COVER
TITLE PAGE
INTRODUCTION
1. WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR
2. WHAT THIS BOOK COVERS
3. HOW THIS BOOK IS STRUCTURED
4. WHAT YOU NEED TO USE THIS BOOK
5. CONVENTIONS
6. SOURCE CODE
7. ERRATA
PART I: The C# Language
1. 1 Introducing C#
  1. WHAT IS .NET?
  2. WHAT IS C#?
  3. VISUAL STUDIO
  4. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
2. 2 Writing a C# Program
  1. THE VISUAL STUDIO DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT
  2. CONSOLE APPLICATIONS
  3. DESKTOP APPLICATIONS
  4. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
3. 3 Variables and Expressions
  1. BASIC C# SYNTAX
  2. BASIC C# CONSOLE APPLICATION STRUCTURE
  3. VARIABLES
  4. EXPRESSIONS
  5. EXERCISES
  6. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
4. 4 Flow Control
  1. BOOLEAN LOGIC
  2. BRANCHING
  3. LOOPING
  4. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
5. 5 More about Variables
  1. TYPE CONVERSION
  2. COMPLEX VARIABLE TYPES
  3. STRING MANIPULATION
  4. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
6. 6 Functions
  1. DEFINING AND USING FUNCTIONS
  2. VARIABLE SCOPE
  3. THE MAIN() FUNCTION
  4. STRUCT FUNCTIONS
  5. OVERLOADING FUNCTIONS
  6. USING DELEGATES
  7. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
7. 7 Debugging and Error Handling
  1. DEBUGGING IN VISUAL STUDIO
  2. ERROR HANDLING
  3. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
8. 8 Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming
  1. WHAT IS OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING?
  2. OOP TECHNIQUES
  3. OOP IN DESKTOP APPLICATIONS
  4. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
9. 9 Defining Classes
  1. CLASS DEFINITIONS IN C#
  2. SYSTEM.OBJECT
  3. CONSTRUCTORS AND DESTRUCTORS
  4. OOP TOOLS IN VISUAL STUDIO
  5. CLASS LIBRARY PROJECTS
  6. INTERFACES VERSUS ABSTRACT CLASSES
  7. STRUCT TYPES
  8. SHALLOW COPYING VERSUS DEEP COPYING
  9. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
10. 10 Defining Class Members
  1. MEMBER DEFINITIONS
  2. ADDITIONAL CLASS MEMBER TOPICS
  3. INTERFACE IMPLEMENTATION
  4. PARTIAL CLASS DEFINITIONS
  5. PARTIAL METHOD DEFINITIONS
  6. EXAMPLE APPLICATION
  7. THE CALL HIERARCHY WINDOW
  8. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
11. 11 Collections, Comparisons, and Conversions
  1. COLLECTIONS
  2. COMPARISONS
  3. CONVERSIONS
  4. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
12. 12 Generics
  1. WHAT ARE GENERICS?
  2. USING GENERICS
  3. DEFINING GENERIC TYPES
  4. VARIANCE
  5. EXERCISES
  6. ▸ WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
13. 13 Additional C# Techniques
  1. THE :: OPERATOR AND THE GLOBAL NAMESPACE QUALIFIER
  2. CUSTOM EXCEPTIONS
  3. EVENTS
  4. EXPANDING AND USING CARDLIB
  5. ATTRIBUTES
  6. INITIALIZERS
  7. TYPE INFERENCE
  8. ANONYMOUS TYPES
  9. DYNAMIC LOOKUP
  10. ADVANCED METHOD PARAMETERS
  11. LAMBDA EXPRESSIONS
  12. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
PART II: Data Access
1. 14 Files
  1. FILE CLASSES FOR INPUT AND OUTPUT
  2. STREAMS
  3. MONITORING THE FILE SYSTEM
  4. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
2. 15 XML and JSON
  1. XML BASICS
  2. JSON BASICS
  3. XML SCHEMAS
  4. XML DOCUMENT OBJECT MODEL
  5. SEARCHING XML WITH XPATH
  6. JSON SERIALIZATION AND DESERIALIZATION
  7. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
3. 16 LINQ
  1. LINQ TO XML
  2. LINQ PROVIDERS
  3. LINQ QUERY SYNTAX
  4. LINQ METHOD SYNTAX
  5. ORDERING QUERY RESULTS
  6. UNDERSTANDING THE ORDERBY CLAUSE
  7. QUERYING A LARGE DATA SET
  8. USING AGGREGATE OPERATORS
  9. USING THE SELECT DISTINCT QUERY
  10. ORDERING BY MULTIPLE LEVELS
  11. USING GROUP QUERIES
  12. USING JOINS
  13. EXERCISES
  14. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
4. 17 Databases
  1. USING DATABASES
  2. ENTITY FRAMEWORK
  3. CODE-FIRST VERSUS DATABASE-FIRST
  4. MIGRATIONS AND SCAFFOLDING
  5. INSTALL SQL SERVER EXPRESS LOCALDB
  6. A CODE-FIRST DATABASE
  7. EXPLORING YOUR DATABASE
  8. NAVIGATING DATABASE RELATIONSHIPS
  9. CREATING AND QUERYING XML FROM AN EXISTING DATABASE
  10. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
PART III: Additional Techniques
1. 18 .NET and ASP.NET
  1. CROSS-PLATFORM BASICS AND KEY “MUST KNOW” TERMS
  2. WHAT WAS .NET STANDARD?
  3. REFERENCING AND TARGETING .NET
  4. WHAT WAS .NET CORE?
  5. PORTING FROM .NET FRAMEWORK TO .NET
  6. OVERVIEW OF WEB APPLICATIONS
  7. WHICH ASP.NET TO USE AND WHY
  8. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
2. 19 Basic Cloud Programming
  1. THE CLOUD, CLOUD COMPUTING, AND THE CLOUD OPTIMIZED STACK
  2. CLOUD PATTERNS AND BEST PRACTICES
  3. USING MICROSOFT AZURE C# LIBRARIES TO CREATE A STORAGE CONTAINER
  4. CREATING AN ASP.NET CORE WEB APPLICATION THAT USES THE STORAGE CONTAINER
  5. EXERCISES
  6. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
3. 20 Basic Web API and WCF Programming
  1. CREATING AN ASP.NET CORE WEB API
  2. CONSUMING AN ASP.NET CORE WEB API
  3. WHAT IS REST?
  4. WHAT IS WCF?
  5. WCF CONCEPTS
  6. WCF PROGRAMMING
  7. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
4. 21 Basic Desktop Programming
  1. XAML
  2. THE PLAYGROUND
  3. CONTROL LAYOUT
  4. THE GAME CLIENT
  5. CREATING AND STYLING CONTROLS
  6. WPF USER CONTROLS
  7. THE MAIN WINDOW
  8. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
  9. ▸ WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER
APPENDIX: Exercise Solutions
INDEX
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ABOUT THE TECHNICAL EDITOR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

