Introduction

When we first talked about writing this book, our idea was to offer a way to our readers to learn to program using C#, and the byproduct of this process was for you to pass the 70-483 certification exam given by Microsoft. Being certified on specific technologies helps you in many ways. First, it helps you understand which parts are considered by the specialists to be important. Second, it helps you to understand a new technology by having a goal. Finally, it helps you in your career because certifications are recognized by employers, and this can give you advantage over other applicants.

Who This Book Is For

Microsoft recommends that you have at least 1 year of experience programming in C# before attempting to take Exam 70-483. In addition, we recommend that you have some experience with other programming languages, although it is not necessary. If you are an experienced programmer, we recommend you to skim the chapters you are familiar with and read in detail those chapters you are not so confident about. If you are a novice programmer, we recommend you read the entire book, and make sure you understand all the chapter test questions and the study the Cheat Sheet at the end of every chapter.

What This Book Covers

This book covers C# language version 5.0 and .NET Framework version 4.5. We tried to cover all the skills measured by Exam 70-483, with each chapter focusing on specific key objectives. We provide, as well, many representative sample test questions that are similar to the ones used by Microsoft. You can find these questions at the end of every chapter.

How This Book Is Structured

Instead of following the test objectives as they were specified by Microsoft, this book follows a more natural approach to learning, where the knowledge base is built gradually.

In every chapter in this book you can find the following parts:

• A table showing how each chapter correlates to the test objectives
• Real-world case scenarios and code labs with solutions
• Advice, warnings, best practices, common mistakes, notes, and sidebars to point out important material
• Chapter test questions structured similar to how you will see questions on the exam
• Additional reading and resources
• Cheat Sheets
• Review of key terms

Following is a breakdown of each chapter’s focuses:

Chapter 1, “Introducing the Programming C# Certification Test”: This chapter introduces you to the Microsoft certification process and to the specifics of the 70-483 Programming in C# certification.

Chapter 2, “Basic Program Structure”: This chapter covers the topics necessary for you to be successful in understanding core functionality in the C# programming language. Key topics enable you to learn about statements in C#, both simple and complex. At the end of this chapter, you will understand how to create basic programs in C#.

Chapter 3, “Working with the Type System”: This chapter covers the type system in C#. You learn about value and reference types, how to define them, and how to use them. You also learn the basic concepts of object-oriented programming.

Chapter 4, “Using Types”: This chapter talks about how to work with types, convert between data types, and work with dynamic types. After that you explore different ways to work with strings.

Chapter 5, “Creating and Implementing Class Hierarchies”: This chapter continues the discussion about object-oriented programming (started in Chapter 3), and describes how to create class hierarchies and classes that implement common .NET interfaces. It also covers the object’s life cycle and how to handle unmanaged resources.

Chapter 6, “Working with Delegates, Events, and Exceptions”: This chapter continues the discussion started in Chapter 3 about the type system and talks about two special data types: exceptions and delegates. After that, it discusses how to work with delegates to create and use events.

Chapter 7, “Multithreading and Asynchronous Processing”: This chapter shows you how to improve the performance of your application by using threads, tasks, and the new asynchronous programming paradigm introduced in C# 5.0.

Chapter 8, “Creating and Using Types with Reflection, Custom Attributes, the CodeDOM, and Lambda Expressions”: Reflection is the capability to analyze code dynamically, read, modify, and even invoke behavior dynamically. You learn how to define metadata for your code by using Attribute classes. You also learn how to create code generators using the CodeDOM. Finally, you learn how to query sets of data using expression- and method-based lambda expressions.

Chapter 9, “Working with Data”: This chapter looks at different ways to work with data sets. It discusses arrays, collections, and technologies such as ADO.NET, ADO.NET Entity Framework, and WCF Data Services and how to work with the I/O system.

Chapter 10, “Working with Language Integrated Query (LINQ)”: This chapter covers ways to query data by using the Language Integrated Query.

