Essential C# 4.0 (Microsoft .NET Development Series) Book

Contents of C# 4.0 Topics xxv

Figures xxvii

Tables xxix

Foreword xxxi

Preface xxxv

Acknowledgments xlvii

About the Author li

Chapter 1: Introducing C# 1

Hello, World 2

C# Syntax Fundamentals 4

Working with Variables 12

Console Input and Output 16

Comments 20

Managed Execution and the Common Language Infrastructure 23

C# and .NET Versioning 26

Common Intermediate Language and ILDASM 27

Summary 30

Chapter 2: Data Types 31

Fundamental Numeric Types 32

More Fundamental Types 40

null and void 51

Categories of Types 55

Nullable Modifier 57

Conversions between Data Types 58

Arrays 64

Summary 81

Chapter 3: Operators and Control Flow 83

Operators 84

Introducing Flow Control 98

Code Blocks ({}) 105

Scope and Declaration Space 107

Boolean Expressions 109

Bitwise Operators (<<, >>, , &, ^, ~) 115

Control Flow Statements, Continued 121

Jump Statements 132

C# Preprocessor Directives 138

Summary 145

Chapter 4: Methods and Parameters 149

Calling a Method 150

Declaring a Method 157

The using Directive 161

Returns and Parameters on Main() 165

Parameters 168

Recursion 176

Method Overloading 179

Optional Parameters 182

Basic Error Handling with Exceptions 186

Summary 199

Chapter 5: Classes 201

Declaring and Instantiating a Class 205

Instance Fields 209

Instance Methods 211

Using the this Keyword 213

Access Modifiers 220

Properties 222

Constructors 236

Static Members 247

Extension Methods 256

Encapsulating the Data 258

Nested Classes 260

Partial Classes 262

Summary 267

Chapter 6: Inheritance 269

Derivation 270

Overriding the Base Class 281

Abstract Classes 293

All Classes Derive from System.Object 299

Verifying the Underlying Type with the is Operator 301

Conversion Using the as Operator 302

Summary 303

Chapter 7: Interfaces 305

Introducing Interfaces 306

Polymorphism through Interfaces 307

Interface Implementation 312

Converting between the Implementing Class and Its

Interfaces 318

Interface Inheritance 318

Multiple Interface Inheritance 321

Extension Methods on Interfaces 322

Implementing Multiple Inheritance via Interfaces 323

Versioning 326

Interfaces Compared with Classes 328

Summary 329

Chapter 8: Value Types 331

Structs 332

Boxing 339

Enums 346

Summary 356

Chapter 9: Well-Formed Types 357

Overriding object Members 357

Operator Overloading 369

Referencing Other Assemblies 377

Defining Namespaces 382

Garbage Collection 390

Resource Cleanup 393

Lazy Initialization 400

Summary 403

Chapter 10: Exception Handling 405

Multiple Exception Types 405

Catching Exceptions 407

General Catch Block 409

Guidelines for Exception Handling 411

Defining Custom Exceptions 414

Summary 419

Chapter 11: Generics 421

C# without Generics 422

Introducing Generic Types 427

Constraints 439

Generic Methods 453

Covariance and Contravariance 457

Generic Internals 463

Summary 467

Chapter 12: Delegates and Lambda Expressions 469

Introducing Delegates 470

Anonymous Methods 480

System-Defined Delegates: Func 483

Lambda Expressions 486

Summary 506

Chapter 13: Events 507

Coding the Observer Pattern with Multicast Delegates 508

Events 523

Summary 533

Chapter 14: Collection Interfaces with Standard Query Operators 535

Anonymous Types and Implicitly Typed Local Variables 536

Collection Initializers 543

What Makes a Class a Collection: IEnumerable<T> 546

Standard Query Operators 552

Summary 586

Chapter 15: LINQ with Query Expressions 589

Introducing Query Expressions 590

Query Expressions as Method Invocations 608

Summary 609

Chapter 16: Building Custom Collections 611

More Collection Interfaces 612

Primary Collection Classes 617

Providing an Index Operator 630

Returning Null or an Empty Collection 634

Iterators 634

Summary 650

Chapter 17: Reflection, Attributes, and Dynamic Programming 651

Reflection 652

Attributes 663

Programming with Dynamic Objects 688

Summary 699

Chapter 18: Multithreading 701

Running and Controlling a Separate Thread 706

Executing Iterations in Parallel 724

Running LINQ Queries in Parallel 734

Multithreading before .NET Framework 4 738

Unhandled Exceptions on the AppDomain 744

Summary 746

Chapter 19: Synchronization and More Multithreading Patterns 749

Synchronization 750

Timers 778

Asynchronous Programming Model 783

Asynchronous Delegate Invocation 797

Event-Based Asynchronous Pattern (EAP) 801

Background Worker Pattern 804

Windows UI Programming 809

Summary 814

Chapter 20: Platform Interoperability and Unsafe Code 815

Platform Invoke 816

Pointers and Addresses 830

Summary 839

Chapter 21: The Common Language Infrastructure 843

Defining the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) 844

CLI Implementations 845

C# Compilation to Machine Code 847

Runtime 849

Application Domains 854

Assemblies, Manifests, and Modules 855

Common Intermediate Language (CIL) 858

Common Type System (CTS) 858

Common Language Specification (CLS) 859

Base Class Library (BCL) 860

Metadata 860

Summary 862

Appendix A: Downloading and Installing the C# Compiler and the CLI

Platform 865

Appendix B: Full Source Code Listings 869

Appendix C: Concurrent Classes from System.Collections.Concurrent 895

Appendix D: C# 2.0 Topics 899

Appendix E: C# 3.0 Topics 903

Appendix F: C# 4.0 Topics 905

Index 907