List of Tables

Chapter 3
1. TABLE 3-1: Integer Types
2. TABLE 3-2: Floating-Point Types
3. TABLE 3-3: Text and Boolean Types
4. TABLE 3-4: Literal Values
5. TABLE 3-5: Escape Sequences for String Literals
6. TABLE 3-6: Simple Mathematical Operators
7. TABLE 3-7: The String Concatenation Operator
8. TABLE 3-8: Increment and Decrement Operators
9. TABLE 3-9: Assignment Operators
10. TABLE 3-10: Operator Precedence
Chapter 4
1. TABLE 4-1: Boolean Comparison Operators
2. TABLE 4-2: Conditional Boolean Operators
3. TABLE 4-3: Boolean Assignment Operators
4. TABLE 4-4: Operator Precedence (Updated)
Chapter 5
1. TABLE 5-1: Implicit Numeric Conversions
Chapter 9
1. TABLE 9-1: Access Modifiers for Class Definitions
2. TABLE 9-2: Methods of System.Object
3. TABLE 9-3: Class View Icons
4. TABLE 9-4: Additional Class View Icons
Chapter 12
1. TABLE 12-1: Generic Collection Type
2. TABLE 12-2: Sorting with Generic Types
3. TABLE 12-3: Generic Type Constraints
Chapter 14
1. TABLE 14-1: File System Access Classes
2. TABLE 14-2: Static Methods of the File Class
3. TABLE 14-3: Static Methods of the Directory Class
4. TABLE 14-4: FileSystemInfo Properties
5. TABLE 14-5: FileInfo Properties
6. TABLE 14-6: Properties Unique to the DirectoryInfo Class
7. TABLE 14-7: Stream Classes
8. TABLE 14-8: FileAccess Enumeration Members
9. TABLE 14-9: Filemode Enumeration Members
10. TABLE 14-10: FileSystemWatcher Properties
Chapter 15
1. TABLE 15-1: Common DOM Classes
2. TABLE 15-2: XmlElement Properties
3. TABLE 15-3: Three Ways to Get the Value of a Node
4. TABLE 15-4: Methods for Creating Nodes
5. TABLE 15-5: Methods for Inserting Nodes
6. TABLE 15-6: Methods for Removing Nodes
7. TABLE 15-7: Methods for Selecting Nodes
8. TABLE 15-8: Common XPath Operations
Chapter 16
1. TABLE 16-1: Aggregate Operators for Numeric Results
Chapter 18
1. TABLE 18-1: Cross-Platform Key Terms
2. TABLE 18-2: Summary of .NET Standard Supported Version
3. TABLE 18-3: .NET Core Performance Improvements versus .NET Framework
4. TABLE 18-4: Examples of ASP.NET Server Controls
5. TABLE 18-5: Examples of ASP.NET Validation Controls
6. TABLE 18-6: ASP.NET Web Forms State Management Techniques
7. TABLE 18-7: Differences between Projects and Web Sites
8. TABLE 18-8: Baseline ASP.NET Core on Kestrel performance
9. TABLE 18-9: Examples of ASP.NET Core Validation Attributes
10. TABLE 18-10: ASP.NET Core State Management Techniques
Chapter 20
1. TABLE 20-1: Binding Types
2. TABLE 20-2: NET Default Bindings
3. TABLE 20-3: DataContractAttribute Properties
4. TABLE 20-4: DataMemberAttribute Properties
5. TABLE 20-5: ServiceContractAttribute Properties
6. TABLE 20-6: OperationContractAttribute Properties
Chapter 21
1. TABLE 21-1: Common Control Events
2. TABLE 21-2: Common Layout Panels
3. TABLE 21-3: Image Control Properties
4. TABLE 21-4: TextBox Properties
5. TABLE 21-5: CheckBox Properties
6. TABLE 21-6: RadioButton Properties
7. TABLE 21-7: IsReadOnly and IsEditable Combinations
8. TABLE 21-8: Other ComboBox Properties
9. TABLE 21-9: Interesting ListBox Properties
10. TABLE 21-10: The Name Property
11. TABLE 21-11: The Register( ) Method's Parameters
12. TABLE 21-12: Overloads for the FrameworkPropertyMetadata Constructor
13. TABLE 21-13: Displaying MenuItem Properties
14. TABLE 21-14: Property and Field Names
15. TABLE 21-15: Cards in Hand Dependency Properties
16. TABLE 21-16: Game Decks Dependency Properties

