Pro C# 2010 and the .NET 4 platform

1723 Pages·2010·14.182 MB·English

by  Andrew W Troelsen

Pro C# 2010 and
the .NET 4 Platform
Fifth Edition

■ ■ ■
Andrew Troelsen
Pro C# 2010 and the .NET 4 Platform, Fifth Edition
Copyright © 2010 by Andrew Troelsen
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ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4302-2549-2
ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4302-2550-8
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President and Publisher: Paul Manning
Lead Editor: Ewan Buckingham
Technical Reviewer: Andy Olsen
Editorial Board: Clay Andres, Steve Anglin, Mark Beckner, Ewan Buckingham, Gary Cornell,
Jonathan Gennick, Jonathan Hassell, Michelle Lowman, Matthew Moodie, Duncan Parkes,
Jeffrey Pepper, Frank Pohlmann, Douglas Pundick, Ben Renow-Clarke, Dominic Shakeshaft,
Matt Wade, Tom Welsh
Coordinating Editor: Debra Kelly
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Contents at a Glance
Contents...................................................................................................................viii
About the Author.....................................................................................................xxv
About the Technical Reviewer...............................................................................xxvi
Acknowledgments................................................................................................xxvii
Introduction.........................................................................................................xxviii
■ ■ ■ Part 1: Introducing C# and the .NET Platform.................................................1
■ Chapter 1: The Philosophy of .NET..........................................................................3
■ Chapter 2: Building C# Applications.....................................................................41
■ ■ ■ Part 2: Core C# Programming Constructs ....................................................71
■ Chapter 3: Core C# Programming Constructs, Part I............................................73
■ Chapter 4: Core C# Programming Constructs, Part II.........................................125
■ Chapter 5: Defining Encapsulated Class Types...................................................167
■ Chapter 6: Understanding Inheritance and Polymorphism.................................219
■ Chapter 7: Understanding Structured Exception Handling.................................259
■ Chapter 8: Understanding Object Lifetime..........................................................289
■ ■ ■ Part 3: Advanced C# Programming Constructs..........................................319
■ Chapter 9: Working with Interfaces....................................................................321
■ Chapter 10: Understanding Generics..................................................................361
v
■ CONTENTS AT A GLANCE
■ Chapter 11: Delegates, Events, and Lambdas.....................................................397
■ Chapter 12: Advanced C# Language Features....................................................439
■ Chapter 13: LINQ to Objects................................................................................489
■ ■ ■ Part 4: Programming with .NET Assemblies...............................................523
■ Chapter 14: Configuring .NET Assemblies..........................................................525
■ Chapter 15: Type Reflection, Late Binding, and Attribute-Based Programming......581
■ Chapter 16: Processes, AppDomains, and Object Contexts................................625
■ Chapter 17: Understanding CIL and the Role of Dynamic Assemblies................653
■ Chapter 18: Dynamic Types and the Dynamic Language Runtime.....................701
■ ■ ■ Part 5: Introducing the .NET Base Class Libraries......................................725
■ Chapter 19: Multithreaded and Parallel Programming.......................................727
■ Chapter 20: File I/O and Object Serialization......................................................775
■ Chapter 21: ADO.NET Part I: The Connected Layer..............................................825
■ Chapter 22: ADO.NET Part II: The Disconnected Layer........................................885
■ Chapter 23: ADO.NET Part III: The Entity Framework.........................................951
■ Chapter 24: Introducing LINQ to XML.................................................................993
■ Chapter 25: Introducing Windows Communication Foundation.......................1013
■ Chapter 26: Introducing Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0...........................1077
■ ■ ■ Part 6: Building Desktop User Interfaces with WPF .................................1115
■ Chapter 27: Introducing Windows Presentation Foundation and XAML...........1117
■ Chapter 28: Programming with WPF Controls..................................................1179
■ Chapter 29: WPF Graphics Rendering Services................................................1245
■ Chapter 30: WPF Resources, Animations, and Styles.......................................1285
■ Chapter 31: WPF Control Templates and UserControls.....................................1325
vi
■ CONTENTS AT A GLANCE
■ ■ ■ Part 7: Building Web Applications with ASP.NET......................................1377
■ Chapter 32: Building ASP.NET Web Pages........................................................1379
■ Chapter 33: ASP.NET Web Controls, Master Pages and Themes......................1429
■ Chapter 34: ASP.NET State Management Techniques.......................................1473
■ Appendix A: Programming with Windows Forms.............................................1511
■ Appendix B: Platform-Independent .NET Development with Mono...................1561
■ Index.................................................................................................................1583
vii
■ CONTENTS

