How to be a C# ninja

in 10 easy steps
Benjamin Day
 Benjamin Day
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Professional Scrum at Scrum.org

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TOP 10 THINGS

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 The List.
1. Be humble 6. Generics
2. Object-orientation 7. Collections
3. Write less code 8. IDisposable, using, &
4. Value Types vs. garbage collection
Reference Types 9. LINQ
5. Exceptions 10. Lambda Expressions

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 Some extras.
11. Virtual, override, &
new()
12. Tune out the static
13. Partial classes &
methods
14. Covarience
contravariance
15. Named parameters
16. Optional parameters
17. Dynamic keyword
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BE HUMBLE.

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 Be humble.
Software is complex.
We developers
want to please
think were awesome
almost always underestimate

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 Tips.
Keep it simple.
Expect to make mistakes.
Not everyone will understand your
abstractions.
Favor maintainability over slickness.

Write unit tests. Lots of unit tests.

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 C# doesnt do Xyz. C# sucks.
Lesson I learned.

Theres a reason its built that way.

Dont fight it.
Embrace it.
Learn from the design.

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 Remember
Object-Orientation

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 Object-Oriented Principles
4 tenets

Encapsulation
Polymorphism
Inheritance
Abstraction

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WRITE LESS CODE

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 Save some typing.

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 Less is more.
(as long as its readable)

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 Everything you write has to be
maintained.

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 var vs. object

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Auto-Implemented Properties

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 Read-Only
Auto-Implemented Properties

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 Avoid ternary operators

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VALUE TYPES VS.
REFERENCE TYPES

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 Whuh?
Value Types Reference Types
Non-object types Object types
Stored in memory stack Stored in memory heap
int, long, char, byte, etc. Variables are pointers to
float, double memory location
decimal
bool
User-defined
Structs
Enumerations

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 Boxing and Unboxing
Boxing
Process of wrapping a
value type in an
object reference
Unboxing
Converting a boxed value
type object back into an
value type variable

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EXCEPTION HANDLING

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 Throw vs. throw ex
throw; throw ex;

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GENERICS

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 What are generics?
Syntax that allows you to use similar
functionality with different types in a type-
safe way
Implementation is the same
Data types are different

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 ViewModelField<T>
DomainObjectManager<T>

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COLLECTIONS
 What is a Collection?
Data type for organizing lists of objects
Similar to an array

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 Part of the
.NET
framework
5 namespaces

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 Array vs. List<T>
Array List<T>
Size defined when Automatically expands
created

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 ArrayList vs. List<T>
ArrayList List<T>
Not type-safe Type-safe
Everything is an object Everything must be an
Watch out for boxing / instance of T
unboxing

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IDISPOSABLE, USING, AND
GARBAGE COLLECTION

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 What is Garbage Collection?
Background process in .NET
Determines when an object is not needed
Deletes it automagically
Frees up memory

You worry much less about memory

management.

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 IDisposable

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 IDisposable: Custom Cleanup
Gets called when the Garbage Collector is
disposing your object
Add custom logic

For example, close any open database

connections

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 What does the
using statement do?
Wraps instance of
IDisposable for block
of code
Instance is disposed
automatically at the
end of the code block

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 Wrap database connections
in using blocks
Most database classes implement
IDisposable

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 Why should you wrap calls to
database object in using
statements?

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LINQ

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 LINQ
Language-Integrated Query
Enables SQL-like querying of objects via
IEnumerable<T>

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 LINQ Stuff
Operators Useful functions
select FirstOrDefault()
from First()
where Min()
orderby Max()
Count()
Skip()
Take()
Reverse()
Sum()

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 (Code Demo: LinqSample.cs)

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LAMBDA EXPRESSIONS

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 Whats a lambda expression?
Anonymous functions
Helpful for delegates

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 (Code Demos:
LambdaExpressionSample.cs &
LambdaExpressionForm.cs)

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 Additional Reading
Essential C# 4.0
by Mark Michaelis

Great overview of the

language

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 Additional Reading
CLR via C#
by Jeffrey Richter

Whats going on
under the hood of C#
and the .NET
Framework

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 The List.
1. Be humble 6. Generics
2. Object-orientation 7. Collections
3. Write less code 8. IDisposable, using, &
4. Value Types vs. garbage collection
Reference Types 9. LINQ
5. Exceptions 10. Lambda Expressions

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 Thank you.

http://blog.benday.com | http://www.benday.com | benday@benday.com