e# Programmer's Handbook GREGORY S. MACBETH

APress Media, LLC

C# Programmer's Handbook Copyright © 2004 by Apress Originally published by Apress in 2004

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To Paige, Welby, and Sumner, who I love more than they will ever know.

Contents at a Glance

About the Author ................................................................................................. xv

Acknowledgments ................................................................................................ xvii

Preface .................................................................................................................. xix

Part One

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7 Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Part Two

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

C# Language Basics ................................................... 1

Common Type System ................................................................. 3

Expressions and Operators ............................................... 29

Structs, Enums, Arrays, and Collections ................. 45

Program Control ..................................................................... 65

Building Your OWn Classes ............................................... 77

Strings ..................................................................................... 105

Memory Management ............................................................... 121

Delegates, Events, and Namespaces ............................ 131

Exception Handling and Application Domains ........ 141

Common Tasks ............................................................. 149

COM and .NET Interoperability ..................................... 151

Files and Streams ............................................................... 193

Active Directory ................................................................. 213

ADO.NET ..................................................................................... 229

Networking and WWW Connections ................................... 259

Threading ................................................................................ 269

Debugging ................................................................................ 289

Remoting ................................................................................... 353

Web Services .......................................................................... 397

Office Integration ............................................................. 407

Windows Forms ........................................................................ 423

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Contents at a Glance

vi

Part Three ASP. NET .................................................................................... 439

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

HTML Basics ............................................................................ 441

XML .........................................................................................•.... 465

ASP. NET ..................................................................................... 473

Part Four Appendixes .................................................................. 499

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

C# Tools and Resources .................................................... 501

Exam 70-315 ............................................................................ 503

Exam 70-316 ............................................................................ 525

Index ...................................................................................................................... 541

Contents

About the Author .......................................................................................... xv

Acknowledgments .......................................................................................... xvii

Preface .............................................................................................................. xix

Part One e# Language Basics .................................................. 1

Chapter 1 Common Type System ........................................................ 3

Identifiers and Naming Conventions .......................................................... 4 Variables ................................................................................................................. 6 Value Types ............................................................................................................. 8 Reference Types .................................................................................................. 20 Constant and Static Values .......................................................................... 23 Scopes ...................................................................................................................... 25 Casting and Class Conversion ...................................................................... 26

Chapter 2 Expressions and Operators .................................... 29

Expressions ........................................................................................................... 30 Arithmetic Operators ....................................................................................... 31 Relational Operators ....................................................................................... 36 Logical Operators .............................................................................................. 37 Bitwise Operators .............................................................................................. 38 Shift Operators .................................................................................................. 40 Precedence Table ................................................................................................ 42

Chapter 3 Structs ~ Enums ~ Arrays ~ and Collections 45

Structs ................................................................................................................... 46 Enums ........................................................................................................................ 48

Arrays ...................................................................................................................... 50 System. Collections ........................................................................................... 53 Stacks ...................................................................................................................... 61 Iterators ............................................................................................................... 64

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Contents

Chapter 4 Program Control .............................................................. 65

Selection Statements ....................................................................................... 66 Iterator Statements ......................................................................................... 70 Jump Statements .................................................................................................. 74

Chapter 5 Building Your Own Classes .................................... 77

Object Methods .................................................................................................... 7B Class Declaration and Definition ............................................................. BO Constructors and Initialization ............................................................... B2 Destroying Objects ............................................................................................ B4 Passing by Value and by Reference ........................................................... B7 Class Instances .................................................................................................. 90 Over loading ........................................................................................................... 91 Core OOP Concepts .............................................................................................. 92 Virtual Methods .................................................................................................. 95

Overriding ............................................................................................................. 97 Interfaces ............................................................................................................. 99 Generics ............................................................................................................ ... 102

Partial Types ..................................................................................................... 104

Chapter 6 Strings ................................................................................. 105

String Creation ................................................................................................ 106

String Concatenation ..................................................................................... lOB Substrings ........................................................................................................... 110 Character Manipulation ................................................................................. 112 Joining and Splitting Strings .................................................................. 115 Trimming and Padding Strings .................................................................... 117 String Formatting ............................................................................................ 119

Chapter 7 Memory Management ....................................................... 121

Virtual Memory and Address Space ........................................................... 122 Heap and Stack Memory ................................................................................... 123 References and Pointers ............................................................................... 125 The Garbage Collector (GC) ........................................................................ 127

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Contents

Chapter 8 Delegates) Events) and Namespaces .............. 131

Delegates ............................................................................................................. 132 Events .................................................................................................................... 135 Anonymous Methods ............................................................................................ 139 Namespaces and the using Keyword ........................................................... 140

Chapter 9 Exception Handling and Application Domains ........................................ 141

