C# Primer

Course Objectives
This Course provides students with the skills to write simple C# programs. The syntax of the language is covered in detail and also Object Oriented coding techniques are discussed. During the Course the student will write many applications to ensure that the concepts and statements taught are fully understood and practical experience is gained. The Course is taught using Microsoft's Visual Studio IDE. The skills needed to use this software are presented as part of the Course. On completion of this Course the student will be able to:

• use the major concepts of a modern, block-structured, high-level language, such as control flow, function calls and modular programming
• structure programs using classes and other essential object-oriented features
• create, test and debug simple C# code using the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

Course Details
INTRODUCTION TO C#
What is C#?
The C# Programming Language
The Common Language Runtime
Intermediate Language
What Can C# Do?
Overview of the many subjects covered by C#
Advantages of using C#
Introduction to Visual Studio
A tour of the Workbench
Solutions and Projects
Running Simple Applications
A simple first example - The "Hello World" Application
OBJECT-ORIENTED CONCEPTS
An introduction to Objects
What is an Object?, Encapsulation, Communicating between objects
Classes & Structs
What are Classes?, Objects vs. Classes
Instantiation, the benefits of Classes, Structs, Creating and Destroying objects, Garbage Collection
Inheritance
What is Inheritance?, the benefits of Inheritance
THE C# LANGUAGE
Variables
Value Types, Reference Types, Usage Types, Naming Standards, Scope, Initialisation, Constants, Read-Only, Escape Characters
Arrays & Multi-Dimensional Arrays
Strings
Strings are objects!, Concatenation, Manipulation
Operators
Arithmetic, Unary, Relational, Conditional, Bitwise, Assignment, Expressions
Primitive Casting & Data Type Conversion
Control Flow Statements
if-else, switch, for, foreach, while, do-while, break and continue
The return Statement
Passing Arguments to C# Programs
OBJECTS, METHODS AND CLASSES
Introduction to Classes and Objects
Methods, Applications & Object Code
Creating & Manipulating Objects
Calling Methods, Passing Arguments and Method Overloading, Returning Values from Methods, Properties
Constructors, Static Constructors
Inheritance - Extending a Class
What does a Subclass Inherit?
NAMESPACES
Namespaces, The using statement
THE VISUAL STUDIO DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT
The Workbench
Solution Explorer, Class View, Toolbars
Searching, Rearranging Views
Working With C#
Fixing Problems, Creating new Classes and Interfaces
References
The C# Editor
Editing code and elements, IntelliSense, Code Formatter
Running and Debugging apps
ACCESSIBILITY MODIFIERS
Public or Private?!
Declaration Parameters
Class, Variable , Method
CASTING AND DATA CONVERSION
Literal Values, Implicit & Explicit Casting, Casting With Operators
Casting Objects, Narrowing & Widening, 'is' and 'as'
Data Type Conversion, Numeric Formatting
Course Environment Development will be performed using:

• Microsoft Visual Studio

Course Format: Practical sessions make up a large part of the course, allowing delegates to demonstrate and reinforce the lectures given. During these sessions the delegate will build a simple but complete application. Examples are used extensively, ranging from simple code 'snippets' to full applications with complete 'real world' functionality. These are supplied at the start of the course and it is encouraged that the delegates execute and 'experiment' with these under the instructor's guidance as they are introduced. These examples are available to take away, along with the delegate's own work. The comprehensive Student Guide supplied is fully indexed serving as a useful reference tool long after the course has finished. Delegates will also be able to access a free help-line with technical questions relating to topics covered on the course.