a0089 beginning c sharp 2008 from novice to professional nov 200 morebook vn 7989

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Books for professionals by professionals ®
Author of
How to Code .NET
Ajax and REST Recipes

Foundations of ObjectOriented Programming
Using .NET 2.0 Patterns
A Programmer’s Introduction
to Windows DNA

Dear Reader,
This book is about showing you how to write good code in C# 2008, even if you
have never programmed before. Writing good code can be a challenge—there
are so many options, especially in C# 2008. So if you want to really get the most
from a programming language, you need to know which features work best
in which situations and understand their strengths and weaknesses. It is this
understanding that makes the difference between coding and coding well.
With this in mind, I have written Beginning C# 2008 to teach you how to use
the C# programming language to solve problems. From the earliest chapters,
and from the first introductory concepts that you’ll discover about C#, you will
be looking at real programming challenges and learning how C# can be used to
solve them. As you progress with me through the book, these problems become
increasingly more involved and interesting, as I show you how C# features can
interact to achieve the programming results you want.

By the time you’ve finished reading Beginning C# 2008 and worked through
the sample exercises, you’ll be a confident and very competent C# programmer.
You will still have many new explorations of the huge .NET Framework API to
look forward to in your programming, but you will have a firm foundation for
your future career in C#, and you will know exactly where to find all the information you need to progress confidently with your C# projects.

Companion
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Beginning C# 2008:
From Novice to Professional

The EXPERT’s VOIce ® in .NET

Christian Gross

Beginning

C# 2008
From Novice to Professional

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Beginning C# 2008
From Novice to Professional

Christian Gross


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Beginning C# 2008: From Novice to Professional
Copyright © 2007 by Christian Gross
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval
system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.
ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-59059-869-6
ISBN-10 (pbk): 1-59059-869-5
Printed and bound in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Trademarked names may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence
of a trademarked name, we use the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark
owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.
Lead Editor: Ewan Buckingham
Technical Reviewer: Christian Kenyeres
Editorial Board: Steve Anglin, Ewan Buckingham, Tony Campbell, Gary Cornell, Jonathan Gennick,
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The source code for this book is available to readers at .


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Some food for thought when writing software:
“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something
completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”
“The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that
cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes
wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.”
—Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

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■INDEX

TranslateWord( ) method, 343
translator application, 54–68
character mapping, 67–68
creating test applications, 56–57
quotes, 67
responsibility, 57
translating hello, 55–56
Translator class, 55
whitespace, 63–67
finding substrings, 64
trimming, 63
writing tests before writing code, 65–67
Translator class, 55
Translator.cs file, 55
TrimmingWhitespace( ) method, 63
truth tables, 269

try block, 121, 127–128
try keyword, 120
try/catch block, 134–135
TryParse( ) method, 71–72, 132
type attribute, 344
type casting, 173, 196–197
type command, 279
type constraint, 463–465
type method, 448
TypeName property identifier, 356
typeof(string) parameter, 345
types. See also custom-defined types;
number-related types; string types
custom, 289–293
Equals( ) method, 292–293
GetHashCode( ) method, 289–292
defining, 283–284
dynamically instantiating
using instantiated types, 342–343
using singletons, 341–342
Type-safe, 35

■U
uint type, 46
ulong type, 46
UML (Unified Modeling Language), 28
unboxing, 235
#undef hashcode, 159
underflow, 43
Unicode, 68

Unified Modeling Language (UML), 28
uniqueidentifier type, 402
Unstable, 352
UpgradeToWriterLock( ) method, 376
usability, 301
User assembly, 223
user interface, 31
user-defined types. See custom-defined types
username, 395
ushort type, 46

using keyword, 19, 180
using statement, 34

■V
val variable, 462
value parameter, 320
Value property, IDbDataParameter type, 405
Value type, 85
value types, 44–45, 235–236
constraints, 81–87
effects of copying data, 82–84
parameters, 85–87
reference types, 84–85
referencing using, 92–94
value variable, 145, 349
ValueType type, 321
variables, class library project, 21–23
verification, 150–153
conditional statements, 150–151

partial classes, 152–153
VerifyExchangeRate( ) method, 152
version numbers, dynamic loading of
strongly named assemblies using,
351–354
adding assembly redirection to
configuration files, 353–354
versioning assemblies, 352–353
VersionAssembly assembly, 353
versioning assemblies, 352–353
virtual base class method, 192
virtual keyword, 178, 192, 195
Visual C# Express, 1–26
application types, 4
class library project, 17–23
adding to solutions, 17–18
calling functionality, 19–20
constants, 21–23
defining references, 19
moving functionality, 18
variables, 21–23
console application project, 16–17
adding to solutions, 16
“hello, world”, 16
running, 17
setting startup project, 17
Data Source Configuration Wizard, 396
designing relational databases using,
395–403
adding tables, 399–403

configuring Data Source, 396–399
downloading, 2–3
installing, 3–4
navigating user controls of solutions,
13–15
.NET Framework, 23–25
overview, 1


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■INDEX

projects, 4
solutions, 4
Windows application project, 5–13
adding comments to, 12–13
“hello, world”, 9–11
renaming solutions, 6–7
running, 7–8
saving solutions, 7
viewing source code, 6
Visual Web Developer Express, 2

■W

■X
XML (Extensible Markup Language), 336
XML-based configuration files, 336–337
.xsd file, 408

■Y
_year data member, 186
year parameter, 186
yield keyword, 219–220, 231, 323
yield return statement, 220, 222

Find it faster at />
where statement, 463
while loop, 413
whitespace, 63–67
character-by-character comparison, 61–62
finding substrings, 64
responsibility, 57
trimming, 63
writing tests before writing code, 65–67
Windows application project, 5–13
adding comments to, 12–13
“hello, world”, 9–11
renaming solutions, 6–7
running, 7–8
saving solutions, 7
viewing source code, 6
Windows, setting languages/cultures in,

69–70
Windows.Forms Invoke( ) method, 383
Windows.Forms library, 380
Windows\System32 directory, 349

winners table, 402–403
word allo test, 66
worksheet variable, 320
Worksheet<> class, 314, 322, 327
Worksheet<BaseType> type, 304
Worksheet<double> type, 304
Worksheet<string> type, 304
worksheet.Calculate( ) method, 326
WorksheetIdentifiers class, 308
writing exception-safe code, 130–135
default state, 133–134
defensive coding, 130–133
processing warning errors, 134–135
writing tests for currency exchange
application, 139–153
base classes, 140–141, 153
C# properties, 143–146
inheritance, 141–143, 147–148
scope modifiers, 148–150
structural code, 140
verification, 150–153

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