C♯ 4.0 : the complete reference

The Definitive Guide to C# “From using LINQ to covariance and from string formatting to optional arguments, Herb’s update covers all you need to know about using real-world C# 4.0.” ─Michael Howard, Microsoft Corporation Bestselling author Herb Schildt has updated and expanded his classic programming reference to cover C# 4.0--the latest release of this powerful, feature-rich language. Using carefully crafted explanations, insider tips, and hundreds of examples, C# 4.0: The Complete Reference offers in-depth details on all aspects of C#, including keywords, syntax, and core libraries. New C# 4.0 features, such as named and optional arguments, the dynamic type, expanded covariance and contravariance capabilities, and support for parallel programming with the Task Parallel Library (TPL) and PLINQ are also discussed. Perfect for beginners and professional C# programmers alike, this expert resource is written in the clear, crisp, uncompromising style that has made Herb the choice of millions worldwide. Begin mastering C# 4.0 today with help from this authoritative volume! Coverage includes: Data types and operators Control statements Classes and objects Constructors, destructors, and methods Interfaces, arrays, enumerations, and structures Method and operator overloading Inheritance and virtual methods Reflection and runtime type ID Exception handling Delegates, properties, events, and indexers Attributes Multithreading and the Task Parallel Library Generics LINQ and PLINQ Lambda expressions Anonymous types Extension methods Named and optional arguments Implicitly typed variables I/O, networking, and collections The preprocessor and much, much more Contents......Page 8 Special Thanks......Page 22 Preface......Page 24 Part I: The C# Language......Page 28 C#’s Family Tree......Page 30 How the Common Language Runtime Works......Page 35 Managed vs. Unmanaged Code......Page 36 Object-Oriented Programming......Page 38 A First Simple Program......Page 40 Handling Syntax Errors......Page 50 A Second Simple Program......Page 51 Another Data Type......Page 53 Two Control Statements......Page 55 Using Code Blocks......Page 58 Semicolons, Positioning, and Indentation......Page 59 The C# Keywords......Page 60 Identifiers......Page 61 The .NET Framework Class Library......Page 62 C#’s Value Types......Page 64 Integers......Page 65 Floating-Point Types......Page 67 The decimal Type......Page 69 Characters......Page 70 The bool Type......Page 71 Some Output Options......Page 72 Literals......Page 75 A Closer Look at Variables......Page 78 The Scope and Lifetime of Variables......Page 81 Type Conversion and Casting......Page 84 Type Conversion in Expressions......Page 88 Arithmetic Operators......Page 92 Relational and Logical Operators......Page 96 The Assignment Operator......Page 100 The Bitwise Operators......Page 102 The ? Operator......Page 111 Spacing and Parentheses......Page 112 Operator Precedence......Page 113 The if Statement......Page 114 The switch Statement......Page 117 The for Loop......Page 121 The while Loop......Page 128 The do-while Loop......Page 130 Using break to Exit a Loop......Page 131 Using continue......Page 133 The goto......Page 134 Class Fundamentals......Page 138 How Objects Are Created......Page 143 Reference Variables and Assignment......Page 144 Methods......Page 145 Constructors......Page 155 The new Operator Revisited......Page 159 Garbage Collection and Destructors......Page 160 The this Keyword......Page 162 Arrays......Page 166 Multidimensional Arrays......Page 170 Jagged Arrays......Page 173 Assigning Array References......Page 175 Using the Length Property......Page 177 Implicitly Typed Arrays......Page 180 The foreach Loop......Page 181 Strings......Page 185 Controlling Access to Class Members......Page 194 Pass References to Methods......Page 201 Use ref and out Parameters......Page 205 Use a Variable Number of Arguments......Page 211 Return Objects......Page 214 Method Overloading......Page 217 Overload Constructors......Page 223 Object Initializers......Page 228 Optional Arguments......Page 229 Named Arguments......Page 233 The Main( ) Method......Page 235 Recursion......Page 237 Understanding static......Page 240 Static Classes......Page 245 Operator Overloading Fundamentals......Page 248 Handling Operations on C# Built-in Types......Page 255 Overloading the Relational Operators......Page 259 Overloading true and false......Page 261 Overloading the Logical Operators......Page 264 Conversion Operators......Page 270 Operator Overloading Tips and Restrictions......Page 274 Another Example of Operator Overloading......Page 275 