C# A Programmer's Introduction, 1/e: Tour of the Book

In this section, we tour the chapters and appendices of C#: A Programmer's Introduction. Several of the chapters contain an Internet and Web Resources section that lists additional sources of C# information. Please visit  www.deitel.com and www.prenhall.com/deitel, for updated information and additional learning resources.

Chapter 1-Introduction to .NET and C#

The first chapter presented the history of the Internet, World Wide Web and various technologies (such as XML and SOAP) that have led to advances in how computers are used. We then introduced the Microsoft .NET initiative and the C# programming language, including Web services. We explore the impact of .NET on software development and software reusability. The chapter concludes by touring the remainder of the book.

Chapter 2-Introduction to the Visual Studio^® .NET IDE

Chapter 2 introduces Visual Studio .NET, an integrated development environment (IDE) that allows programmers to create C# programs. Visual Studio .NET enables visual programming, in which controls (such as buttons and text boxes) are "dragged" and "dropped" into place, rather than added by writing code and typing it in. Visual programming increases software-development productivity by eliminating many tedious programming tasks. For example, a graphical user interface (GUI's) properties (information such as size and color) can be modified through the Visual Studio .NET environment, allowing changes to be made quickly and causing the results to appear immediately on the screen. Rather than having to guess how the GUI will appear while writing a program, programmers view the GUI exactly as it will appear when the finished program runs. Visual Studio .NET also contains advanced tools for debugging, documenting and writing code. The chapter presents features of Visual Studio .NET, including its key windows and shows how to compile and run programs. We provide an example of the capabilities of Visual Studio .NET by using it to create a simple Windows application without typing a single line of code.

Chapter 3-Introduction to C# Programming

This chapter introduces readers to our Live-CodeT approach. Every concept is presented in the context of a complete working C# program and is followed by one or more screen shots showing actual inputs and outputs as the program executes. Our first program prints a line of text-we carefully discuss each line of code. Our next program prints text to a MessageBox, a small message dialog defined by the FCL. This example demonstrates using FCL classes programmatically. We then discuss how a program inputs data from its users and how to write arithmetic expressions. The last example demonstrates using the equality and relational operators to compare two numbers entered by the user.

Chapter 4-Control Structures: Part 1

This chapter introduces the principles of structured programming, a set of techniques that will help the reader develop clear, understandable and maintainable programs. The first part of this chapter presents program-development and problem-solving techniques. The chapter demonstrates how to transform a written specification to a program by using such techniques as pseudocode and top-down, stepwise refinement. We then progress through the entire process, from developing a problem statement into a working C# program. We build on information presented in the previous chapter to create programs that are interactive (i.e., they change their behavior to suit user-supplied inputs). The chapter then introduces the use of control structures that affect the sequence in which statements are executed. We discuss the three forms of program control-sequence, selection and repetition-focusing on the if/else and while control structures. Flowcharts (i.e., graphical representations that show the order in which actions are executed) appear throughout the chapter, reinforcing and augmenting the explanations. The chapter concludes with a program walkthrough that expands upon the program created in Chapter 2. Readers combine their programming skills with the visual programming skills introduced earlier to create programs that are both visual and interactive.

Chapter 5-Control Structures: Part 2

Chapter 5 introduces more complex control structures and the logical operators. It uses flowcharts to illustrate the flow of control through each control structure, including the for, do/while and switch structures. We explain the break and continue statements and the logical operators. Examples include calculating compound interest and printing the distribution of grades on an exam (with some simple error checking). The chapter concludes with a structured programming summary.

Chapter 6-Methods

A method allows the programmer to create a block of code that can be called upon from various points in a program. Larger programs can be divided into interacting classes, each consisting of methods-this is sometimes called the "divide and conquer" strategy. Programs are divided into simple components that interact in straightforward ways. We discuss how to create our own methods that can take inputs, perform calculations and return outputs. We examine the FCL's Math class, which contains methods for performing complex calculations (e.g., trigonometric and logarithmic calculations). Recursive methods (methods that call themselves) and method overloading, which allows multiple methods to have the same name, are introduced. We demonstrate overloading by creating two Square methods that each take an integer (i.e., whole number) and a floating-point number (i.e., a number with a decimal point), respectively. To conclude the chapter, we create a graphical simulation of the "craps" dice game, using the random-number generation techniques presented in the chapter.

Chapter 7-Arrays

Chapter 7 introduces arrays, our first data structure. Data structures are crucial to storing, sorting, searching and manipulating large amounts of information. Arrays are groups of related data items that allow the programmer to access any element directly. Rather than creating 100 separate variables that are all related in some way, the programmer instead can create an array of 100 elements and access these elements by their location in the array. We discuss how to declare and allocate arrays, and we build on the techniques of the previous chapter by passing arrays to methods. Chapters 4 and 5 provide essential background for the discussion of arrays, because repetition structures are used to iterate through elements in the array. The combination of these concepts helps the reader create highly structured and well-organized programs. We then demonstrate how to sort and search arrays. We discuss multidimensional arrays (both rectangular and jagged), which can be used to store tables of data. We introduce the foreach structure, which can be used to iterate through arrays.

Chapter 8-Object-Based Programming

Chapter 8 serves as our introduction to the powerful concepts of objects and classes (i.e., programmer-defined types). As mentioned in Chapter 1, object technology has led to considerable improvements in software development, allowing programmers to create reusable software components. Objects allow programs to be organized in natural and intuitive ways. This chapter presents the fundamentals of object-based programming, such as encapsulation, data abstraction and abstract data types (ADTs). These techniques hide the details of components so that the programmer can concentrate on the "big picture." We create a Time class, which displays the time in standard and universal formats. We show how to create reusable software components with assemblies, namespaces and Dynamic Link Library (DLL) files. The reader will learn how to create classes and namespaces. We discuss properties and the readonly and const keywords.