List of Illustrations

Chapter 1
1. FIGURE 1-1
2. FIGURE 1-2
3. FIGURE 1-3
4. FIGURE 1-4
Chapter 2
1. FIGURE 2-1
2. FIGURE 2-2
3. FIGURE 2-3
4. FIGURE 2-4
5. FIGURE 2-5
6. FIGURE 2-6
7. FIGURE 2-7
8. FIGURE 2-8
9. FIGURE 2-9
10. FIGURE 2-10
11. FIGURE 2-11
12. FIGURE 2-12
13. FIGURE 2-13
14. FIGURE 2-14
Chapter 3
1. FIGURE 3-1
2. FIGURE 3-2
3. FIGURE 3-3
4. FIGURE 3-4
Chapter 4
1. FIGURE 4-1
2. FIGURE 4-2
3. FIGURE 4-3
4. FIGURE 4-4
5. FIGURE 4-5
6. FIGURE 4-6
7. FIGURE 4-7
Chapter 5
1. FIGURE 5-1
2. FIGURE 5-2
3. FIGURE 5-3
4. FIGURE 5-4
5. FIGURE 5-5
6. FIGURE 5-6
7. FIGURE 5-7
8. FIGURE 5-8
9. FIGURE 5-9
10. FIGURE 5-10
11. FIGURE 5-11
12. FIGURE 5-12
13. FIGURE 5-13
14. FIGURE 5-14
15. FIGURE 5-15
Chapter 6
1. FIGURE 6-1
2. FIGURE 6-2
3. FIGURE 6-3
4. FIGURE 6-4
5. FIGURE 6-5
6. FIGURE 6-6
7. FIGURE 6-7
8. FIGURE 6-8
9. FIGURE 6-9
10. FIGURE 6-10
11. FIGURE 6-11
12. FIGURE 6-12
Chapter 7
1. FIGURE 7-1
2. FIGURE 7-2
3. FIGURE 7-3
4. FIGURE 7-4
5. FIGURE 7-5
6. FIGURE 7-6
7. FIGURE 7-7
8. FIGURE 7-8
9. FIGURE 7-9
10. FIGURE 7-10
11. FIGURE 7-11
12. FIGURE 7-12
13. FIGURE 7-13
14. FIGURE 7-14
15. FIGURE 7-15
16. FIGURE 7-16
17. FIGURE 7-17
18. FIGURE 7-18
19. FIGURE 7-19
20. FIGURE 7-20
Chapter 8
1. FIGURE 8-1
2. FIGURE 8-2
3. FIGURE 8-3
4. FIGURE 8-4
5. FIGURE 8-5
6. FIGURE 8-6
7. FIGURE 8-7
8. FIGURE 8-8
9. FIGURE 8-9
10. FIGURE 8-10
11. FIGURE 8-11
12. FIGURE 8-12
13. FIGURE 8-13
14. FIGURE 8-14
15. FIGURE 8-15
Chapter 9
1. FIGURE 9-1
2. FIGURE 9-2
3. FIGURE 9-3
4. FIGURE 9-4
5. FIGURE 9-5
6. FIGURE 9-6
7. FIGURE 9-7
8. FIGURE 9-8
9. FIGURE 9-9
10. FIGURE 9-10
11. FIGURE 9-11
12. FIGURE 9-12
13. FIGURE 9-13
14. FIGURE 9-14
Chapter 10
1. FIGURE 10-1
2. FIGURE 10-2
3. FIGURE 10-3
4. FIGURE 10-4
5. FIGURE 10-5
6. FIGURE 10-6
7. FIGURE 10-7
8. FIGURE 10-8
9. FIGURE 10-9
10. FIGURE 10-10
11. FIGURE 10-11
12. FIGURE 10-12
13. FIGURE 10-13
14. FIGURE 10-14
Chapter 11
1. FIGURE 11-1
2. FIGURE 11-2
3. FIGURE 11-3
4. FIGURE 11-4
5. FIGURE 11-5
6. FIGURE 11-6
7. FIGURE 11-7
8. FIGURE 11-8
Chapter 12
1. FIGURE 12-1
2. FIGURE 12-2
