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BEGINNING VISUAL C# 2010
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxiii

PART I

THE C# LANGUAGE

CHAPTER 1

Introducing C# . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

CHAPTER 2

Writing a C# Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

CHAPTER 3

Variables and Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

CHAPTER 4

Flow Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

CHAPTER 5

More About Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

CHAPTER 6

Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

CHAPTER 7

Debugging and Error Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

CHAPTER 8

Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

CHAPTER 9

Defining Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

CHAPTER 10

Defining Class Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

CHAPTER 11

Collections, Comparisons, and Conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

CHAPTER 12

Generics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

CHAPTER 13

Additional OOP Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

CHAPTER 14

C# Language Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

PART II

WINDOWS PROGRAMMING

CHAPTER 15

Basic Windows Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

CHAPTER 16

Advanced Windows Forms Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497

CHAPTER 17

Deploying Windows Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

PART III

WEB PROGRAMMING

CHAPTER 18

ASP.NET Web Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577

CHAPTER 19

Web Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637

CHAPTE

Continues

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PART IV

DATA ACCESS

CHAPTER 21

File System Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683

CHAPTER 22

XML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725

CHAPTER 23

Introduction to LINQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753

CHAPTER 24

Applying LINQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795

PART V

ADDITIONAL TECHNIQUES

CHAPTER 25

Windows Presentation Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 829

CHAPTER 26

Windows Communication Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 899

CHAPTER 27

Windows Workflow Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 935

APPENDIX A

Exercise Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 957

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1009

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BEGINNING

Visual C# 2010

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BEGINNING

Visual C# 2010

Karli Watson
Christian Nagel
Jacob Hammer Pedersen
Jon Reid
Morgan Skinner

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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Beginning Visual C# 2010
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
10475 Crosspoint Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46256

www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 978-0-470-50226-6
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108
of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization
through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers,
MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the
Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 7486008, or online at />Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with
respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including
without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold
with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services.
If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to
in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher
endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers
should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was

written and when it is read.
For general information on our other products and services please contact our Customer Care Department within the
United States at (877) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available
in electronic books.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2010920663
Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, Wrox, the Wrox logo, Wrox Programmer to Programmer, and related trade dress are
trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries,
and may not be used without written permission. C# is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States
and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc. is not
associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

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for Donna
— Karli Watson

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

KARLI WATSON is consultant at Infusion Development (www.infusion.com), a technology architect at
Boost.net (www.boost.net), and a freelance IT specialist, author, and developer. For the most part, he
immerses himself in .NET (in particular C# and lately WPF) and has written numerous books in the
field for several publishers. He specializes in communicating complex ideas in a way that is accessible

to anyone with a passion to learn, and spends much of his time playing with new technology to find
new things to teach people about.

During those (seemingly few) times where he isn’t doing the above, Karli will probably be wishing
he was hurtling down a mountain on a snowboard. Or possibly trying to get his novel published.
Either way, you’ll know him by his brightly colored clothes. You can also find him tweeting online at
www.twitter.com/karlequin, and maybe one day he’ll get around to making himself a website. Karli
authored chapters 1 through 14, 21, 25 and 26.
CHRISTIAN NAGEL is a Microsoft Regional Director and Microsoft MVP, an associate of Thinktecture,

and owner of CN Innovation. He is a software architect and developer who offers training and consulting on how to develop Microsoft .NET solutions. He looks back on more than 25 years of software
development experience. Christian started his computing career with PDP 11 and VAX/VMS systems,
covering a variety of languages and platforms. Since 2000, when .NET was just a technology preview,
he has been working with various .NET technologies to build numerous .NET solutions. With his profound knowledge of Microsoft technologies, he has written numerous .NET books, and is certified as a
Microsoft Certified Trainer and Professional Developer. Christian speaks at international conferences
such as TechEd and Tech Days, and started INETA Europe to support .NET user groups. You can
contact Christian via his web sites, www.cninnovation.com and www.thinktecture.com and follow his
tweets on www.twitter.com/christiannagel. Christian wrote chapters 17 through 20.
JACOB HAMMER PEDERSEN is a Senior Application Developer at Elbek & Vejrup. He just about started
programming when he was able to spell the word ‘BASIC’, which, incidentally is the first programming
language he ever used. He started programming the PC in the early ’90s, using Pascal but soon changed
his focus to C++, which still holds his interest. In the mid ’90s his focus changed again, this time to
Visual Basic. In the summer of 2000 he discovered C# and has been happily exploring it ever since.
Primarily working on the Microsoft platforms, his other expertise includes MS Office development,
SQL Server, COM and Visual Basic.Net.

