C# 7.0 All-in-One For Dummies

John Paul Mueller is a writer on programming topics like AWS, Python, Java, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. William Sempf is a programmer and .NET evangelist. Chuck Sphar was a full-time senior technical writer for the Visual C++ product group at Microsoft.

• Introduction 1About This Book 1Foolish Assumptions 2Icons Used in This Book 2Beyond the Book 3Where to Go from Here 4Book 1: The Basics of C# Programming 5Chapter 1: Creating Your First C# Console Application 7Getting a Handle on Computer Languages, C#, and .NET 7Creating Your First Console Application 11Making Your Console App Do Something 17Reviewing Your Console Application 18Introducing the Toolbox Trick 21Chapter 2: Living with Variability — Declaring Value-Type Variables 23Declaring a Variable 24What’s an int? 25Representing Fractions 27Handling Floating-Point Variables 28Using the Decimal Type: Is it an Integer or a Float? 31Examining the bool Type: Is it Logical? 33Checking Out Character Types 33What’s a Value Type? 36Comparing string and char 37Calculating Leap Years: DateTime 38Declaring Numeric Constants 40Changing Types: The Cast 41Letting the C# Compiler Infer Data Types 42Chapter 3: Pulling Strings 45The Union is Indivisible, and So are Strings 46Performing Common Operations on a String 48Comparing Strings 48What If I Want to Switch Case? 53Looping through a String 54Searching Strings 55Getting Input from the Command Line 57Controlling Output Manually 62Formatting Your Strings Precisely 68StringBuilder: Manipulating Strings More Efficiently 73Chapter 4: Smooth Operators 75Performing Arithmetic 75Performing Logical Comparisons — Is That Logical? 79Matching Expression Types at TrackDownAMate.com 83Chapter 5: Getting into the Program Flow 89Branching Out with if and switch 90Here We Go Loop-the-Loop 101Looping a Specified Number of Times with for 112Nesting Loops 115Don’t goto Pieces 116Chapter 6: Lining Up Your Ducks with Collections 119The C# Array 120Processing Arrays by Using foreach 126Sorting Arrays of Data 128Using var for Arrays 132Loosening Up with C# Collections 133Understanding Collection Syntax 134Using Lists 136Using Dictionaries 139Array and Collection Initializers 141Using Sets 142On Not Using Old-Fashioned Collections 147Chapter 7: Stepping through Collections 149Iterating through a Directory of Files 149Iterating foreach Collections: Iterators 157Accessing Collections the Array Way: Indexers 160Looping Around the Iterator Block 165Chapter 8: Buying Generic 177Writing a New Prescription: Generics 178Classy Generics: Writing Your Own 179Revising Generics 197Chapter 9: Some Exceptional Exceptions 201Using an Exceptional Error-Reporting Mechanism 202Throwing Exceptions Yourself 207Knowing What Exceptions are for 207Can I Get an Exceptional Example? 208Assigning Multiple catch Blocks 211Planning Your Exception-Handling Strategy 214Grabbing Your Last Chance to Catch an Exception 219Throwing Expressions 220Chapter 10: Creating Lists of Items with Enumerations 223Seeing Enumerations in the Real World 224Working with Enumerations 225Creating Enumerated Flags 228Defining Enumerated Switches 230Book 2: Object-Oriented C# Programming 233Chapter 1: Object-Oriented Programming — What’s it All About? 235Object-Oriented Concept #1: Abstraction 235Object-Oriented Concept #2: Classification 238Why Classify? 238Object-Oriented Concept #3: Usable Interfaces 239Object-Oriented Concept #4: Access Control 240How C# Supports Object-Oriented Concepts 241Chapter 2: Showing Some Class 243Defining a Class and an Object 244Accessing the Members of an Object 246An Object-Based Program Example 247Discriminating between Objects 249Can You Give Me References? 249Classes That Contain Classes are the Happiest Classes in the World 252Generating Static in Class Members 253Defining const and readonly Data Members 255Chapter 3: We Have Our Methods 257Defining and Using a Method 257A Method Example for Your Files 259Having Arguments with Methods 267Returning Values after Christmas 275Returning Multiple Values Using Tuples 279Chapter 4: Let Me Say This about this 283Passing an Object to a Method 283Defining Methods 285Accessing the Current Object 290Using Local Functions 298Chapter 5: Holding a Class Responsible 301Restricting Access to Class Members 301Why You Should Worry about Access Control 306Defining Class Properties 312Getting Your Objects Off to a Good Start — Constructors 315The C#-Provided Constructor 316Replacing the Default Constructor 317Using Expression-Bodied Members 324Chapter 6: Inheritance: Is That All I Get? 329Class Inheritance 330Why You Need Inheritance 332Inheriting from