C# Cookbook, 2nd Edition (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) [Paperback]

Jay Hilyard (Author), Stephen Teilhet (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0596100639 | ISBN-13: 978-0596100636 | Publication Date: February 6, 2006 | Edition: Second Edition

With C# Cookbook, 2nd Edition, you'll be able to learn and improve your mastery of both the C# language and the .NET platform. This updated bestseller has been completely revised to account for C# 2.0, the latest version of this popular object-oriented programming language. It also includes more than 100 new code solutions (over 300 overall) to common problems and tasks that you're sure to face as a C# programmer.

Nearly every solution, or "recipe," contains a complete, documented code sample showing you how to solve the specific problem, as well as a detailed discussion of how and why the underling technology works. This question-solution-discussion format is a proven teaching method, as any fan of O'Reilly's "Cookbook" series can attest to. In fact, no other source offers a learn-as-you-go format quite like this.

C# Cookbook, 2nd Edition is organized into 20 chapters, each of which focuses on a particular topic in creating C# solutions. Here are just some of what's covered:

• Numeric data types
• Strings and characters
• Classes and structures
• Generics
• Exception handling
• Delegates, events, and anonymous methods
• Filesystem interactions
• Web site access
• XML usage (including XPath and XSLT)
• Networking
• Threading
• Unsafe code

Best of all, you don't have to be an experienced C# or .NET developer to use C# Cookbook, 2nd Edition. You just have to be someone who wants to solve a problem now, without having to learn all the related theory first.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The O'Reilly Cookbook series, with its to-the-point but illuminating coverage of programming subjects, meets the challenge of explaining how to write software as well as anything else on the market. When you're facing a coding problem--particularly in a language you're new to or haven't used in a while--and know there must be a proven way to solve it, the right Cookbook can often get you going in a hurry. C# Cookbook applies the formula to the language of Microsoft .NET, and is an addition to the line that more than a few programmers will appreciate.

Don't count on this book to solve big tasks for you. "I need some C# software that integrates with Avaya telephone switches and Siemens databases...:" No. Rather, this book shows you how to do the little jobs (converting an array to a delimited string, monitoring the event log, creating a bounded hashtable, and so on) that can stand in the way of prompt completion of a project. What's more, the coverage isn't limited to code samples. Stephen Teilhet and Jay Hilyard take advantage of the Cookbook series' Problem-Solution-Discussion format to teach you a thing or two about C#. You'll refer to this book often for quick answers and explanations. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to solve small but non-trivial problems in the C# programming language. Each of 17 chapters covers a major area of C# functionality--networking, regular expressions, filesystem, security, and so on--and contains a dozen or two entries on how best to solve programming problems. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Jay Hilyard has been developing applications for the Windows platform for over 15 years and for .NET for more than 7 of those. Jay has published multiple articles in MSDN Magazine and he currently works on the New Product Team at Newmarket International in Portsmouth, NH. When not immersed in .NET, Jay spends his time with his family and rooting for the Patriots.

Stephen Teilhet earned a degree in electrical engineering, but soon afterwards began to write software for the Windows platform. For the last 11 years, he's worked for several consulting firms on a wide range of projects, specializing in Visual Basic, Visual C++, MTS, COM, MSMQ, and SQL Server. He has been working with the .NET technologies since the pre-alpha version of the 1.0 .NET framework was being developed by Microsoft. Currently he works for Ounce Labs where he is working on enhancing their static security code analysis tool to find vulnerabilities in several languages including the .NET languages.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1192 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Second Edition edition (February 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596100639
• ISBN-13: 978-0596100636
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #981,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great addition to your C# library, April 22, 2004

By 

ueberhund "ueberhund" (Salt Lake City, UT United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: C# Cookbook (Paperback)

This is a really cool book. Skim through it, and you'll see that all the hard stuff you want to do in .NET or C# are all in one book. You'll find some general computer science algorithms implemented in C#, and you'll find other things that are simply C# specific. I'd highly recommend any professional C# programmer adding this to their reference library.

The book contains a chapter for each of various C# objects. Beginning with numbers, the book continues through strings, classes, delegates, collections, I/O, threading, and XML to name a few. Some examples of "recipes" you'll find include how to improve string builder performance, issues with bit-shifting, adding notification callbacks, rolling back object changes, determining whether a process has stopped responding, and validating XML.

Like many of O'Reilly's other "cookbook" reference books, this book can be read from cover to cover, but it's really designed like a cookbook. The idea is to flip thorough each recipe in a specific section until you find one that fits what you're trying to do. While reading through this book, I came across five or six answers to various different problems I'm currently addressing in my own C# work. This is a definite must-have to your library.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding C# Reference Book, September 22, 2005

By 

Daniel McKinnon "Dan" (Tewksbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: C# Cookbook (Paperback)

This is exactly what a cookbook should be, it's as simple as that. If you are a C# programmer you would be making a mistake to not have a copy of this fantastic reference book by your side. For any book to be named a "cookbook" I would expect a myriad of problems to be tackled, and a variety of subjects. I wouldn't want a thin reference manual, yet I wouldn't want problems to go on for pages and pages and pages. Ideally an examination of a wide variety of issues with concise, straightforward solutions is optimal, and that's exactly what this book provides.

Topics Covered:

01. Number-Related Tips & Tricks
02. String Abilities
03. Working With Classes & Structures
04. Enumerations
05. Exception Handling
06. A look at Diagnostic Tools
07. Working with Delegates & Events
08. Regular Expressions
09. Collections
10. Data Structures in C#
11. Filesystems in C#
12. Reflection
13. Networking code and issues
14. Security Matters
15. Working With Threads
16. A Look At Unsafe Code
17. XML Analysis

From that list of topics, is there any subject that a C# developer doesn't run into some issue with at some point?

I'm trying to write a longer, drawn out review about why you should pick up this book, but it's really hard to do so because I instantly found this book so useful.

Save yourself the time and aggravation and pick up "C# Cookbook" by Stephen Teilhet and Jay Jilyard, I can assure you that you will not regret it.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy it - yesterday, January 23, 2005

By 

David N. Thielen (Boulder, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: C# Cookbook (Paperback)

A friend lent me their copy of the book when I was trying to figure something out. Ten minutes later I ordered my own copy. This book is great.

What it is is for about 70 small programming problems, it shows you how to write it. Both the code and the explanation. So in many cases you can just copy the code. And if what you need is a little different, the explanation gives you the knowledge you need.

One note - I did find one place where the code they gave was more complex and less efficient than necessary. So it's not perfect. But the code they gave did work.