Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself C# in 21 Days

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Focus of this book is on the language itself - It doesn't get side-tracked talking about Visual Studio and .NET in general, like many C# books. It is written in a clear, friendly tone and the concepts and definitions are easy to understand. The organization is also well thought-out. Like all 21 Days books, it is divided into 3 weeks of 7 days (chapters) each. In this book, Week 1 covers language basics, like using the compiler, variables, operators, control statements and an introduction to classes and methods. Week 2 goes into more intermediate language topics like enumerators, arrays, exception handling, inheritance, interfaces and delegates. Finally, Week 3 introduces a some advanced C# topics like operator overloading and reflection as well as demonstrating how C# fits with the rest of the .NET world, specifically, the .NET Framework, Windows Forms, Web Services and Web Forms.

One caveat: If you don't have a lot of programming experience, the first couple of days cover conceptual topics that may be a little confusing. Don't let that trip you up. Just skim over them ignoring anything you don't understand and head to Day 3. That where the real meat of the programming topics begin and from there it starts at the beginning and builds on itself, as you'd expect.

I particularly liked the Week In Review sections that provided extended examples (often several hundred lines of code) that demonstrate the concepts covered in the previous week. Cross-references make it easy to look up anything that is unfamiliar. This really helps pull together the concepts and helps you understand how to apply them to real-world code.

Overall a great tutorial that doesn't skip around or backtrack like so many computer books do. The organization also makes it a good reference for looking things up after you learn C#.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the book and its ability to bring one up to speed with C#. He covers some very basic concepts such as structures, classes, indexers, and advanced topics such as delegates. All the constructs that one needs in order to put the language to work are detailed.

If you are looking for a quick, down and dirty book to jump start your knowledge of the language I would rate the book 5 stars.

One of the biggest challenges with OO languages is not using a procedural style when writing code. The author no doubt has a handle on the C# language. But I don't think he has a handle on OO. As the author mentions, everything in C# is class. With this in mind, I would expect to see good class design throughout the book.

My criticism, which I hope is taken with a grain of salt, is that the examples which wrap up a week's lesson are too procedural. They are spaghetti code that I personally would re-factor before publishing. There is a Main method that is hundreds of lines long with nested do's nested in if's nested in do's that are nested in if's... get the picture?

If this seems like harsh criticism, I apologize. I thought twice about writing this review until I hit is Black Jack program on about page 400.

Respectfully,
A fellow techie

I have heard much about C# (pronounced C-sharp) over the last year, ranging from the bitter to the laudatory. In reading other books about the language, I was unable to formulate an opinion regarding the impact it will have. Well, after reading this book, it is clear that C# will have a major impact, and in this restricted job market, it is an excellent career move to learn how to use it. For years, I have heard C++ referred to as a "safer C", which is of course nonsense. In my experience, the sheer size of C++ makes it more, not less dangerous than C. However, in my opinion, there is no question that C# is a safer C. It retains some of the more attractive features of C++, such as operator overloading, yet the more dangerous concepts such as memory management and multiple inheritance are eliminated.
Before reading this book, I had some experience with C# and was looking for a text to use in the corporate training classes that I am creating. My search has ended. The lessons follow the traditional sequence of background, variables, operators, control structures and classes before moving on to the advanced topics. This is the best way to learn a new language, as nothing complicates education more than being exposed to topics without suitable background information.
The lessons are clear, concise and illustrate no more than the points to be made. Some argue that large projects built one segment at a time are the way to learn a language. I could not disagree more. Beginners need short, specific lessons that illustrate only a few topics. Large projects tend to overwhelm them to the point that the frustration level increases, which has a negative, cascading effect on their understanding.
This is a book for beginners, easily handled by anyone with some knowledge of C++ or Java. Those with no other programming experience can still understand it, but must be patient and work through all of the examples.

This was the very first book that I picked up on C#, while I was using Beta 2 of the .NET Framework. I come from an ASP/VBScript and Visual Basic 6.0 background. Since my focus with C# was ASP.NET programming, it was less useful to me than a beginning C# book that would have focused on ASP.NET programming (Such as Wrox's beginning ASP.NET using C#) but of course, this book makes no such warranty.

It's goal is to teach you the C# language, and on that count it works very well. But be warned, the lessons go very slowly until about Chapter 9.

I think there would be a market for a book such as "Teach Yourself C# in 21 Days -- For VB Programmers" that could move faster (you used to do loops this way in VB, here's how to do it in C#.)

You will probably be less than thrilled writing console applications as the book has you do, but I don't think one could come up with a better way to teach you C# from the ground up, without requiring the explicit use of Visual Studio.NET.

Like most of the 21 Day books, this one does a good job taking the reader through the basic aspects of its subject matter. The book says it's written for novice programmers-- I'd take that with a grain of salt. If you haven't programmed before, C# can be a difficult place to start, and this book won't really make it much easier. But if you have had experience with VBA in Excel or other programs, or if you are in an experienced VB programmer, this book will ease you into C# without undue difficulty. Lots of quizzes and exercises, so you can check your progress as you go along and apply what you are learning. Only one chapter on the .Net Framework, and only one on Web programming, but these topics are dense enough that you would probably want a separate book on each topic. So, one can't really fault Jones for only touvhing lightly here. Two chapters on WinForms and Windows applications, with the rest of the text focused mainly on console apps to demonstrate the language.

I decide to return to programming after a long absence. I think I made a really poor choice in this book. For me, it just didn't do the job. I had to get another book on C# to fully understand what was being said in this book. I really wish I would have just bought the other one in the first place. Some of the exercises ask you to do things that are never fully explained in the book. In addition, it only gives a brief explanation of classes, and that is the one thing I needed the most information on. All in all, not a great book for someone who has never programmed in an object oriented language. I guess if you have intermediate programming skills, you may be able to finish this book in 21 days, but it's simply not a good choice for those who are returning to programming after a long absence or for those who are a beginner.

I'm new to programming and decided to start with C#, this book has made made the process incredibly easy. Everything is reinforced, the author is concise and the book is well organized. The author always seems to anticipate my questions and answer them before I have a chance to ask, great!! I've seen some comments on the lack of Visual Studio coverage, to me that would have been distracting since I'm trying to learn to program, not use a tool. Thank you Sams!

This is by far the best ever introduction to C# programming that I have ever read.
Experienced programmers, especially those coming from a Java or C++ background, will be able to skim through the first few "days". Beginners to coding are introduced to fundamental principles such as variables, loops and conditions and then quickly move on to more interesting subjects.
The book's examples are better than most too, they are generally of sufficient length to be realistic while still illustrating the point.
The other highlight for me was an absence of typographical and more importantly technical errors. Spelling errors tend to distract and break up the flow when reading and when I see something that I know to be wrong I am always wary of trusting more advanced topics later.
I can't recommend this book enough for those wishing to venture into the world of C#.

This was a very good warm up. I started programming twenty years ago and lately wanted to try something different. The coding is good in most places and very readable. The best part was the consice writing of the authors. I highly recommend this for someone that has a little knowledge and is ready for more. This is also a good self-pace work.

I came to this book with some knowledge of c++ and java so I can't really say how I would have found it if I was a complete beginner. Having said that, however, I must state that I found this book to be very well structured. The concepts were clearly explained and the author doesn't waste time with too many examples, only what is necessary to get the point across. So indeed, in less than 21 days I was up and running (well maybe walking briskly). I look forward to more books by this author.