a BankAccount Class (a More Complex Example) 333IS_A versus HAS_A — I’m So Confused_A 336When to IS_A and When to HAS_A 340Other Features That Support Inheritance 340The object Class 344Inheritance and the Constructor 345The Updated BankAccount Class 350Chapter 7: Poly-what-ism? 357Overloading an Inherited Method 358Polymorphism 366The Class Business Card: ToString() 374C# During Its Abstract Period 374Sealing a Class 383Chapter 8: Interfacing with the Interface 385Introducing CAN_BE_USED_AS 385Knowing What an Interface is 387Using an Interface 391Using the C# Predefined Interface Types 392Looking at a Program That CAN_BE_USED_AS an Example 393Unifying Class Hierarchies 401Hiding Behind an Interface 403Inheriting an Interface 406Using Interfaces to Manage Change in Object-Oriented Programs 407Chapter 9: Delegating Those Important Events 411E.T., Phone Home — The Callback Problem 412Defining a Delegate 412Pass Me the Code, Please — Examples 414A More Real-World Example 417Shh! Keep it Quiet — Anonymous Methods 426Stuff Happens — C# Events 427Chapter 10: Can I Use Your Namespace in the Library? 435Dividing a Single Program into Multiple Source Files 436Dividing a Single Program into Multiple Assemblies 437Putting Your Classes into Class Libraries 440Going Beyond Public and Private: More Access Keywords 446Putting Classes into Namespaces 452Chapter 11: Improving Productivity with Named and Optional Parameters 459Exploring Optional Parameters 460Looking at Named Parameters 464Dealing with Overload Resolution 465Using Alternative Methods to Return Values 466Chapter 12: Interacting with Structures 469Comparing Structures to Classes 470Creating Structures 472Using Structures as Records 479Book 3: Designing for C# 483Chapter 1: Writing Secure Code 485Designing Secure Software 486Building Secure Windows Applications 488Building Secure Web Forms Applications 493Using System.Security 498Chapter 2: Accessing Data 499Getting to Know System.Data 500How the Data Classes Fit into the Framework 502Getting to Your Data 502Using the System.Data Namespace 503Chapter 3: Fishing the File Stream 521Going Where the Fish are: The File Stream 521StreamWriting for Old Walter 524Pulling Them Out of the Stream: Using StreamReader 536More Readers and Writers 540Exploring More Streams than Lewis and Clark 542Chapter 4: Accessing the Internet 543Getting to Know System.Net 544How Net Classes Fit into the Framework 545Using the System.Net Namespace 547Chapter 5: Creating Images 559Getting to Know System.Drawing 560How the Drawing Classes Fit into the Framework 563Using the System.Drawing Namespace 564Chapter 6: Programming Dynamically! 571Shifting C# Toward Dynamic Typing 572Employing Dynamic Programming Techniques 574Putting Dynamic to Use 576Running with the Dynamic Language Runtime 579Book 4: A Tour of Visual Studio 583Chapter 1: Getting Started with Visual Studio 585Versioning the Versions 586Installing Visual Studio 590Breaking Down the Projects 592Chapter 2: Using the Interface 597Designing in the Designer 597Paneling the Studio 605Coding in the Code Editor 612Using the Tools of the Trade 616Using the Debugger as an Aid to Learning 618Chapter 3: Customizing Visual Studio 623Setting Options 624Using Snippets 628Hacking the Project Types 634Book 5: Windows Development with WPF 641Chapter 1: Introducing WPF 643Understanding What WPF Can Do 643Introducing XAML 645Diving In! Creating Your First WPF Application 646Chapter 2: Understanding the Basics of WPF 653Using WPF to Lay Out Your Application 654Arranging Elements with Layout Panels 655Exploring Common XAML Controls 671Chapter 3: Data Binding in WPF 681Getting to Know Dependency Properties 681Exploring the Binding Modes 682Investigating the Binding Object 683Editing, Validating, Converting, and Visualizing Your Data 687Finding Out More about WPF Data Binding 704Chapter 4: Practical WPF 705Commanding Attention 705Using Built-In Commands 708Using Custom Commands 711Using Routed Commands 716Book 6: Web Development with ASP.NET 721Chapter 1: Looking at How ASP.NET Works with C# 723Breaking Down Web Applications 724Questioning the Client 726Dealing with Web Servers 730Chapter 2: Building Web Applications 735Working in Visual Studio 736Developing with Style 749Chapter 3: Controlling Your Development Experience 753Showing Stuff to the User 754Getting Some Input from the User 760Data Binding 767Styling Your Controls 775Making Sure the Site is Accessible 777Constructing User Controls 779Chapter 4: Leveraging the .NET Framework 783Surfing Web Streams 784Securing ASP.NET 789Managing Files 791Baking Cookies 792Tracing with TraceContext 796Navigating with Site Maps 798Index 801