Indexers......Page 280 Properties......Page 289 Use Access Modifiers with Accessors......Page 296 Using Indexers and Properties......Page 299 Inheritance Basics......Page 304 Member Access and Inheritance......Page 307 Constructors and Inheritance......Page 311 Inheritance and Name Hiding......Page 317 Creating a Multilevel Hierarchy......Page 320 When Are Constructors Called?......Page 323 Base Class References and Derived Objects......Page 324 Virtual Methods and Overriding......Page 329 Using Abstract Classes......Page 336 The object Class......Page 340 Interfaces......Page 346 Using Interface References......Page 351 Interface Properties......Page 353 Interface Indexers......Page 355 Interfaces Can Be Inherited......Page 357 Explicit Implementations......Page 358 Structures......Page 361 Enumerations......Page 367 The System.Exception Class......Page 372 Exception-Handling Fundamentals......Page 373 The Consequences of an Uncaught Exception......Page 376 Exceptions Let You Handle Errors Gracefully......Page 378 Using Multiple catch Clauses......Page 379 Catching All Exceptions......Page 380 Nesting try Blocks......Page 381 Throwing an Exception......Page 382 Using finally......Page 384 A Closer Look at the Exception Class......Page 386 Deriving Exception Classes......Page 389 Catching Derived Class Exceptions......Page 393 Using checked and unchecked......Page 395 C#’s I/O Is Built Upon Streams......Page 398 The Stream Classes......Page 399 Console I/O......Page 402 FileStream and Byte-Oriented File I/O......Page 407 Character-Based File I/O......Page 414 Redirecting the Standard Streams......Page 417 Reading and Writing Binary Data......Page 419 Random Access Files......Page 425 Using MemoryStream......Page 427 Using StringReader and StringWriter......Page 429 The File Class......Page 431 Converting Numeric Strings to Their Internal Representation......Page 433 Delegates......Page 438 Anonymous Functions......Page 447 Anonymous Methods......Page 448 Lambda Expressions......Page 452 Events......Page 458 Use Anonymous Methods and Lambda Expressions with Events......Page 468 .NET Event Guidelines......Page 469 Applying Events: A Case Study......Page 472 Namespaces......Page 476 The Preprocessor......Page 490 Assemblies and the internal Access Modifier......Page 496 Runtime Type Identification......Page 498 Reflection......Page 502 Using Reflection......Page 504 Attributes......Page 522 Three Built-in Attributes......Page 530 What Are Generics?......Page 534 A Simple Generics Example......Page 535 A Generic Class with Two Type Parameters......Page 541 Constrained Types......Page 542 Creating a Default Value of a Type Parameter......Page 561 Generic Structures......Page 562 Creating a Generic Method......Page 563 Generic Delegates......Page 566 Generic Interfaces......Page 568 Comparing Instances of a Type Parameter......Page 571 Generic Class Hierarchies......Page 575 Overriding Virtual Methods in a Generic Class......Page 579 Overloading Methods That Use Type Parameters......Page 580 Covariance and Contravariance in Generic Type Parameters......Page 582 How Generic Types Are Instantiated......Page 590 Final Thoughts on Generics......Page 591 19 LINQ......Page 592 LINQ Fundamentals......Page 593 Filter Values with where......Page 598 Sort Results with orderby......Page 599 A Closer Look at select......Page 603 Use Nested from Clauses......Page 607 Group Results with group......Page 608 Use into to Create a Continuation......Page 610 Use let to Create a Variable in a Query......Page 612 Join Two Sequences with join......Page 613 Anonymous Types......Page 616 Create a Group Join......Page 618 The Query Methods......Page 621 Deferred vs. Immediate Query Execution......Page 627 Expression Trees......Page 628 Extension Methods......Page 629 PLINQ......Page 631 Unsafe Code......Page 632 Nullable Types......Page 645 Partial Types......Page 650 Partial Methods......Page 651 Create a Dynamic Type with dynamic......Page 652 COM Interoperability......Page 656 Miscellaneous Keywords......Page 657 Part II: Exploring the C# Library......Page 664 The Members of System......Page 666 The Math Class......Page 668 The .NET Structures Corresponding to the Built-in Value Types......Page 673 The Array Class......Page 690 BitConverter......Page 707 Generating Random Numbers with Random......Page 708 Memory Management and the GC Class......Page 709 Object......Page 711 The IComparable and IComparable Interfaces......Page 712 The ICloneable Interface......Page 713 IFormatProvider and IFormattable......Page 715 IObservable and IObserver ......Page 716 Strings in C#......Page 718 The String Class......Page 