Exception Handling ......................................................................................... 142 The . NET Exception Class ............................................................................ 145 Application Domains ....................................................................................... 146 Fusion Basics .................................................................................................... 148

Part Two Common Tasks ........................................................... 149

Chapter 10 COM and .NET Interoperability ........................ 151

COM Interop Reference ................................................................................... 152 COM Interop Rules and Facts ...................................................................... 159 RCW-Consuming COM Objects: Early Binding ......................................... 162 Consuming COM Objects: Late Binding .................................................... 164 QueryInterface and Casting ........................................................................ 165 CCW: Consuming .NET Objects from COM Clients ................................. 166 Subscribing and Publishing to Events .................................................. 168 Using Platform Invoke to Call Native DLL Functions ................... 171 Creating COM + Objects in . NET ............................................................... 180 Using Role-Based Security in Managed COM+ Applications ........... 182 Advanced Customizing of Structures ...................................................... 184 Using Arrays in COM Interop ...................................................................... 186

Chapter 11 Files and Streams ....................................................... 193

Directory Management ..................................................................................... 194 File Management ................................................................................................ 196 Streams ................................................................................................................. 204

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Contents

Chapter 12 Active Directory .......................................................... 213

Accessing Active Directory ........................................................................ 214 Connecting and Binding to Active Directory ..................................... 215 Traversing Objects in Active Directory .............................................. 216 Reading Attributes of an Object ............................................................. 217 Writing New Objects to Active Directory ............................................ 219 Writing and Modifying Attributes of an Object ............................... 220 Changing Passwords .......................................................................................... 222 Deleting Objects from Active Directory .............................................. 223 Searching the Directory ............................................................................... 224 Directory Caching ............................................................................................ 226

Chapter 13 ADO. NET ................................................................................. 229

Basic ADO.NET Concepts ................................................................................. 230 Creating Database Connections .................................................................. 232 Using DataSets .................................................................................................. 234 Using DataReader .............................................................................................. 241 Using ADO.NET Events ..................................................................................... 242 Creating Data Tables and Populating Them .......................................... 243 Working with Data in a Database ............................................................. 245 Using DataViews to Control the Display of a DataGrid ............... 256 ADO.NET Changes from 1.0 to 1.1 of the Framework ........................ 257

Chapter 14 Networking and "''''''' Connections ..................... 259

Socket Connections .......................................................................................... 260 DNS Name Resolution ....................................................................................... 263 Web Clients and Web Requests .................................................................... 264 Displaying Web Pages Using the WebBrowser Control ...................... 266 Networking and WWW Changes from 1.0 to 1.1 of the Framework 267

Chapter 15 Threading ............................................................................ 269

Threading Basics .............................................................................................. 270 Creating Threads .............................................................................................. 271 Destroying Threads .......................................................................................... 273 Using Background Threads ............................................................................. 274 Controlling Thread Execution .................................................................... 275 Synchronizing Threads ................................................................................... 279 Using Thread Pools .......................................................................................... 282 Making Asynchronous Calls .......................................................................... 285

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Contents

Chapter 16 Debugging ........................................................................... 289

Tracing ................................................................................................................. 290 Creating and Writing to an Event Log .................................................. 297 Measuring Elapsed Time ................................................................................. 298 Using Asserts .................................................................................................... 301

Using Breakpoints ............................................................................................ 302 Power Debugging the CIL .............................................................................. 303

Debugging with Cordbg ................................................................................... 309 Debugging Assembly X386 .............................................................................. 311 Debugging with Windbg ................................................................................... 315 Debugging with SOS Commands ...................................................................... 317 Writing Data to Performance Monitor .................................................... 342 Debugging Memory Leaks ................................................................................. 345 Debugging Contention Problems in ASP. NET ......................................... 347 Enabling Customer Debug Probes for Interop Services ................. 348

Chapter 17 Remoting .............................................................................. 353

Remoting Basics ................................................................................................ 354 Remoting Configuration Files and Configuration Attributes .... 356 Creating a Hosting Process ........................................................................ 360

Creating Remoted Objects ............................................................................ 366 Server Programmatic Design for Remoting ............................................ 368 Server Configuration File Design for Remoting .............................. 371 Client Programmatic Design for Remoting ............................................ 375 Client Configuration File Design for Remoting .............................. 378

Managing Object Lifetimes .......................................................................... 381 Using Client-Side Sponsors ........................................................................ 383 Calling Remoted Methods Asynchronously .............................................. 385 Using Call Context ......................................................................................... 387 Using Sinks ......................................................................................................... 389 Remoting and Threading Issues ................................................................. 391 Using Custom Serialization ........................................................................ 393

Chapter 18 Web Services .................................................................... 397

Web Services Basics ....................................................................................... 398

Creating a Simple Web Service ................................................................. 399 Creating a Web Service Client ................................................................. 400 Golden Rules for Web Services ................................................................. 401