A Danish citizen, Jacob works and lives in Aarhus, Denmark. He authored chapters 15, 16, and 22.
JON D. REID is a software engineering manager at Metrix LLC, an ISV of field service management software for the Microsoft environment. He has co-authored a variety .NET books, including Beginning
Visual C# 2008, Beginning C# Databases: From Novice to Professional, Pro Visual Studio .NET, and
many others. Jon wrote chapters 23 and

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

MORGAN SKINNER began his computing career at a young age on the Sinclair ZX80 at school, where

he was underwhelmed by some code a teacher had written and so began programming in assembly
language. Since then he’s used all sorts of languages and platforms, including VAX Macro Assembler,
Pascal, Modula2, Smalltalk, X86 assembly language, PowerBuilder, C/C++, VB, and currently C#
(of course). He’s been programming in .NET since the PDC release in 2000, and liked it so much he
joined Microsoft in 2001. He now works in premier support for developers and spends most of his time
assisting customers with C#. Morgan wrapped up the book by authoring chapter 27. You can reach
Morgan at www.morganskinner.com.

x

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ABOUT THE TECHNICAL EDITOR

A ‘‘blue-badge’’ .NET architect and developer at Intel Corporation since March 2007, Doug Holland
is part of the Visual Computing Group and is presently working within an advanced tools and development team with an emphasis on chipset and driver testing. Doug Holland holds a Master’s Degree
in Software Engineering from Oxford University and has been awarded both the Microsoft MVP and
Intel Black Belt Developer awards. Outside of work, Doug enjoys spending time with his wife and four
children; and is also an officer in the Civil Air Patrol/U.S. Air Force Auxiliary. Beyond architecting and
developing software you can often find Doug at the local airport flying Cessnas over the California
landscape.

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CREDITS
ACQUISITIONS EDITOR

VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE
GROUP PUBLISHER

Paul Reese

Richard Swadley
DEVELOPMENT EDITOR

Maryann Steinhart

VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE
PUBLISHER

PROJECT EDITOR

Barry Pruett

Ami Frank Sullivan
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
TECHNICAL EDITOR

Jim Minatel

Doug Holland
PROJECT COORDINATOR, COVER

Lynsey Stanford

PRODUCTION EDITOR

Rebecca Anderson
PROOFREADER
COPY EDITOR

Josh Chase, Word One

Luann Rouff
INDEXER
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

J & J Indexing

Robyn B. Siesky
COVER DESIGNER
EDITORIAL MANAGER

Michael E. Trent

Mary Beth Wakefield
COVER IMAGE

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING

David Mayhew
PRODUCTION MANAGER

Tim Tate

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© Lisa Loyd/istockphoto


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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

FROM KARLI WATSON: Thanks to all at Wiley for their support and assistance on this project, as well

as their understanding and flexibility in dealing with an author who never seems to have enough time
to write. Special thanks to my editor for this book, Ami Sullivan, for adding sparkle and making this
book shine. Also, thanks to friends, family, and work colleagues for understanding why I haven’t have
time for much socializing lately, and to Donna, as always, for all her support and for putting up with
all the late nights.
FROM CHRISTIAN NAGEL: To my two girls Angela and Stephanie. It’s great to have you. Thanks for
your great support and the big love you gave me during the hardest time of my life in 2009. Without
you I couldn’t have made it through. Stephanie, while not born yet, you were my biggest motivation
during that time. I love you both!

Also, a big thank you to my co-authors and the team at Wrox/Wiley for getting a great book out.