719 Formatting......Page 742 Using String.Format( ) and ToString( ) to Format Data......Page 746 Creating a Custom Numeric Format......Page 749 Formatting Date and Time......Page 753 Formatting Enumerations......Page 759 23 Multithreaded Programming, Part One......Page 762 Multithreading Fundamentals......Page 763 The Thread Class......Page 764 Determining When a Thread Ends......Page 769 Passing an Argument to a Thread......Page 772 Thread Priorities......Page 774 Synchronization......Page 777 Thread Communication Using Wait( ), Pulse( ), and PulseAll( )......Page 783 Using MethodImplAttribute......Page 787 Using a Mutex and a Semaphore......Page 789 Using Events......Page 796 The Interlocked Class......Page 799 Synchronization Classes Added by .NET 4.0......Page 800 Terminating a Thread Via Abort( )......Page 801 Suspending and Resuming a Thread......Page 805 Using the Main Thread......Page 806 Additional Multithreading Features Added by .NET 4.0......Page 807 Starting a Separate Task......Page 808 24 Multithreading, Part Two: Exploring the Task Parallel Library and PLINQ......Page 810 The Task Class......Page 811 Using Wait Methods......Page 816 Use a Lambda Expression as a Task......Page 819 Create a Task Continuation......Page 821 Returning a Value from a Task......Page 823 Cancelling a Task and Using AggregateException......Page 825 The Parallel Class......Page 828 Exploring PLINQ......Page 839 Collections Overview......Page 844 The Non-Generic Collections......Page 845 Storing Bits with BitArray......Page 867 The Generic Collections......Page 870 The Concurrent Collections......Page 896 Storing User-Defined Classes in Collections......Page 900 Implementing IComparable......Page 902 Using an IComparer......Page 905 Using StringComparer......Page 908 Accessing a Collection via an Enumerator......Page 909 Implementing IEnumerable and IEnumerator......Page 912 Using Iterators......Page 914 Collection Initializers......Page 920 The System.Net Members......Page 922 Uniform Resource Identifiers......Page 924 Internet Access Fundamentals......Page 925 Handling Network Errors......Page 931 The URI Class......Page 934 Accessing Additional HTTP Response Information......Page 935 MiniCrawler: A Case Study......Page 940 Using WebClient......Page 943 The XML Comment Tags......Page 948 Compiling Documentation Comments......Page 949 An XML Documentation Example......Page 950 Index......Page 952 A......Page 953 C......Page 954 D......Page 957 E......Page 958 F......Page 959 G......Page 960 I......Page 961 J......Page 963 M......Page 964 O......Page 966 P......Page 967 Q......Page 968 S......Page 969 T......Page 972 V......Page 974 W......Page 975 Z......Page 976 ## The Definitive Guide to C# Bestselling author Herb Schildt has updated and expanded his classic programming reference to cover C# 4.0--the latest release of this powerful, feature-rich language. Using carefully crafted explanations, insider tips, and hundreds of examples, __C# 4.0: The Complete Reference__ offers in-depth details on all aspects of C#, including keywords, syntax, and core libraries. New C# 4.0 features, such as named and optional arguments, the dynamic type, expanded covariance and contravariance capabilities, and support for parallel programming with the Task Parallel Library (TPL) and PLINQ are also discussed. Perfect for beginners and professional C# programmers alike, this expert resource is written in the clear, crisp, uncompromising style that has made Herb the choice of millions worldwide. Begin mastering C# 4.0 today with help from this authoritative volume! Coverage includes:* Data types and operators * Control statements * Classes and objects * Constructors, destructors, and methods * Interfaces, arrays, enumerations, and structures * Method and operator overloading * Inheritance and virtual methods * Reflection and runtime type ID * Exception handling * Delegates, properties, events, and indexers * Attributes * Multithreading and the Task Parallel Library * Generics * LINQ and PLINQ * Lambda expressions * Anonymous types * Extension methods * Named and optional arguments * Implicitly typed variables * I/O, networking, and collections * The preprocessor and much, much more Using carefully crafted explanations, insider tips, and hundreds of examples, Schildt offers in-depth details on all aspects of C♯, including keywords, syntax, and core libraries. New C♯ 4.0 features, such as named and optional arguments, the dynamic type, expanded covariance and contravariance capabilities, and support for parallel programming with the Task Parallel Library (TPL) and PLINQ are also discussed. --From publisher description