C# Essentials

Ben Albahari is cofounder of Genamics, a provider of tools for C SHARP and J++ programmers, as well as software for DNA and protein sequence analysis. He is author of A Comparative Overview of C SHARP, a frequently cited comparison of C SHARP with C/C++ and Java that was recently named by DevX as one of the top 10 .NET sites. Ben is a resident of Perth, Australia, and in his spare time enjoys composing music on his computer. He can be reached at ben@genamics.com. Peter Drayton is an independent consultant, helping early-stage companies define and build systems that take advantage of technologies such as .NET, SOAP, XML, and COM+. Peter is also an instructor for DevelopMentor, where he teaches Essential C SHARP.NET. Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, Peter now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Julie. He spends his spare time researching .NET and tinkering with a small flotilla of computers cluttering up their a partment. He can be reached at peter@razorsoft.com. Brad Merrill works as a software engineer in the .NET Framework Integration team at Microsoft. He previously worked as a software engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation and Sybase. His areas of expertise are in distributed systems, transaction processing, operating systems, and compiler technology. Brad lives in Redmond, Washington, and is an avid tournament chess player and bridge player. He can be reached at zbrad@gte.net or http://www.cybercom.net/~zbrad.

• Preface 1. Introduction C SHARP Language Common Language Runtime Framework Class Library A First C SHARP Program 2. C SHARP Language Reference Identifiers Types Variables Expressions and Operators Statements Organizing Types Inheritance Access Modifiers Classes and Structs Interfaces Arrays Enums Delegates Events try Statements and Exceptions Attributes Unsafe Code and Pointers Preprocessor Directives XML Documentation 3. Programming the .NET Framework Common Types Math Strings Collections Regular Expressions Input/Output Networking Threading Assemblies Reflection Custom Attributes Automatic Memory Management Interop with Native DLLs Interop with COM 4. Framework Class Library Overview Core Types Text Collections Streams and I/O Networking Threading Security Reflection and Metadata Assemblies Serialization Remoting Web Services Data Access XML Graphics Rich Client Applications Web-Based Applications Globalization Configuration Advanced Component Services Diagnostics and Debugging Interoperating with Unmanaged Code Compiler and Tool Support Runtime Facilities Native OS Facilities Undocumented Types 5. Essential .NET Tools A. C SHARP Keywords B. Regular Expressions C. Format Specifiers D. Data Marshaling E. Working with Assemblies F. Namespaces and Assemblies Index