Contents
About the Author.....................................................................................................xxv
About the Technical Reviewer...............................................................................xxvi
Acknowledgments................................................................................................xxvii
Introduction.........................................................................................................xxviii
■ ■ ■ Part 1: Introducing C# and the .NET Platform.................................................1
■ Chapter 1: The Philosophy of .NET..........................................................................3
Understanding the Previous State of Affairs......................................................................3
The .NET Solution..............................................................................................................6
Introducing the Building Blocks of the .NET Platform (the CLR, CTS, and CLS).................7
Additional .NET-Aware Programming Languages............................................................10
An Overview of .NET Assemblies.....................................................................................12
Understanding the Common Type System.......................................................................19
Understanding the Common Language Specification......................................................23
Understanding the Common Language Runtime.............................................................25
The Assembly/Namespace/Type Distinction...................................................................27
Exploring an Assembly Using ildasm.exe........................................................................33
Exploring an Assembly Using Reflector...........................................................................35
Deploying the .NET Runtime............................................................................................36
viii
■ CONTENTS
The Platform-Independent Nature of .NET.......................................................................37
Summary.........................................................................................................................39
■ Chapter 2: Building C# Applications.....................................................................41
The Role of the .NET Framework 4.0 SDK.......................................................................41
Building C# Applications Using csc.exe...........................................................................42
Building .NET Applications Using Notepad++.................................................................49
Building .NET Applications Using SharpDevelop..............................................................50
Building .NET Applications Using Visual C# 2010 Express..............................................53
Building .NET Applications Using Visual Studio 2010......................................................54
Summary.........................................................................................................................69
■ ■ ■ Part 2: Core C# Programming Constructs ....................................................71
■ Chapter 3: Core C# Programming Constructs, Part I............................................73
The Anatomy of a Simple C# Program.............................................................................73
An Interesting Aside: Some Additional Members of the System.Environment Class.......79
The System.Console Class...............................................................................................81
System Data Types and C# Shorthand Notation..............................................................86
Working with String Data.................................................................................................97
Narrowing and Widening Data Type Conversions..........................................................106
Understanding Implicitly Typed Local Variables............................................................112
C# Iteration Constructs..................................................................................................117
Decision Constructs and the Relational/Equality Operators..........................................119
Summary.......................................................................................................................122
■ Chapter 4: Core C# Programming Constructs, Part II.........................................125
Methods and Parameter Modifiers................................................................................125
Understanding C# Arrays...............................................................................................137
Understanding the Enum Type.......................................................................................144
ix
■ CONTENTS
Understanding the Structure Type.................................................................................151
Understanding Value Types and Reference Types.........................................................154
Understanding C# Nullable Types..................................................................................162
Summary.......................................................................................................................165
■ Chapter 5: Defining Encapsulated Class Types...................................................167
Introducing the C# Class Type.......................................................................................167
Understanding Constructors..........................................................................................170
The Role of the this Keyword.........................................................................................174
Understanding the static Keyword.................................................................................181
Defining the Pillars of OOP.............................................................................................188
C# Access Modifiers......................................................................................................192
The First Pillar: C#’s Encapsulation Services.................................................................194
Understanding Automatic Properties.............................................................................206
Understanding Object Initializer Syntax.........................................................................210
Working with Constant Field Data.................................................................................214
Understanding Partial Types..........................................................................................217
Summary.......................................................................................................................218
■ Chapter 6: Understanding Inheritance and Polymorphism.................................219
The Basic Mechanics of Inheritance..............................................................................219
Revising Visual Studio Class Diagrams.........................................................................224
The Second Pillar of OOP: The Details of Inheritance....................................................226
Programming for Containment/Delegation....................................................................232
The Third Pillar of OOP: C#’s Polymorphic Support.......................................................235
Understanding Base Class/Derived Class Casting Rules...............................................247
The Master Parent Class: System.Object.......................................................................250
Summary.......................................................................................................................258
x
■ CONTENTS
■ Chapter 7: Understanding Structured Exception Handling.................................259
Ode to Errors, Bugs, and Exceptions.............................................................................259
The Role of .NET Exception Handling.............................................................................260
The Simplest Possible Example.....................................................................................263
Configuring the State of an Exception...........................................................................267
System-Level Exceptions (System.SystemException)...................................................272
Application-Level Exceptions (System.ApplicationException).......................................273
Processing Multiple Exceptions.....................................................................................277
Who Is Throwing What?.................................................................................................282
The Result of Unhandled Exceptions.............................................................................283
Debugging Unhandled Exceptions Using Visual Studio.................................................284
A Brief Word Regarding Corrupted State Exceptions (CSE)...........................................285
Summary.......................................................................................................................287
■ Chapter 8: Understanding Object Lifetime..........................................................289
Classes, Objects, and References..................................................................................289
The Basics of Object Lifetime........................................................................................291
The Role of Application Roots........................................................................................294
Understanding Object Generations................................................................................296
Concurrent Garbage Collection under .NET 1.0 - 3.5.....................................................297
Background Garbage Collection under .NET 4.0............................................................297
The System.GC Type......................................................................................................298
Building Finalizable Objects...........................................................................................302
Building Disposable Objects..........................................................................................305
Building Finalizable and Disposable Types....................................................................309
Understanding Lazy Object Instantiation.......................................................................313
Summary.......................................................................................................................316
xi
■ CONTENTS
■ ■ ■ Part 3: Advanced C# Programming Constructs..........................................319
■ Chapter 9: Working with Interfaces....................................................................321
Understanding Interface Types......................................................................................321
Defining Custom Interfaces...........................................................................................325
Implementing an Interface.............................................................................................327
Invoking Interface Members at the Object Level...........................................................329
Interfaces As Parameters..............................................................................................331
Interfaces As Return Values...........................................................................................333
Arrays of Interface Types...............................................................................................334
Implementing Interfaces Using Visual Studio 2010.......................................................335
Resolving Name Clashes via Explicit Interface Implementation....................................336
Designing Interface Hierarchies....................................................................................339
Building Enumerable Types (IEnumerable and IEnumerator)........................................343
Building Cloneable Objects (ICloneable)........................................................................349
Building Comparable Objects (IComparable).................................................................354
Summary.......................................................................................................................359
■ Chapter 10: Understanding Generics..................................................................361
The Issues with Non-Generic Collections......................................................................361
The Role of Generic Type Parameters...........................................................................371
The System.Collections.Generic Namespace................................................................376
Creating Custom Generic Methods................................................................................385
Creating Custom Generic Structures and Classes.........................................................388
Constraining Type Parameters......................................................................................392
Summary.......................................................................................................................395
■ Chapter 11: Delegates, Events, and Lambdas.....................................................397
Understanding the .NET Delegate Type.........................................................................397
xii