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

xxxiii

PART I: THE C# LANGUAGE
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCING C#

3

What is the .NET Framework?

3

What’s in the .NET Framework?
Writing Applications Using the .NET Framework
CIL and JIT
Assemblies
Managed Code
Garbage Collection
Fitting It Together
Linking

What is C#?

4
5
5
5
6
6
7
8

8

Applications You Can Write with C#
C# in This Book

Visual Studio 2010

9
10

10

Visual Studio 2010 Express Products
Solutions

Summary

11

11

11

CHAPTER 2: WRITING A C# PROGRAM

13

The Development Environments

14

Visual Studio 2010
Visual C# 2010 Express Edition

14
17

Console Applications

18

The Solution Explorer
The Properties Window
The Error List Window

22
23
23

Windows Forms Applications
Summary

24
28

CHAPTER 3: VARIABLES AND EXPRESSIONS

as

31

32

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CONTENTS

Basic C# Console Application Structure
Variables

34
35

Simple Types
Variable Naming
Naming Conventions
Literal Values
String Literals

Variable Declaration and Assignment

36
40
41
42
43
44

Expressions

45

Mathematical Operators
Assignment Operators
Operator Precedence
Namespaces

45
50
51
51

Summary

55

CHAPTER 4: FLOW CONTROL

Boolean Logic

59

59

Boolean Assignment Operators
Bitwise Operators
Operator Precedence Updated

The goto Statement
Branching

62
64
68

68
69

The Ternary Operator
The if Statement
Checking More Conditions Using if Statements
The switch Statement

Looping

70
70
73
74

77

do Loops
while Loops
for Loops
Interrupting Loops
Infinite Loops

78
80
83
87
88

Summary

89

CHAPTER 5: MORE ABOUT VARIABLES

Type Conversion

93

94

Implicit Conversions
Explicit Conversions
Explicit Conversions Using the Convert Commands

Complex Variable Types

94
96
99

102

Enumerations

102

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CONTENTS

Defining Enumerations
Structs
Defining Structs
Arrays
Declaring Arrays
foreach Loops
Multidimensional Arrays
Arrays of Arrays

103

107
107
110
110
113
113
115

String Manipulation
Summary

116
121

CHAPTER 6: FUNCTIONS

125

Defining and Using Functions

126

Return Values
Parameters
Parameter Matching
Parameter Arrays
Reference and Value Parameters
Out Parameters

Variable Scope

128
130
132
132
134
136

137

Variable Scope in Other Structures
Parameters and Return Values versus Global Data

The Main() Function
Struct Functions
Overloading Functions
Delegates
Summary

140
142

143
146
147
149
152

CHAPTER 7: DEBUGGING AND ERROR HANDLING

Debugging in VS and VCE

155

156

Debugging in Nonbreak (Normal) Mode
Outputting Debugging Information
Tracepoints
Diagnostics Output Versus Tracepoints
Debugging in Break Mode
Entering Break Mode
Monitoring Variable Content
Stepping Through Code
Immediate and Command Windows
The Call Stack Window

Error Handling

157
158
163
164
166
166
170
172
173
174

175

try . . . catch . . . finally

176

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CONTENTS

Listing and Configuring Exceptions
Notes on Exception Handling

Summary

181
182

183

CHAPTER 8: INTRODUCTION TO OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

What Is Object-Oriented Programming?
What Is an Object?
Properties and Fields
Methods
Everything’s an Object

The Life Cycle of an Object
Constructors
Destructors
Static and Instance Class Members
Static Constructors
Static Classes

OOP Techniques

185

186
187
188
189
189
190
190
191
191
191
192

192

Interfaces
Disposable Objects
Inheritance
Polymorphism
Interface Polymorphism

Relationships Between Objects
Containment
Collections
Operator Overloading
Events
Reference Types Versus Value Types

