C# 4.0 How-To [Paperback]

Ben Watson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0672330636 | ISBN-13: 978-0672330636 | Edition: 1

Real Solutions for C# 4.0 Programmers

 

Need fast, robust, efficient code solutions for Microsoft C# 4.0? This book delivers exactly what you’re looking for. You’ll find more than 200 solutions, best-practice techniques, and tested code samples for everything from classes to exceptions, networking to XML, LINQ to Silverlight. Completely up-to-date, this book fully reflects major language enhancements introduced with the new C# 4.0 and .NET 4.0. When time is of the essence, turn here first: Get answers you can trust and code you can use, right now!

 

Beginning with the language essentials and moving on to solving common problems using the .NET Framework, C# 4.0 How-To addresses a wide range of general programming problems and algorithms. Along the way is clear, concise coverage of a broad spectrum of C# techniques that will help developers of all levels become more proficient with C# and the most popular .NET tools.

 

Fast, Reliable, and Easy to Use!

• Write more elegant, efficient, and reusable code
• Take advantage of real-world tips and best-practices advice
• Create more effective classes, interfaces, and types
• Master powerful data handling techniques using collections, serialization, databases, and XML
• Implement more effective user interfaces with both WPF and WinForms
• Construct Web-based and media-rich applications with ASP.NET and Silverlight
• Make the most of delegates, events, and anonymous methods
• Leverage advanced C# features ranging from reflection to asynchronous programming
• Harness the power of regular expressions
• Interact effectively with Windows and underlying hardware
• Master the best reusable patterns for designing complex programs

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ben Watson, a software engineer on Microsoft’s Bing team, helps design and implement massively scalable distributed systems and other internals for the Bing search engine. Before joining Microsoft he served as a lead developer for GeoEye, a top provider of satellite imagery. He blogs at PhilosophicalGeek.com, where he has presented many popular coding tutorials in C# and C++.

Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Sams Publishing; 1 edition (March 11, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672330636
• ISBN-13: 978-0672330636
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.3 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #860,987 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful .NET Framework code algorithms in C# for experienced developers April 16, 2010

By Michael Keller

Format:Paperback

This book's title does not quite match its content but the book's introduction does indicate this. This is primarily a very good book of code and code algorithms in the .NET framework using C#. That being said the book does cover the changes made to the .NET 4.0 framework and to C# 4.0.

The code is very well written--it is beautiful well structured communicative code. The code in the book is sparsely commented; it is so well-written that few comments are needed. As I have said, in many ways the book is a book of code algorithms, for example, in chapter 5 Convert Between Number Bases, Convert a Number to Bytes, Determine if an Integer is Even, Determine if a Number is Prime, Count the Number of 1 Bits etc. All these code examples are useful algorithms but have nothing to do with .NET Framework 4.0 or C# 4.0 per se.

Despite what the Introduction says this is decidedly not a book for beginners. While they may be able to find useful algorithms here and there the content of the book is way too terse for a beginner to follow and they should turn to other books for a more complete introduction to C#. Chapter 8 on regular expressions will only be useful to programmers that already have the basics of regular expressions well-understood otherwise even the first few code examples will leave them scratching their heads. This book does not do any hand-holding but rather shows you in very practical ways how to use the C# language and the .NET framework.

I loved the code examples using dynamic types as this was the best example I have yet seen of using them in a practical straight-forward way. The code is the book is not just useful and terse but it is also elegant. For example, the ternary operator is used multiple times in the CompressFile project in Chapter 11 producing really elegant concise and clear code.

The book, not the down-loadable code, has a few errors and code bugs but very few, for example:
Pg 16 code won't compile since _x is private and therefore not accessible to the derived class
Pg 17 line Console.WriteLine(d.MyProperty().ToString()); wont compile
Pg 17 code wont compile, class Derived not inheriting from Base class--missing : base
DoSomething method in class Derived needs to be marked override not virtual to eliminate compiler warning
Pg 65 example code given says, "Because ArgumentNullException is a type of ArgumentException, and ArgumentException is first in the catch list, it will be called." This is not true as the compiler is smart enough to recognize the problem and results in a compiler error and therefore the code will not even run.

I recommend this book for intermediate and advanced developers. Read the book and study the code examples and you will:
1) Learn the .NET Framework 4.0
2) Learn C# 4.0
3) Add to your inventory of useful code algorithms
4) Improve your written code by reading and studying the elegant code in this book.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very practical, great examples. March 15, 2010

By J. Boal

Format:Paperback

This is a great how-to book for anyone needing to write code today in C#. It has so many great examples and code snips for really practical things that we all need to write day in and day out. There are not only great code examples, but also best-practices that have been adopted across the industry. Ben also discusses the why behind the best practices, and explains the benefits of the structure of the examples. From [...], WPF, WCF, LINQ, SQL databases, and Silverlight - all have relevant, complete examples of how to do practical things using these technologies. C# is a complex language, with many facets and aspects, all of which are covered with examples. The code samples are well-written and understandable, some get into advanced aspects of the topics they cover which really is of real value even to advanced developers. The user level is targeted for beginners and intermediate developers, and certainly it will be of real value to them too. This is one reference book I am keeping within arm's length of my keyboard...

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hit the ground running. April 16, 2010

By Bill J.

Format:Paperback

This book is a twist on the C# Cookbook style of books only better. The examples are organized and tailored around implementation or solving problems instead of demonstrating theories. Descriptions are very brief, to the point and still effective. The book is also well indexed so you are able to isolate solutions quickly. This is really a gem feature well implemented; in the past I've seen well indexed books with average solutions used time and time again over books that demonstrated technical competence and yet are difficult to sift through. I have not tried any of the solutions in this book yet, but they look really good so far. I think this will be a go to book for me in the near future.

This book is not for the absolute beginner. You will need some context. If needed, do some tutorial videos, write some code or something before jumping into this one.