About the authors Benjamin Perkins is a Sr. Escalation Engineer at Microsoft. His experience includes designing, developing, deploying, administering, and managing enterprise-level IT solutions. Jacob Vibe Hammer helps develop solutions for the health care industry as a Senior Software Engineer at Systematic in Denmark. He has co-authored a number of .NET books and works with numerous Microsoft technologies. Jon D. Reid is a Product Solution Manager in Research and Development at IFS AB, specializing in Field Service Management using C# and .NET. Visit us at wrox.com for free code samples.

• Introduction xxiPart I: The C# LanguageChapter 1: Introducing C# 3What Is the .NET Framework? 4What Is C#? 9Visual Studio 2017 11Chapter 2: Writing a C# Program 15The Visual Studio 2017 Development Environment 16Console Applications 21Desktop Applications 26Chapter 3: Variables and Expressions 33Basic C# Syntax 34Basic C# Console Application Structure 36Variables 38Expressions 46Chapter 4: Flow Control 59Boolean Logic 60Branching 65Looping 72Chapter 5: More About Variables 83Type Conversion 84Complex Variable Types 91String Manipulation 109Chapter 6: Functions 117Defining and Using Functions 118Variable Scope 131The Main() Function 138Struct Functions 141Overloading Functions 142Using Delegates 144Chapter 7: Debugging and Error Handling 149Debugging in Visual Studio 150Error Handling 167Chapter 8: Introduction To Object-Oriented Programming 179What Is Object-Oriented Programming? 180OOP Techniques 186OOP in Desktop Applications 196Chapter 9: Defining Classes 203Class Definitions in C# 204System. Object 209Constructors and Destructors 211OOP Tools in Visual Studio 216Class Library Projects 222Interfaces Versus Abstract Classes 226Struct Types 228Shallow Copying Versus Deep Copying 230Chapter 10: Defining Class Members 233Member Definitions 234Additional Class Member Topics 244Interface Implementation 249Partial Class Definitions 252Partial Method Definitions 253Example Application 255The Call Hierarchy Window 265Chapter 11: Collections, Comparisons, and Conversions 269Collections 270Comparisons 292Conversions 313Chapter 12: Generics 319What Are Generics? 320Using Generics 321Defining Generic Types 339Variance 353Chapter 13: Additional C# Techniques 359The :: Operator and the Global Namespace Qualifier 360Custom Exceptions 361Events 363Expanding and Using CardLib 375Attributes 384Initializers 386Type Inference 392Anonymous Types 394Dynamic Lookup 398Advanced Method Parameters 402Lambda Expressions 409Part II: Windows ProgrammingChapter 14: Basic Desktop Programming 425XAML 426The Playground 429Control Layout 441The Game Client 452Chapter 15: Advanced Desktop Programming 479Creating and Styling Controls 480WPF User Controls 485The Main Window 499Putting It All Together 504Part III: Cloud and Cross-Platform ProgrammingChapter 16: Basic Cloud Programming 533The Cloud, Cloud Computing, and the Cloud Optimized Stack 534Cloud Patterns and Best Practices 537Using Microsoft Azure C# Libraries to Create a Storage Container 538Creating an ASP.NET 4.7 Web Site That Uses the Storage Container 548Chapter 17: Advanced Cloud Programming and Deployment 559Creating an ASP.NET Web API 560Deploying and Consuming an ASP.NET Web API onMicrosoft Azure 564Scaling an ASP.NET Web API on Microsoft Azure 572Chapter 18: .NET standard and .NET Core 579Cross-Platform Basics and Key “Must Know” Terms 581What Is .NET Standard, and Why Is It Needed? 583Referencing and Targeting Frameworks 587What is .NET Core? 588Building and Packaging a .NET Standard Library 596Building a .NET Core Application with Visual Studio 602Porting from .NET Framework to .NET Core 605Chapter 19: ASP.NET and ASP.NET Core 609Overview of Web Applications 610Which ASP.NET to Use and Why 611Using ASP.NET Web Forms 620Creating ASP.NET Core Web Applications 627Part IV: Data AccessChapter 20: Files 641File Classes for Input and Output 642Streams 647Monitoring the File System 664Chapter 21: XML and JSON 673XML Basics 674JSON Basics 674XML Schemas 675XML Document Object Model 677Converting XML to JSON 689Searching XML with XPath 691Chapter 22: LINQ 697LINQ to XML 698LINQ Providers 704LINQ Query Syntax 705LINQ Method Syntax 709Ordering Query Results 712Understanding the orderby Clause 713Querying a Large Data Set 714Using Aggregate Operators 717Using the Select Distinct Query 720Ordering by Multiple Levels 723Using Group Queries 725Using Joins 727Chapter 23: Databases 731Using Databases 731Installing SQL Server Express 732Entity Framework 732A Code First Database 733But Where Is My Database? 740Navigating Database Relationships 742Handling Migrations 749Creating and Querying XML from an Existing Database 750Part V: Additional TechniquesChapter 24: Windows Communication Foundation 761What Is WCF? 762WCF Concepts 763WCF Programming 768Chapter 25: Universal Apps 793Getting Started 794Windows Universal Apps 795App Concepts and Design 796App Development 797Common Elements of Windows Store Apps 816The Windows Store 818Appendix: Exercise Solutions 821Index 865