Chapter 11, “Input Validation, Debugging, and Instrumentation”: This chapter starts by talking about different ways to validate data input. After that it continues to talk about ways to debug and instrument applications to minimize the errors.

Chapter 12, “Using Encryption and Managing Assemblies”: This chapter covers two apparently unrelated technologies. First, you cover encryption to understand how to ensure data integrity and privacy. After that you cover ways to manage assemblies as deployment units.

What You Need to Use This Book

To run the samples in the book, you need the following:

• A computer running Windows 7 or above
• Visual Studio 2012 Professional Edition or above. If you don’t have this version, you can download a 90-day trial version from Microsoft (see http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads).

The source code for the samples is available for download from the Wrox website at www.wrox.com/remtitle.cgi?isbn=1118612094.

Conventions

To help you get the most from the text and keep track of what's happening, we’ve used a number of conventions throughout the book.

As for styles in the text:

• We highlight new terms and important words when we introduce them.
• We show keyboard strokes like this: Ctrl+A.
• We show filenames, URLs, and code within the text like so: persistence.properties
• We present code in two different ways:

  We use a monofont type with no highlighting for most code examples.
  We use bold to emphasize code that is particularly important in the present
  context or to show changes from a previous code snippet.

Study Material and Code on the Website

As you work through the examples in this book, you may choose either to type in all the code manually or to use the source code files that accompany the book. All the source code used in this book is available for download at www.wrox.com. Specifically for this book, the code download is on the Download Code tab at www.wrox.com/remtitle.cgi?isbn=1118612094.

You can also search for the book at www.wrox.com to find the code. Alternatively, you can go to the main Wrox code download page at www.wrox.com/dynamic/books/download.aspx to see the code available for this book and all other Wrox books.

At the beginning of each chapter, you can find the location of the major code files for the chapter. Throughout each chapter, you can also find references to the names of code files as needed in listing titles and text.

Most of the code on www.wrox.com is compressed in a ZIP, RAR archive, or similar archive format appropriate to the platform. After you download the code, just decompress it with an appropriate compression tool.

In addition to the code, on the website you will also find the sample test questions and answers included in this book, as well as additional sample test questions and answers not included in this book to help you practice for the 70-483 certification exam.

Errata

We make every effort to ensure that there are no errors in the text or in the code. However, no one is perfect, and mistakes do occur. If you find an error in one of our books, such as a spelling mistake or faulty piece of code, we would be grateful for your feedback. By sending in errata, you may save another reader hours of frustration, and at the same time, you can help us provide even higher quality information.

To find the errata page for this book, go to www.wrox.com/remtitle.cgi?isbn=1118612094 and click the Errata link. On this page you can view all errata that has been submitted for this book and posted by Wrox editors.

If you don’t spot “your” error on the Book Errata page, go to www.wrox.com/contact/techsupport.shtml and complete the form there to send us the error you have found. We’ll check the information, and if appropriate post a message to the book’s errata page and fix the problem in subsequent editions of the book.

p2p.wrox.com

For author and peer discussion, join the P2P forums at http://p2p.wrox.com. The forums are a web-based system for you to post messages relating to Wrox books and related technologies and interact with other readers and technology users. The forums offer a subscription feature to e-mail you topics of interest of your choosing when new posts are made to the forums. Wrox authors, editors, other industry experts, and your fellow readers are present on these forums.

At http://p2p.wrox.com, you can find a number of different forums that can help you, not only as you read this book, but also as you develop your own applications. To join the forums, just follow these steps:

After you join, you can post new messages and respond to messages other users post. You can read messages at any time on the web. If you would like to have new messages from a particular forum e-mailed to you, click the Subscribe to This Forum icon by the forum name in the forum listing.

For more information about how to use the Wrox P2P, be sure to read the P2P FAQs for answers to questions about how the forum software works, as well as many common questions specific to P2P and Wrox books. To read the FAQs, click the FAQ link on any P2P page.