Cryptography 601


Cryptographic Operations 602


Randomness 603


Using Random Numbers for Encryption 604


Using Encryption for Random Numbers 604


Cryptographically Secure Randomness 604


Generating Random Numbers 605


Symmetric Key Encryption 608


Simple Encryption and Decryption 608


Keys and Initialization Vectors 612


Generating Key and IV Values 613


Asymmetric Key Encryption 614


Creating, Saving, and Retrieving Keys 615


Encrypting Data 616


Decrypting Data 616


Example Encryption 617


Summary 619


Exercises 619


Part VI: Appendices


Appendix A: Solutions to Exercises 625


Chapter 1 625


Chapter 2 626


Chapter 3 627


Chapter 4 629


Chapter 5 631


Chapter 6 635


Chapter 7 638


Chapter 8 642


Chapter 9 648


Chapter 10 655


Chapter 11 659


Chapter 12 665


Chapter 13 667


Chapter 14 668


Chapter 15 673


Chapter 16 678


Chapter 17 682


Chapter 18 685


Chapter 19 689


Chapter 20 694


Chapter 21 702


Chapter 22 706


Chapter 23 711


Chapter 24 713


Chapter 25 720


Chapter 26 725


Chapter 27 728


Appendix B: Data Types 733


Casting and Converting Values 734


Widening and Narrowing Conversions 735


Converting Objects 735


The as Operator 735


Casting Arrays 736


Parsing Values 736


Appendix C: Variable Declarations 737


Initialization Expressions 738


Using 739


Enumerated Type Declarations 739


Appendix d: Constant Declarations 741


Appendix e: Operators 743


Arithmetic Operators 743


Comparison Operators 744


Logical Operators 744


Bitwise Operators 745


Assignment Operators 745


Conditional and Null-coalescing Operators 745


Operator Precedence 745


DateTime and TimeSpan Operators 747


Operator Overloading 748


Appendix f: Method Declarations 749


Methods 749


Property Procedures 750


Lambda Functions and Expressions 750


Extension Methods 751


Appendix g: Useful Attributes 753


Useful XML Serialization Attributes 753


Useful JSON Serialization Attributes 754


Binary Serialization Attributes 754


Other Useful Attributes 755


Appendix h: Control Statements 757


Decision Statements 757


if-else Statements 757


switch 757


Conditional and Null-coalescing Operators 758


Looping Statements 758


for Loops 758


while Loops 759


do Loops 759


foreach Loops 759


Enumerators 760


Iterators 760


break and continue Statements 760


Appendix i: Error Handling 761


Throwing Exceptions 762


Appendix j: LINQ 763


Basic LINQ Query Syntax 763


from 763


where 764


orderby 764


select 764


join 765


group by 765


Aggregate Values 766


Limiting Results 766


LINQ Functions 767


LINQ to XML 768


XML Literals 768


LINQ into XML 768


LINQ out of XML 769


LINQ to ADO.NET 770


PLINQ 771


Appendix k: Classes and Structures 773


Classes 773


Structures 774


Constructors 774


Destructors 774


Events 775


Appendix l: Collection Classes 777


Arrays 777


Simple Arrays 777


Array Objects 778


Collections 779


Specialized Collections 779


Generic Collections 779


Collection Initializers 780


Iterators 780


Appendix m: Generic Declarations 783


Generic Classes 783


Generic Methods 784


Appendix n: Printing and Graphics 785


Windows Forms Printing 785


Printing Steps 785


Graphics Namespaces 786


Drawing Graphics 787


WPF Printing 795


Using a Paginator 795


Creating Documents 796


Appendix o: Useful Exception Classes 799


Standard Exception Classes 799


Custom Exception Classes 802


Appendix p: Date and Time Format Specifiers 803


Standard Format Specifiers 803


Custom Format Specifiers 804


Appendix q: Other Format Specifiers 807


Standard Numeric Format Specifiers 807


Custom Numeric Format Specifiers 809


Numeric Formatting Sections 809


Composite Formatting 810


Enumerated Type Formatting 811


Appendix r: Streams 813


Stream Class Summary 813


Stream 814


BinaryReader and BinaryWriter 815


TextReader and TextWriter 817


StringReader and StringWriter 818


StreamReader and StreamWriter 818


Text File Stream Methods 818


Appendix s: Filesystem Classes 821


Framework Classes 821


Directory 821


File 823


DriveInfo 825


DirectoryInfo 826


FileInfo 827


FileSystemWatcher 829


Path 830


Special Folders 832


Recycle Bin 832


FileIO.FileSystem 833


API Functions 833


Shell32.Shell 834


Appendix t: Regular Expressions 835


Creating Regular Expressions 835


Character Escapes 835


Character Classes 836


Anchors 836


Regular Expression Options 837


Grouping Constructs 838


Quantifiers 838


Alternation Constructs 838


Sample Regular Expressions 839


Using Regular Expressions 839


Matching Patterns 840


Finding Matches 840


Making Replacements 841


Appendix u: Parallel Programming 843


Interacting with the User Interface 843


PLINQ 843


BackgroundWorker 844


TPL 844


Parallel.For 845


Parallel.ForEach 845


Parallel.Invoke 845


Tasks 845


Threads 847


Appendix v: XML 849


Special Characters 849


Writing XML Data 849


XmlWriter 850


Document Object Model 851


XML Literals 854


Reading XML Data 854


XmlTextReader 854


Document Object Model 856


Related Technologies 856


XPath 857


XSLT 858


Appendix w: Serialization 859


XML Serialization 859


Controlling Serialization 860


JSON Serialization 861


Performing Serialization 861


Controlling Serialization 862


Binary Serialization 863


Appendix x: Reflection 865


Type 865


MemberInfo 870


EventInfo 870


MethodInfo 871


FieldInfo 873


PropertyInfo 874


ParameterInfo 874


Index 877

About the Author

Rod Stephens is a C# and Windows programming expert with more than 25 programming books to his credit, covering C#, Java, VB, and other programming languages. Rods C# Helper Website (www.csharphelper.com) receives almost 1 million post views per year, and provides tips, tricks, and code examples for professional C# programmers.