More Effective C#

Bill Wagner is one of the world’s foremost C# developers, a member of the ECMA C# Standards Committee, and author of all three editions of Effective C#. He is president of the Humanitarian Toolbox, has been awarded Microsoft Regional Director and .NET MVP for 11 years, and was recently appointed to the .NET Foundation Advisory Council. Wagner has helped companies ranging from start-ups to enterprises to improve development processes and grow development teams. Now a member of Microsoft’s .NET Core content team, he creates developer learning materials on the C# language and .NET Core.

• Introduction xiChapter 1: Working with Data Types 1Item 1: Use Properties Instead of Accessible Data Members 1Item 2: Prefer Implicit Properties for Mutable Data 8Item 3: Prefer Immutability for Value Types 12Item 4: Distinguish Between Value Types and Reference Types 18Item 5: Ensure That 0 Is a Valid State for Value Types 24Item 6: Ensure That Properties Behave Like Data 28Item 7: Limit Type Scope by Using Tuples 34Item 8: Define Local Functions on Anonymous Types 39Item 9: Understand the Relationships Among the Many Different Concepts of Equality 45Item 10: Understand the Pitfalls of GetHashCode() 54Chapter 2: API Design 61Item 11: Avoid Conversion Operators in Your APIs 61Item 12: Use Optional Parameters to Minimize Method Overloads 65Item 13: Limit Visibility of Your Types 69Item 14: Prefer Defining and Implementing Interfaces to Inheritance 73Item 15: Understand How Interface Methods Differ from Virtual Methods 82Item 16: Implement the Event Pattern for Notifications 86Item 17: Avoid Returning References to Internal Class Objects 93Item 18: Prefer Overrides to Event Handlers 97Item 19: Avoid Overloading Methods Defined in Base Classes 100Item 20: Understand How Events Increase Runtime Coupling Among Objects 104Item 21: Declare Only Nonvirtual Events 107Item 22: Create Method Groups That Are Clear, Minimal, and Complete 113Item 23: Give Partial Classes Partial Methods for Constructors, Mutators, and Event Handlers 120Item 24: Avoid ICloneable Because It Limits Your Design Choices 125Item 25: Limit Array Parameters to params Arrays 129Item 26: Enable Immediate Error Reporting in Iterators and Async Methods Using Local Functions 134Chapter 3: Task-Based Asynchronous Programming 139Item 27: Use Async Methods for Async Work 139Item 28: Never Write async void Methods 143Item 29: Avoid Composing Synchronous and Asynchronous Methods 149Item 30: Use Async Methods to Avoid Thread Allocations and Context Switches 154Item 31: Avoid Marshalling Context Unnecessarily 156Item 32: Compose Asynchronous Work Using Task Objects 160Item 33: Consider Implementing the Task Cancellation Protocol 166Item 34: Cache Generalized Async Return Types 173Chapter 4: Parallel Processing 177Item 35: Learn How PLINQ Implements Parallel Algorithms 177Item 36: Construct Parallel Algorithms with Exceptions in Mind 189Item 37: Use the Thread Pool Instead of Creating Threads 195Item 38: Use BackgroundWorker for Cross-Thread Communication 201Item 39: Understand Cross-Thread Calls in XAML Environments 205Item 40: Use lock() as Your First Choice for Synchronization 214Item 41: Use the Smallest Possible Scope for Lock Handles 221Item 42: Avoid Calling Unknown Code in Locked Sections 225Chapter 5: Dynamic Programming 229Item 43: Understand the Pros and Cons of Dynamic Typing 229Item 44: Use Dynamic Typing to Leverage the Runtime Type of Generic Type Parameters 238Item 45: Use DynamicObject or IDynamicMetaObjectProvider for Data-Driven Dynamic Types 242Item 46: Understand How to Use the Expression API 253Item 47: Minimize Dynamic Objects in Public APIs 259Chapter 6: Participate in the Global C# Community 267Item 48: Seek the Best Answer, Not the Most Popular Answer 267Item 49: Participate in Specs and Code 269Item 50: Consider Automating Practices with Analyzers 271Index 273