193
194
194
196
197
198
198
199
200
200
201

OOP in Windows Applications
Summary

201
204

CHAPTER 9: DEFINING CLASSES

209

Class Definitions in C#

209

Interface Definitions

212

System.Object
Constructors and Destructors
Constructor Execution Sequence

215
217
218

OOP Tools in VS and VCE

222

The Class View Window
The Object Browser
Adding Classes
Class Diagrams

222
224
226
227

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CONTENTS

Class Library Projects
Interfaces Versus Abstract Classes
Struct Types
Shallow Copying Versus Deep Copying
Summary

229
232
235
237
237

CHAPTER 10: DEFINING CLASS MEMBERS

241

Member Definitions

241

Defining Fields
Defining Methods
Defining Properties
Adding Members from a Class Diagram

Adding Methods
Adding Properties
Adding Fields
Refactoring Members
Automatic Properties

Additional Class Member Topics
Hiding Base Class Methods
Calling Overridden or Hidden Base Class Methods
The this Keyword
Nested Type Definitions

Interface Implementation

242
242
244
249
250
251
252
252
253

253
254
255
256
257

257

Implementing Interfaces in Classes
Explicit Interface Member Implementation
Adding Property Accessors with Nonpublic Accessibility

Partial Class Definitions
Partial Method Definitions
Example Application

258
260
260

261
262
264

Planning the Application
The Card Class
The Deck Class
Writing the Class Library
Adding the Suit and Rank Enumerations
Adding the Card Class
Adding the Deck Class
A Client Application for the Class Library

The Call Hierarchy Window
Summary

264
264
265
265
266
268
269
272

274
275

CHAPTER 11: COLLECTIONS, COMPARISONS, AND CONVERSIONS

Collections

277

278
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Using Collections
Defining Collections
Indexers
Adding a Cards Collection to CardLib

Keyed Collections and IDictionary
Iterators
Iterators and Collections
Deep Copying
Adding Deep Copying to CardLib

Comparisons

278
284
286
288
291
293
297
299
301

303

Type Comparisons
Boxing and Unboxing
The is Operator
Value Comparisons
Operator Overloading
Adding Operator Overloads to CardLib
The IComparable and IComparer Interfaces
Sorting Collections Using the IComparable and IComparer Interfaces

Conversions

303
303
305
308
308
313
318
320

324

Overloading Conversion Operators
The as Operator

Summary

324
326

327

CHAPTER 12: GENERICS

331

What Are Generics?
Using Generics

332

333

Nullable Types
Operators and Nullable Types
The ?? Operator
The System.Collections.Generics Namespace
List<T>
Sorting and Searching Generic Lists
Dictionary<K, V>
Modifying CardLib to Use a Generic Collection Class

Defining Generic Types

333
334
336
340
341
343
349
350

351

Defining Generic Classes
The default Keyword
Constraining Types
Inheriting from Generic Classes
Generic Operators
Generic Structs

Defining Generic Interfaces
Defining Generic Methods
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351
354
354
361
362
363
364
364


CONTENTS

Defining Generic Delegates

366

Variance

366

Covariance
Contravariance

367

368

Summary

369

CHAPTER 13: ADDITIONAL OOP TECHNIQUES

The :: Operator and the Global Namespace Qualifier
Custom Exceptions
Adding Custom Exceptions to CardLib

Events

373

373
375
375

377

What Is an Event?
Handling Events
Defining Events
Multipurpose Event Handlers
The EventHandler and Generic EventHandler<T> Types
Return Values and Event Handlers
Anonymous Methods

Expanding and Using CardLib

377
378
380
385
388
388
389

389

A Card Game Client for CardLib

Summary

390

398

CHAPTER 14: C# LANGUAGE ENHANCEMENTS

Initializers

401

402

Object Initializers
Collection Initializers

402
404

Type Inference
Anonymous Types
Dynamic Lookup

407
409
413

The dynamic Type
IDynamicMetaObjectProvider

414
417

Advanced Method Parameters

418

Optional Parameters
Optional Parameter Values
Optional Parameter Order
Named Parameters
Named and Optional Parameter Guidelines

Extension Methods
Lambda Expressions

418
419
420
420
424

424
429

Anonymous Methods Recap
Lambda Expressions for Anonymous Methods
Lambda Expression Parameters

429
430
434
xxiii

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