3. FIGURE 12-3
4. FIGURE 12-4
5. FIGURE 12-5
Chapter 13
1. FIGURE 13-1
2. FIGURE 13-2
3. FIGURE 13-3
4. FIGURE 13-4
5. FIGURE 13-5
6. FIGURE 13-6
7. FIGURE 13-7
8. FIGURE 13-8
9. FIGURE 13-9
10. FIGURE 13-10
11. FIGURE 13-11
12. FIGURE 13-12
13. FIGURE 13-13
14. FIGURE 13-14
15. FIGURE 13-15
16. FIGURE 13-16
17. FIGURE 13-17
18. FIGURE 13-18
19. FIGURE 13-19
20. FIGURE 13-20
21. FIGURE 13-21
Chapter 14
1. FIGURE 14-1
2. FIGURE 14-2
3. FIGURE 14-3
4. FIGURE 14-4
5. FIGURE 14-5
6. FIGURE 14-6
7. FIGURE 14-7
8. FIGURE 14-8
Chapter 15
1. FIGURE 15-1
2. FIGURE 15-2
3. FIGURE 15-3
4. FIGURE 15-4
5. FIGURE 15-5
6. FIGURE 15-6
7. FIGURE 15-7
Chapter 17
1. FIGURE 17-1
2. FIGURE 17-2
3. FIGURE 17-3
4. FIGURE 17-4
5. FIGURE 17-5
6. FIGURE 17-6
7. FIGURE 17-7
8. FIGURE 17-8
9. FIGURE 17-9
10. FIGURE 17-10
11. FIGURE 17-11
12. FIGURE 17-12
13. FIGURE 17-13
14. FIGURE 17-14
15. FIGURE 17-15
16. FIGURE 17-16
17. FIGURE 17-17
18. FIGURE 17-18
19. FIGURE 17-19
Chapter 18
1. FIGURE 18-1
2. FIGURE 18-2
3. FIGURE 18-3
4. FIGURE 18-4
5. FIGURE 18-5
6. FIGURE 18-6
7. FIGURE 18-7
8. FIGURE 18-8
9. FIGURE 18-9
10. FIGURE 18-10
11. FIGURE 18-11
12. FIGURE 18-12
13. FIGURE 18-13
14. FIGURE 18-14
15. FIGURE 18-15
16. FIGURE 18-16
Chapter 19
1. FIGURE 19-1
2. FIGURE 19-2
3. FIGURE 19-3
4. FIGURE 19-4
5. FIGURE 19-5
6. FIGURE 19-6
7. FIGURE 19-7
8. FIGURE 19-8
9. FIGURE 19-9
10. FIGURE 19-10
11. FIGURE 19-11
12. FIGURE 19-12
13. FIGURE 19-13
14. FIGURE 19-14
Chapter 20
1. FIGURE 20-1
2. FIGURE 20-2
3. FIGURE 20-3
4. FIGURE 20-4
5. FIGURE 20-5
6. FIGURE 20-6
7. FIGURE 20-7
8. FIGURE 20-8
9. FIGURE 20-9
10. FIGURE 20-10
11. FIGURE 20-11
12. FIGURE 20-12
13. FIGURE 20-13
14. FIGURE 20-14
15. FIGURE 20-15
16. FIGURE 20-16
17. FIGURE 20-17
18. FIGURE 20-18
Chapter 21
1. FIGURE 21-1
2. FIGURE 21-2
3. FIGURE 21-3
4. FIGURE 21-4
5. FIGURE 21-5
6. FIGURE 21-6
7. FIGURE 21-7
8. FIGURE 21-8
9. FIGURE 21-9
10. FIGURE 21-10
11. FIGURE 21-11
12. FIGURE 21-12
13. FIGURE 21-13
14. FIGURE 21-14
15. FIGURE 21-15
16. FIGURE 21-16
17. FIGURE 21-17
18. FIGURE 21-18

