The C# Programming Language

Course Outline

Module 1: Introduction to .NET Visual Studio & C#

• The .NET Framework; The Common Language Runtime; The Common Type System
• C# Features; Introduction to namespaces and assemblies

Module 2: Syntax I

• Procedures and statements; Data types; Declaring variables; Assignments
• Conversion; Arithmetic and other operators
• Control constructs
• Passing parameters by value, by reference, named and optional parameters

Module 3: Syntax 2

• Type concepts; Classes; Reference types
• Fields, properties and methods
• Accessibility modifiers
• Object initialisation, Constructors and Constructor chaining
• Instance members; Keyword ‘this’
• The ‘null’ reference
• Nullable types
• const & readonly
• Enumerated types
• Partial classes
• Boxing / UnBoxing issues

Module 4: Exception Handling

• Errors vs. Exceptions; The ‘try’ block; The ‘catch’ block; The ‘finally’ block; Using ‘throw’
• Creating your own exceptions; ‘checked’ and ‘unchecked’ expressions.

Module 5: Collections

• Arrays
• Generic Collections
• Iterating collections
• Generic Methods
• Constraints on Generics

Module 7: Inheritance & Polymorphism

• Concept of inheritance; Substitutability; Extending a simple class
• ‘virtual’, ‘override’ and ‘sealed’ modifiers
• Polymorphism;
• Upcasting and safe downcasting
• Behaviours of class String

Module 8: Abstract Classes & Interfaces

• Abstract classes; Abstract methods and properties
• Polymorphism with interfaces; Multiple interfaces

Module 9: Delegates

• Delegates explained; Working with delegates; Creating your own delegate types

Module 10: Lambda expresssions

• Understanding Lambdas

Module 11: LINQ

• Understanding the language features behind LINQ
• The LINQ API and query pattern
• Grouping and Joins
• Demo of LINQ to Entities

Module 12: More LINQ to XML

• An overview of LINQ to XML
• XElement construction
• Navigating XML structures

Module 13: Events

• Understanding events in .NET
• The event conventions
• Writing events as lambda expressions

Module 14: The Way Ahead

• Review
• Follow-on courses

Appendix Module A: Working with Text

• Class String; Class StringBuilder; Formatting Strings; Regular Expressions

Appendix Module C: Operator Overloading

• Why operator overloading is useful; When to overload
• Implicit conversions; explicit conversions

Appendix Module D: Namespaces & Assemblies

• Namespaces; The ‘using’ statement for namespaces; Assemblies
• DLLs at compile time and run Time; The Global Assembly Cache (GAC)
• Versioning using public/private key cryptography

Appendix Module E: Managing Resources

• Garbage collection and its impacts; Finalizers; The ‘Dispose’ pattern; IDisposable
• The using statement