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Contents

Chapter 19 Office Integration .................................................... 407

Automating Office Basics ............................................................................. 408 Creating a New Instance of an Office Application ........................ 409 Using the ROT and File Monikers ............................................................. 410 Modifying Office Document Properties .................................................. 412 Creating Command Bars ................................................................................... 413 Using Events in Office ................................................................................. 415 Sending E-Mail .................................................................................................. 417

Chapter 20 Windows Forms ................................................................. 423

Basic Windows Forms ....................................................................................... 424 Common Controls) Properties) and Events ............................................ 427 Alternatives for Creating Windows Forms ............................................ 433 Message Windows ................................................................................................ 434 Windows Form Changes from 1.0 to 1.1 of the Framework ............. 438

Part Three ASP. NET ....................................................................... 439

Chapter 21 HTML Basics ....................................................................... 441

Why HTML in a Book on C#? .......................................................................... 442 Creating a Basic HTML Page ........................................................................ 443 Making Text Look Better ............................................................................... 448 Working with Lists .......................................................................................... 449 Using Tables to Build Pages ...................................................................... 451 Using Controls .................................................................................................. 453 Using Scripts ..................................................................................................... 457 Using Style Sheets (CSS) ............................................................................. 458 HTML Quick Reference ..................................................................................... 462

Chapter 22 XML ........................................................................................... 465

XML Basics ........................................................................................................... 466 Reading XML ......................................................................................................... 467 Writing XML to a File ................................................................................... 470 Loading an XML Document ............................................................................... 472

xii

Contents

Chapter 23 ASP. NET ................................................................................. 473

ASP.NET Basics .................................................................................................. 474

ASP.NET Directives ......................................................................................... 475

Application State ............................................................................................ 477

Common ASP. NET Events ................................................................................... 478

ASP. NET Configuration ................................................................................... 479

User Sessions: Browser Cookies ............................................................... 484

User Sessions: Session State .................................................................... 486

User Sessions: Cookieless .......................................................................... 489

ASP. NET Caching ................................................................................................ 490 Forms-Based Authentication ........................................................................ 493

Windows-Based Authentication .................................................................... 494

ASP. NET Controls .............................................................................................. 495

Part Four Appendixes ................................................................ 499

Appendix A C# Tools and Resources .......................................... 501

Appendix B Exam 70-315 ....................................................................... 503

Creating User Services ................................................................................. 503 Creating and Managing Components in . NET Assemblies ................. 513

Consuming and Manipulating Data ............................................................. 514

Testing and Debugging ................................................................................... 519 Deploying a Web Application ...................................................................... 521 Maintaining and Supporting a Web Application ................................. 522

Configuring and Securing a Web Application ..................................... 523

Appendix C Exam 70-316 ....................................................................... 525

Creating User Services ................................................................................. 525

Creating and Managing Components and . NET Assemblies ............... 528

Consuming and Manipulating Data ............................................................. 530 Testing and Debugging ................................................................................... 534 Deploying a Windows-Based Application ................................................ 536

Maintaining and Supporting a Windows-Based Application ........... 537 Configuring and Securing a Windows-Based Application ............... 538

Index ................................................................................................................... 541

xiii

About the Author

Gregory S. MacBeth is currently employed by Microsoft as a Solution Integration Engineer in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he helps customers realize the potential of Microsoft products. He specifically aids customers in resolving complex problems where multiple products are involved. In addition, he often assists customers in developing first-class software using C# and .NET. He holds MCAD, MCSD (.NET and VS 6), MCSE, MCDBA, MCT, N+, andA+ certifications.

xv

Acknowledgments

1b MY WIFE PAIGE and my sons Welby and Sumner, thanks for your patience and love, and the sacrifices that you made during the time it took me to complete this work.

To my father Mac, Major Allen D. Broussard, Captain Kenneth Poteet, and the United States Marine Corps for making me the man I am today.

To Ken Burns, my former manager at Microsoft, thanks for being understanding, supportive, and helping me to develop my career. But most of all, thanks for being a friend!

Thanks to the staff members at Apress for all their help.

xvii

Preface

I WAS INSPIRED to write this book because when I needed to transition from C++ to

C#, I found few books that helped. All I really wanted was a book that defined the

language and showed me simple examples of how to use the .NET Framework.

I hope that you will find this book helpful and useful in learning C#.

As you read this book, please keep in mind that my goal was to provide you

with simple samples showing you how to use this language to do common tasks.

I stripped out all but the essential code. Specifically, I removed safeguards such as

exception handling that would normally be present in all good code. I advise you

strongly to use exception handling in your own code.

I have also included in this book material that will be in the next major release

of C#, such as generics, anonymous methods, iterators, and more.

I wish you the best of luck in your coding.

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