INTRODUCTION

THE C# LANGUAGE WAS UNVEILED TO THE WORLD when Microsoft announced the first version of its .NET Framework in 2002. Since then, its popularity has rocketed, and it has arguably become the language of choice for desktop, web, cloud, and cross‐platform developers who use .NET. Part of the appeal of C# comes from its clear syntax, which derives from C/C++ but simplifies some things that have previously discouraged some programmers. Despite this simplification, C# has retained the power of C++, and there is no reason now not to move into C#. The language is not difficult, and it is a great one with which to learn elementary programming techniques. This ease of learning combined with the capabilities of the .NET Framework make C# an excellent way to start your programming career.

The latest release of C# is C# 9 (included with.NET 5.0 and .NET Framework 4.8), which builds on the existing successes and adds even more attractive features. The latest releases of both Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code line of development tools also bring many tweaks and improvements to make your life easier and to dramatically increase your productivity.

This book is intended to teach you about all aspects of C# programming, including the language itself, desktop, cloud, and cross‐platform programming, making use of data sources, and some new and advanced techniques. You will also learn about the capabilities of Visual Studio and all the ways that this product can aid your application development.

The book is written in a friendly, mentor‐style fashion, with each chapter building on previous ones, and every effort is made to ease you into advanced techniques painlessly. At no point will technical terms appear from nowhere to discourage you from continuing; every concept is introduced and discussed as required. Technical jargon is kept to a minimum, but where it is necessary, it, too, is properly defined and laid out in context.

The authors of this book are both experts in their field and are enthusiastic in their passion for the C# language and .NET. Nowhere will you find two people better qualified to take you under their collective wing and nurture your understanding of C# from first principles to advanced techniques. Along with the fundamental knowledge it provides, this book is packed full of helpful hints, tips, exercises, and full‐fledged example code (available for download on this book's web page at www.wiley.com and at github.com/benperk/BeginningCSharpAndDotNET) that you will find yourself returning to repeatedly as your career progresses.

We pass this knowledge on without begrudging it and hope that you will be able to use it to become the best programmer you can be. Good luck, and all the best!

WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR

This book is for everyone who wants to learn how to program in C# using .NET. It is for absolute beginners who want to give programming a try by learning a clean, modern, elegant programming language. But it is also for people familiar with other programming languages who want to explore the .NET platform, as well as for existing .NET developers who want to give Microsoft's .NET flagship language a try.

WHAT THIS BOOK COVERS

The early chapters cover the language itself, assuming no prior programming experience. If you have programmed in other languages before, much of the material in these chapters will be familiar. Many aspects of C# syntax are shared by other languages, and many structures are common to practically all programming languages (such as looping and branching structures). However, even if you are an experienced programmer, you will benefit from looking through these chapters to learn the specifics of how these techniques apply to C#.

If you are new to programming, you should start from the beginning, where you will learn basic programming concepts and become acquainted with both C# and the .NET platform that underpins it. If you are new to .NET but know how to program, you should read Chapter 1 and then skim through the next few chapters before continuing with the application of the C# language. If you know how to program but have not encountered an object‐oriented programming language before, you should read the chapters from Chapter 8 onward.

Alternatively, if you already know the C# language, you might want to concentrate on the chapters dealing with the most recent .NET and C# language developments, specifically the chapters on collections, generics, and C# language enhancements (Chapters 11 and 12).

The chapters in this book have been written with a dual purpose in mind: They can be read sequentially to provide a complete tutorial in the C# language, and they can be dipped into as required for reference material.

In addition to the core material, starting with Chapter 3 most chapters also include a selection of exercises at the end, which you can work through to ensure that you have understood the material. The exercises range from simple multiple choice or true/false questions to more complex exercises that require you to modify or build applications. The answers to all the exercises are provided in the Appendix. You can also find these exercises as part of the wiley.com code downloads on this book's page at www.wiley.com.

Every chapter receives an overhaul with every new release of C# and .NET, the less relevant material is removed, and new material added. All the code has been tested against the latest version of the development tools used, and all the screenshots have been retaken in the most current version of the Windows OS to provide the most current windows and dialog boxes. New highlights of this edition include the following:

Additional and improved code examples for you to try out
Examples of programming ASP.NET Core for running cross‐platform
Examples of programming cloud applications, using Azure SDK to create and access cloud resources

HOW THIS BOOK IS STRUCTURED

This book is divided into four sections:

Introduction—Purpose and general outline of the book's contents
The C# Language—Covers all aspects of the C# language, from the fundamentals to object‐oriented techniques
Data Access—How to use data in your applications, including data stored in files on your hard disk, data stored in XML format, and data in databases
Additional Techniques—An examination of some extra ways to use C# and .NET, including cloud and cross‐platform development, ASP.NET Web API, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), and Universal Windows Applications

The following sections describe the chapters in the three major parts of this book.

The C# Language (Chapters 1–13)

Chapter 1 introduces you to C# and how it fits into the .NET landscape. You will learn the fundamentals of programming in this environment and how Visual Studio (VS) fits in.

Chapter 2 starts you off with writing C# applications. You will look at the syntax of C# and put the language to use with sample command‐line and Windows applications. These examples demonstrate just how quick and easy it can be to get up and running, and along the way you will be introduced to the Visual Studio development environment and the basic windows and tools that you'll be using throughout the book.

Next, you will learn more about the basics of the C# language. You will learn what variables are and how to manipulate them in Chapter 3. You will enhance the structure of your applications with flow control (looping and branching) in Chapter 4, and you will see some more advanced variable types such as arrays in Chapter 5. In Chapter 6 you will start to encapsulate your code in the form of functions, which makes it much easier to perform repetitive operations and makes your code much more readable.

By the beginning of Chapter 7 you will have a handle on the fundamentals of the C# language, and you will focus on debugging your applications. This involves looking at outputting trace information as your applications are executed, and at how Visual Studio can be used to trap errors and lead you to solutions for them with its powerful debugging environment.

From Chapter 8 onward you will learn about object‐oriented programming (OOP), starting with a look at what this term means and an answer to the eternal question, “What is an object?” OOP can seem quite difficult at first. The whole of Chapter 8 is devoted to demystifying OOP and explaining what makes it so great, and you will not actually deal with much C# code until the very end of the chapter.

Everything changes in Chapter 9, when you put theory into practice and start using OOP in your C# applications. This is where the true power of C# lies. You will start by looking at how to define classes and interfaces, and then move on to class members (including fields, properties, and methods) in Chapter 10. At the end of that chapter, you will start to assemble a card game application, which is developed over several chapters and will help to illustrate OOP.

Once you have learned how OOP works in C#, Chapter 11 moves on to look at common OOP scenarios, including dealing with collections of objects, and comparing and converting objects. Chapter 12 looks at a useful feature of C# that was introduced in .NET 2.0: generics, which enable you to create very flexible classes. Next, Chapter 13 continues the discussion of the C# language and OOP with some additional techniques, notably events, which become important in, for example, Windows programming. Chapter 13 wraps up the fundamentals by focusing on C# language features that were introduced in some of the more recent versions of C#.

Data Access (Chapters 14–17)

Chapter 14 looks at how your applications can save and retrieve data to disk, both as simple text files and as more complex representations of data. You will also learn how to compress data and how to monitor and act on file system changes.

In Chapter 15 you will learn about the de facto standard for data exchange—namely XML—and a rapidly emerging format called JSON. By this point in the book, you will have touched on XML several times in preceding chapters, but this chapter lays out the ground rules and shows you what all the excitement is about.

The remainder of this part looks at LINQ, which is a query language built into .NET. You start in Chapter 16 with a general introduction to LINQ, and then you will use LINQ to access a database and other data in Chapter 17.

Additional Techniques (Chapters 18–21)

Chapter 18 introduces .NET Standard and .NET Core, which are tools used for targeting any application type—for example, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows, and ASP.NET. An emerging application is one that can run cross‐platform such as on Linux or macOS. The chapter provides instructions for installing .NET and creating and implementing a .NET Standard library. Additionally, descriptions of ASP.NET and its many different types (e.g., ASP.NET Webforms, ASP.NET MVC, and ASP.NET Core) are covered.

Chapter 19 starts by describing what cloud programming is and discusses the cloud‐optimized stack. The cloud environment is not identical to the way programs have been traditionally coded, so a few cloud programming patterns are discussed and defined. To complete this chapter, you require an Azure trail account, which is free to create and comes with some credits so that you can create and test out an App Service Web App. Then, using the Azure SDK with C#, you create and access a storage account from an ASP.NET web application.

In Chapter 20, you learn how to create an ASP.NET Web API and consume it using a Blazor WebAssembly App. Then this chapter provides an introduction to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), which provides you with the tools you need for enterprise‐level programmatic access to information and capabilities across local networks and the internet. You will see how you can use WCF to expose complex data and functionality to web and desktop applications in a platform‐independent way.

Chapter 21 starts by introducing you to what is meant by Windows programming and looks at how this is achieved in Visual Studio. It focuses on WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) as a tool that enables you to build desktop applications in a graphical way and assemble advanced applications with a minimum of effort and time. You will start with the basics of WPF programming and build up your knowledge to more advanced concepts.

WHAT YOU NEED TO USE THIS BOOK

The code and descriptions of C# and .NET in this book apply to C# 9 and .NET 4.8. You do not need anything other than .NET to understand this aspect of the book, but many of the examples require a development tool. This book uses the most current version of Visual Studio Community 2019 as its primary development tool. Use Visual Studio Community 2019 to create Windows, cloud, and cross‐platform applications as well as SQL Server Express for applications that access databases.

The source code for the samples is available for download from this book's page on www.wiley.com and at github.com/benperk/BeginningCSharpAndDotNET.

CONVENTIONS

To help you get the most from the text and keep track of what is happening, we've used a number of conventions throughout the book.

As for styles in the text:

We italicize new terms and important words when we introduce them.
We show keyboard strokes like this: Ctrl+A.
We show filenames, URLs, and code within the text like so:
persistence.properties

We present code in two different ways:

We use a monofont type with no highlighting for most code examples.
We use bold to emphasize code that is particularly important in the present
context or to show changes from a previous code snippet.

SOURCE CODE

As you work through the examples in this book, you may choose either to type in all the code manually or to use the source code files that accompany the book. All the source code used in this book is available for download on this book's page at www.wiley.com and at github.com/benperk/BeginningCSharpAndDotNET.

Most of the code on www.wiley.com is compressed in a .ZIP, .RAR archive, or similar archive format appropriate to the platform. Once you download the code, just decompress it with an appropriate compression tool.

ERRATA

We make every effort to ensure that there are no errors in the text or in the code. However, no one is perfect, and mistakes do occur. If you find an error in one of our books, like a spelling mistake or faulty piece of code, we would be very grateful for your feedback. By sending in errata, you may save another reader hours of frustration, and at the same time, you will be helping us provide even higher quality information.

To find the errata page for this book, go to this book's page at www.wiley.com and click the Errata link. On this page you can view all errata that have been submitted for this book.

BEGINNING C# and .NET

2021 EDITION

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ABOUT THE TECHNICAL EDITOR

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS