Programming in CSharp

by
Willi-Hans Steeb
International School for Scientific Computing

and
E.J. Dembskey

Version: 2008-08-28

email addresses of the authors:

steeb_wh@yahoo.com
steebwilli@gmail.com
whsteeb@uj.ac.za
evan.dembskey@gmail.com
demskeye@tut.ac.za
Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 CSharp Basics 6
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2 Basic Data Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3 ASCII Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4 Arithmetic Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.5 Control Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.6 Logical Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.7 Pointers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.8 Recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.9 Jump Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.10 Pass by Value, Pass by Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.11 Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.12 Bitwise Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.13 Shift Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.14 Commmand-Line Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.15 Boxing and UnBoxing Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.16 Delegates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.17 Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.18 Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.19 Generics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

3 String and StringBuilder 36

3.1 String Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.2 Convert Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.3 StringBuilder Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

4 Built-in Classes 41
4.1 DateTime Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.2 Array Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.3 ArrayList Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.4 ListDictionary Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.5 Class IEnumerator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.6 Mathematics Class and Random Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
i
 4.7 Point Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.8 Class BitArray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.9 Object Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

5 Object-Oriented Programming 55
5.1 Write your own class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.2 Override Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.3 Inheritance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.4 Overloading Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.5 Operator Overloading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.6 Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.7 Delegates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

6 Streams and File Manipulations 74

6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.2 Binary File Manipulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.3 Text File Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6.4 Byte by Byte Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
6.5 Object Serialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6.6 XML Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

7 Graphics 86
7.1 Drawing Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
7.2 Color Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
7.3 Button and EventHandler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
7.4 Displaying Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
7.5 Overriding OnPaint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

8 Events 100

9 Processes and Threads 104

9.1 Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
9.2 Threads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
9.2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
9.2.2 Background Thread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
9.2.3 Sleep Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
9.2.4 Join Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
9.3 Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
9.4 Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
9.5 Deadlock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
9.6 Interlocked Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
9.7 Thread Pooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
9.8 Threading in Windows Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
9.9 Asynchronous Programming Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
9.10 Timers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
9.11 Interrupt and Abort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
ii
10 Sockets Programming 127
10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
10.2 Transmission Control Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
10.3 User Datagram Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

11 Remoting 137
11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

12 Accessing Databases 146

12.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
12.2 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

13 ASP.NET 152
13.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
13.2 State Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
13.3 Page Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Bibliography 155

Index 155

iii
Preface
The book gives a collection of C# programs.
Without doubt, this book can be extended. If you have comments or suggestions,
we would be pleased to have them. The email addresses of the author are:

whsteeb@uj.ac.za
steeb_wh@yahoo.com

The web sites of the author is:

http://issc.uj.ac.za

iv
Chapter 1

Introduction

CSharp is designed for the .NET framework. The .NET framework is object ori-
ented. CSharp has a great set of tools for the object oriented programmer. CSharp
is standardised as ECMA-334 by ECMA International and as ISO/IEC 23270 by
ISO/IEC. CSharp is the first component oriented language in the C/C++ family.
Component concepts are first class:

Properties, methods, events

Design-time and run-time attributes
integrated documentation using XML

CSharp can be embedded in web pages (ASP.NET). In C++ and Java primitive
date types (int, double, etc) are magic and do not interoperate with objects.
In Smalltalk and Lisp primitive types are objects, but at great performance cost.
CSharp unifies this with no performance cost. CSharp also adds new primitive data
types, for example decimal. Collections work for all types.

In CSharp, private is the default accessibility. The accessibility options are:

public - accessible to all

private - accessible to containing class
protected - accessible to containing or derived classes
internal - accessible to code in same assembly
protected internal - means protected or internal

Classes can be marked as public or internal. By default classes are private.

1
2 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

Type members in CSharp are:

Fields: The state of an object or type

Methods: Constructors, Functions, Properties (smart fields)
Members come in two basic forms
Instance - per object data and methods (default)
Static - per type data and methods (use the static keyword).

Constructors are used to initialize fields. We can implement simpler constructors

in terms of more complex ones with the this keyword. We can indicate which
base constructor to call by using the base keyword. Type constructors are used to
initialize static fields for a type. We use the static keyword to indicate a type
constructor.

All types in the system are derived from class object. The class object contains
the functions string ToString() and bool Equals() which should be overriden
when we write our own class.

We use the virtual keyword to make a method virtual. In a derived class, an

override method is marked with the override keyword.

CSharp has built in support for events. This is useful for dealing with objects in an
event driven operating system. More than one type can register interest in a single
event. A single type can register interest in any number of events.

CSharp supports interfaces using the interface keyword. Our types can implement
interfaces. We must implement all methods. Interfaces can contain methods but no
fields with properties and events included.

CSharp also provides type conversion, for example if char c = ’a’; we can convert
to an integer int i = (int) c; via the ASCII table.

C# provides a mechanism for programmers to document their code using a special

comment syntax that contains XML text. Comments using such syntax are called
documentation comments. The XML generation tool is called the documentation
generator. This generator could be the C# compiler itself.

The names given to variables, methods etc. by the programmer are referred to as
identifiers. An identifier has to: begin with a letter, or begin with an underscore.
It cannot be the same as built-in keywords. Identifiers are case-sensitive.

The following is a list of keywords. Keywords are reserved identifiers that hold a
special meaning to the CSharp compiler. We can use the same name as a keyword
identifier as long as we prefix the name with an @ symbol.
 3

abstract event new struct

as explicit null switch
base extern object this
bool false operator throw
break finally out true
byte fixed override try
case float params typeof
catch for private uint
char foreach protected ulong
checked goto public unchecked
class if readonly unsafe
const implicit ref ushort
continue in return using
decimal int sbyte virtual
default interface sealed volatile
delegate internal short void
do is sizeof while
double lock stackalloc
else long static
enum namespace string

The following is a list of contextual keywords. These provide a specific meaning in

the code, but are not reserved words. Some have meanings in two or more contexts,
for example, partial and where.

from partial (method)

get select
group set
into value
join var
let where (generic type constraint)
orderby where (query clause)
partial (type) yield

Do avoid using class names duplicated in heavily used namespaces. For example,
do not use the following for a class name:

System Collections Forms UI

There are a number of preprocessor directives available. While the compiler lacks
a separate preprocessor, directives are processed as if there was one. They aid in
conditional compilation. Unlike with C and C++, these directives cannot be used
to create macros.

#if #else
#elif #endif
4 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

Languages: C#, VB.NET, VJ#, Jscript, Cobol, Pascal

Common Language Specification (CLS)
Common Type System (CTS)
ASP.NET Windows Forms
XML Web Services Web Forms
Data and XML Classes
Base Framework Classes
Common Language Runtime (CLR)
Operating System

Table 1.1: .NET Framework Stack

#define #undef
#warning #error
#line #region
#endregion #pragma
#pragma warning #pragma checksum

C# cannot be run without installing the .NET Framework. The .NET Framework is
installed automatically when Windows Server 2003, Windows XP SP2, Vista or later
is installed. It is also installed when Visual Studio 2003, 2005 or 2008 is installed.
The .NET Framework is also available as a separate download from Microsoft.

The current version of the .Net Framework is version 3.5, but many machines still
run 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0.

The .NET Framework consists of several components, the most important of which
are the runtime and Class Library. See Table 1.1 for an overview of the stack.
Version 3.5 adds several capabilities to the stack: the Windows Presentation Foun-
dation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow
Foundation (WF), Windows CardSpace and Language Integrated Query (LINQ).
SilverLight is a web-based subset of WPF.

The runtime, or Common Language Runtime (CLR) provides a virtual machine for
the execution of .NET code. In addition, CLR provides services that include mem-
ory management, thread management, component lifetime management, garbage
collection and default error handling. A benefit of the CLR is that it provides these
execution services to all .NET applications without any additional effort on the part
of the programmer.

When a .NET program is compiled, the compiler generates an .exe file. However, this
.exe file does not contain directly executable instructions. Instead it contains Com-
mon Intermediate Language (CIL). When the .exe is executed it does not interact
 5

with the operating system directly but with the CLR. This is similar to Java, with
CIL being analogous to bytecode and CLR with the Java Virtual Machine(JVM).

When a .NET application is first executed, the CLR performs a compile of the CIL
and creates a directly executable file from it. This is known as Just In Time com-
pilation. This theoretically overcomes the performance overhead associated with
using virtual machines.

The Class Library is a collection of extensible class libraries organised hierarchically

into namespaces. The Class Library covers a wide range, including user interface,
data access and database connectivity (ADO.NET), cryptography, web application
development (ASP.NET), numeric algorithms, XML and network communications.
The Class Library is language-independent.

For example, the System namespace is at the top of the namespace hierarchy. It
contains all the types that represent the base data types such as text, numbers and
dates. The Systems.Windows.Forms namespace allows the programmer to take
advantage of the Windows forms engine to create graphical user interface objects
easily.

The Common Language Specification (CLS) is a specification for creating or port-

ing programming languages to that they are .NET compatible. The CLS uses uses
a Common Type System (CTS). This is a component of the CLR and provides a
common set of data types that are consistent between all .NET languages.
Chapter 2

CSharp Basics

2.1 Introduction
Compile and link the programs with

csc filename.cs

This generates an execute file named filename.exe. This is also known as an exe-
cutable assembly.

In C# everything must be inside a class. Thus also the Main method must be con-
tained inside a class. In the first example this is Hello1. The method name, Main,
is reserved for the starting point of a program. Main is often called the entry point
(starting address) of the program. In front of the word Main is a static modifier.
The static modifier explains that this method works in this specific class only, rather
than an instance of the class. This is necessary, because when a program begins, no
object instances exists.

To avoid fully qualifying classes throughout the program, we can use the using
directive. We write to the screen, where \n provides a newline. Note that C# is
case-sensitive. A comment is indicated by //.

// cshello.cs

using System;

class Hello1
{
public static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine("Hello Egoli\n"); // \n newline
Console.WriteLine("Good Night Egoli");
Console.Write("midnight");
6
2.1. INTRODUCTION 7

} // end Main
}

The namespace declaration, using System; indicates that we are referencing the
System namespace. Namespaces contain groups of code that can be called upon by
C# programs. With the using System; declaration, we are telling our program that
it can reference the code in the System namespace without pre-pending the word
System to every reference. The System.Console class contains a method

WriteLine()

and a method

Write()

that can be used to display a string to the console. The difference is that the
Console.Write(.) statement writes to the Console and stops on the same line,
but the Console.WriteLine(.) goes to the next line after writing to the Console.
Strings are embedded in double quotes, for example "name"..

We write to the screen using exception handling with try and catch block. To
access command line parameters we change the signature of the Main(void) to
Main(string[] args). The expression string[] args defines an array of strings.

// hello2.cs

using System;

class Hello2
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
try
{
Console.WriteLine("Hello {0}",args[0]);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e);
}
Console.WriteLine("Good Night");
} // end Main
}

After compiling the program we run it with, for example,

8 CHAPTER 2. CSHARP BASICS

Hello2 James

To read from the keyboard we use the method ReadLine(). The command Length
returns the number of elements in the array. We are also using an if-else construct.

// hello3.cs

using System;

class Hello3
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
if(args.Length > 0)
{
Console.WriteLine("Hello {0}",args[0]);
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Enter your name: ");
string name = Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("Hello {0}",name);
}
Console.WriteLine("Good Night");
} // end Main
}

In the case of compiling using Visual Studio or some other IDE the problem of the
program’s console window disappearing too quickly to view its output might occur.
This problem can be solved using the Read() method to pause the window. The
program above can be modified like so:

...
Console.WriteLine("Good Night");
Console.Read(); // Pauses the program until a key is pressed
} // end Main
}

2.2 Basic Data Types

Basic (primitive) data types are

bool,
byte, sbyte, char,
short, ushort, int, uint, long, ulong
float, double, decimal
2.2. BASIC DATA TYPES 9

The range of byte is 0..255 and for sbyte is -128..127. short and ushort are 2
bytes (16 bits), where ushort is unsigned. int and uint are 4 bytes. The floating
point number float is 4 bytes and the floating point number double is 8 bytes.
char data type (2 bytes) in C# contains Unicode characters similar to Java. CSharp
is a strongly typed language and therefore variables must be declared with an avail-
able type and must be initialized with a value (or reference) of the same type.

Built-in types are also string and object.

C# .NET Type Description

bool System.Boolean true/false
byte System.Byte unsigned byte value
sbyte System.SByte signed byte value
char System.Char a single character
short System.Int16 16 bit signed integer
ushort System.UInt16 16 bit unsigned integer
int System.Int32 32 bit signed integer
uint System.UInt32 32 bit unsigned integer
long System.Int64 64 bit signed integer
ulong System.UInt64 64 bit unsigned integer
float System.Single 32 bit floating point
double System.Double 64 bit floating point
decimal System.Decimal a high precision double
string System.String string of characters
object System.Object a generic type

At compile time the C# compiler converts the C# types into their corresponding
.NET types described in the above table. Apart from the above basic types the user
may define his own types using enum, struct and class.

// datatypes.cs

using System;

class Datatypes
{
public static void Main()
{
bool b = true; // boolean data type
Console.WriteLine(!b); // ! is the logical NOT

// character 2 bytes Unicode

char e = ’a’; // character ’a’ ASCII value 98
Console.WriteLine(e);
char f = ’\0’; // null character ASCII value 0
Console.WriteLine(f);
10 CHAPTER 2. CSHARP BASICS

// default integer type is int

byte c = 255; // unsigned byte 0...255
c++;
Console.WriteLine(c);
sbyte d = -125; // signed byte -128...127
d--;
short g = -10000; // short -32768...32767 (2 bytes)
Console.WriteLine(g);
ushort h = 20000; // unsigned short 0...65535 (2 bytes)
Console.WriteLine(h);
int i = -100000; // signed int -2147483648...2147483647
Console.WriteLine(i);
uint j = 200000; // unsigned int 0...4294967295
Console.WriteLine(j);
long k = -234567899; // signed long 64 bits -2^63...2^63-1
Console.WriteLine(k);
ulong l = 3456789123; // unsigned long 64 bits 0...2^64-1
Console.WriteLine(l);

// default floating point number is double

// (float) type conversion from double to float
float m = (float) 3.145; // float 32 bits
Console.WriteLine(m);
double n = 3.14159; // double 64 bits
Console.WriteLine(n);
// decimal 128 bits
decimal p = (decimal) 2.89124357865678; // type conversion
Console.WriteLine(p);
}
}

Note that (data type) is the type conversion operator.

2.3 ASCII Table

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is a character set
and a character encoding based on the Roman alphabet as used in modern English.
ASCII codes represent text in computers, in other communication equipment, and in
control devices that work with text. ASCII specifies a correspondence between digit
bit patterns and the symbol of a written language. ASCII is, strictly, a seven-bit
code, meaning that it uses the bit patterns representable with seven binary digits
(a range of 0 to 127) to represent character information. ASCII reserves the first 32
codes (numbers 0-31 decimal) for control characters. The capital ’A’ is 65 (decimal)
2.4. ARITHMETIC OPERATIONS 11

and the small ’a’ is 97. Furthermore ’0’ is 48 and ’9’ is 57. Space is 32.

We are doing type conversion from char -> int using the ASCII table. The type
conversion operator is (data-type). The null character is ’\0’.

// Escape.cs

using System;

class Escape
{
public static void Main()
{
char c1 = ’\b’; // backspace
int i1 = (int) c1; // ASCII value
Console.WriteLine("i1 = " + i1); // 8

char c2 = ’\f’; // form feed

int i2 = (int) c2; // ASCII value
Console.WriteLine("i2 = " + i2); // 12

char c3 = ’\n’; // newline

int i3 = (int) c3; // ASCII value
Console.WriteLine("i3 = " + i3); // 10

char c4 = ’\r’; // carriage return

int i4 = (int) c4; // ASCII value
Console.WriteLine("i4 = " + i4); // 13

char c5 = ’\t’; // horizontal tab

int i5 = (int) c5; // ASCII value
Console.WriteLine("i5 = " + i5); // 9

char c6 = ’ ’; // blank
int i6 = (int) c6; // ASCII value
Console.WriteLine("i6 = " + i6); // 32
} // end Main
}

2.4 Arithmetic Operations

The arithmetic operations are

++, --, +, -, *, /, %
12 CHAPTER 2. CSHARP BASICS

where ++ is the increment by 1 and -- is the decrement by −1. The operation %

provides the remainder in integer division.

Note that we have integer division (for example 17/4 = 4) and floating point division
depending on the data types.

// arithmetic.cs

using System;

class Arithmetic
{
public static void Main()
{
byte c = 255;
c++;
Console.WriteLine(c);
sbyte d = -125; // signed byte
d--;
Console.WriteLine(d);

int i = -100000; // signed int

int j = 15002;
int k = i + j;
Console.WriteLine(k);

long m = -234567899; // signed long

long n = 345;
long p = m*n;
Console.WriteLine(p);

int r1 = 27;
int r2 = 5;
int r3 = r1/r2; // integer division
Console.WriteLine("r3 = " + r3);
int r4 = r1%r2; // remainder
Console.WriteLine("r4 = " + r4);

float f1 = (float) 3.145; // type conversion

float f2 = (float) 2.81;
float f3 = f1*f2;
Console.WriteLine(f3);

double d1 = 3.14159;
double d2 = 4.5;
2.5. CONTROL STATEMENTS 13

double d3 = d1/d2;
Console.WriteLine(d3);

decimal p1 = (decimal) 2.89124357865678; // type conversion

decimal p2 = (decimal) 3.14159; // type conversion
decimal p3 = p1 + p2;
Console.WriteLine(p3);
}
}

2.5 Control Statements

Control statements control the program flow. For example, selection statements
such as if ... else and switch use certain criteria to select a course of certain
action within the program.

// myIf.cs

using System;

class myIf
{
public static void Main()
{
int i;
Console.WriteLine("Enter integer: ");
string line = Console.ReadLine();
i = System.Convert.ToInt32(line); // convert string of digits to int
if(i > 5) // if true do the next command else skip it
Console.WriteLine("The number is larger than 5");
else
Console.WriteLine("The number is smaller than 5 or equal to 5");
} // end Main
}

The for loop applied to a one-dimensional array.

// forloop.cs

using System;

class forloop
{
public static void Main()
{
14 CHAPTER 2. CSHARP BASICS

double[] numbers = { 1.1, 2.2, 3.3, 4.4 };

int i = 0;
double sum = 0.0;

for(i=0;i<numbers.Length;i++) // Length provides length of array

{
sum += numbers[i]; // sum = sum + numbers[i];
}
Console.WriteLine("sum = {0}",sum);

int[] x = new int[3]; // declare array and allocate memory

x[0] = 4; x[1] = 3; x[2] = 7;
int intsum = 0;

for(i=0;i<x.Length;i++)
{
intsum += x[i]; // shortcut for intsum = intsum + x[i];
}
Console.WriteLine(intsum);
} // end Main
}

Another example for the for loop applied to numbers read from the keyboard. Note
that ! is the logical NOT and ToInt32(string) converts a string of digits to an
integer.

// forloop1.cs

using System;

class ForLoop
{
public static void Main()
{
int sum = 0; // initialize sum to 0
String line;
for(line=Console.In.ReadLine();line!="";line=Console.In.ReadLine())
{
sum += System.Convert.ToInt32(line);
} // end for loop
Console.WriteLine(sum.ToString() + "\n");
} // end Main
}

The foreach loop can be applied to an array of strings. We count how often the
string "otto" is in the array of strings.
2.5. CONTROL STATEMENTS 15

// foreachloop.cs

using System;

class foreachloop
{
public static void Main()
{
string[] namelist = { "willi","otto","carl","john","otto" };
int count = 0;
string n = "otto";

foreach(string name in namelist) // keyword in

{
if(name == n) // compare strings for equality case sensitive
{
count++;
}
} // end foreach
Console.WriteLine("count = {0}",count);
} // end Main
}

The while loop

// whileloop.cs

using System;

class whileloop
{
public static void Main()
{
int[] numbers = { 1, 2, 3, 4 };
int i = 0;
int sum = 0;

while(i < numbers.Length)

{
sum += numbers[i];
i++;
}
Console.WriteLine("sum = {0}",sum);
} // end Main
}
16 CHAPTER 2. CSHARP BASICS

The do-while loop applied to an array of floating point numbers.

// dowhileloop.cs

using System;

class whileloop
{
public static void Main()
{
double[] numbers = { 1.1, 2.3, 3.5, 4.5 };
int i = 0;
double sum = 0.0;

do
{
sum += numbers[i];
i++;
}
while(i < numbers.Length);
Console.WriteLine("sum = {0}",sum);
} // end Main
}

If one has a large decision tree and all the decisions depend on the value of the same
variable we use a switch statement instead of a series of if ... else constructions.
The switch statement transfers control to one of several case-labeled statements,
depending on the value of the switch expression. Note that if the break is omitted,
execution will continue over the remaining statements in the switch block. The
break statement can also be used to break out of an iteration loop.

// switch.cs

using System;

class Myswitch
{
public static void Main()
{
string st = "bella";
for(int i=0;i<st.Length;i++)
{
char c = st[i];
switch(c)
{
case ’a’: Console.WriteLine("character is a ’a’ ");
2.6. LOGICAL OPERATIONS 17

break;
case ’b’: Console.WriteLine("character is a ’b’ ");
break;
default: Console.WriteLine("character is not an ’a’ or a ’b’ ");
break;
}
} // end for loop

int[] numbers = { 3,4,6,1,4,-3,1,6};

for(int j=0;j<numbers.Length;j++)
{
switch(numbers[j])
{
case 4: Console.WriteLine("number at position {0} is 4",j);
break;
case 6: Console.WriteLine("number at position {0} is 6",j);
break;
default: Console.WriteLine("number at position {0} is not 4 or 6",j);
break;
} // end switch
} // end for loop
} // end Main
}

2.6 Logical Operations

The logical operators in CSharp, C, C++ and Java are

&& logical AND

|| logical OR
! logical NOT

// logical.cs

using System;

class MyLogica
{
public static void Main()
{
int j;
Console.WriteLine(" Enter an integer: ");
string line = Console.ReadLine();
j = System.Convert.ToInt32(line);
18 CHAPTER 2. CSHARP BASICS

if((j%2 == 0) && (j < 10))

Console.WriteLine("The integer is even and smaller than 10");
else
Console.WriteLine("The integer is either odd or larger than 10 or both");

Console.WriteLine();
int k;
Console.WriteLine("Enter an integer: ");

line = Console.ReadLine();
k = System.Convert.ToInt32(line);

if((k > 0) || (k < 0))

Console.WriteLine("The integer is nonzero");
else
Console.WriteLine("The integer is zero");

Console.WriteLine();
int n;
Console.WriteLine("Enter an integer: ");

line = Console.ReadLine();
n = System.Convert.ToInt32(line);

if(n == 0) Console.WriteLine("The integer is zero");

else
Console.WriteLine("The integer is nonzero");
}
}

2.7 Pointers
A pointer is a data type whose value refers directly to (”points to”) another value
stored elsewhere in the computer memory using its address. Thus the pointer has
an address and contains (as value) an address. Obtaining the value that a pointer
referes to is called dereferencing. The dereference operator is *. Pointers in CSharp
must be declared unsafe.
// Pointers1.cs

using System;

class Pointers
{
2.8. RECURSION 19

public static unsafe void Main()

{
int i = 15;
int* p = &i; // declare pointer and assignment to address of i
int j = 15;
int* q = &j;
bool b1 = (i == j);
Console.WriteLine("b1 = " + b1); // true
bool b2 = (p == q);
Console.WriteLine("b2 = " + b2); // false

// dereferencing pointers
int r = *q;
Console.WriteLine("r = " + r); // 15
}
}

We are using pointer to pass by reference (see section 2.10).

2.8 Recursion
Recursion plays a central role in computer science. A recursive function is one whose
definition includes a call to itself. A recursion needs a stopping condition. We use
recursion to find the Fibonacci numbers.

// recursion.cs

using System;

class recur
{
public static ulong fib(ulong n)
{
if(n == 0) return 0;
if(n == 1) return 1;
return fib(n-1) + fib(n-2);
} // end fib

public static void Main()

{
ulong n = 10;
ulong result = fib(n);
Console.WriteLine("Result = {0}",result);
} // end Main
}
20 CHAPTER 2. CSHARP BASICS

2.9 Jump Statements

C# also has an goto for jumping to labels. We use the goto to jump to the labels
L1, L2, L3, L4 if a condition is met.

// mygoto.cs

using System;

class Mygoto
{
public static void Main()
{
Random r = new Random(51);
L3:
int a = r.Next(100);
int b = r.Next(100);
int result;
L1:
Console.WriteLine("{0} + {1} =",a,b);
string s = Console.ReadLine();
result = Convert.ToInt32(s);
if(result == (a+b))
goto L2;
Console.WriteLine("sorry you are not correct: try again");
goto L1;
L2:
Console.WriteLine("congratulations you are correct");

Console.WriteLine("Want to add again: Press y for yes and n for no: ");
string t = Console.ReadLine();
if(t == "y") goto L3;
if(t == "n")
{
Console.WriteLine("bye, see you next time around");
goto L4;
}
L4:
int e = 0;
}
}

The method Exit() is used for program termination. It is part of the class Environment.

// password.cs
2.10. PASS BY VALUE, PASS BY REFERENCE 21

using System;

class password
{
public static void Main()
{
string password = "XYA";
int i,j,k;
for(i=65;i<91;i++)
{
for(j=65;j<91;j++)
{
for(k=65;k<91;k++)
{
char c1 = (char) i;
char c2 = (char) j;
char c3 = (char) k;
char[] data = { c1,c2,c3 };
string s = new string(data); // converting array of char to string
bool found = password.Equals(s);
if(found == true)
{
Console.WriteLine("Password = {0}",s);
Environment.Exit(0);
}
}
}
}
}
}

2.10 Pass by Value, Pass by Reference

Arguments to functions can be passed either by value or by reference. When an ar-
gument is passed by value, a copy of the argument is produced, and the associated
parameter is the same as a local variable for the function. This means, changes to
the parameter variable will have no effect on the original argument value. Functions
that receive variables as parameters get local copies of those variables, not the origi-
nals. The alternative, pass by reference, is indicated by the presence of the keyword
ref in the argument list. When arguments are passed by reference, the parameter
variable is an alias for the argument value. Thus, change in the parameter also alter
the original argument. In C# we can also use pointers and the dereference operator
to pass by reference. Thus functions that receive pointers to variables gain access
to the original variables associated with the pointers.
22 CHAPTER 2. CSHARP BASICS

In the next program we pass by value.

// Pitfall.cs

using System;

public class Pitfall

{
public static void add(int i)
{
int n = i + i;
i = n;
Console.WriteLine("i inside function add = " + i); // 20
} // end add

public static void Main()

{
int i = 10;
add(i);
Console.WriteLine("i in Main = " + i); // 10
}
}

Note that without static in method add(int): error message: An object reference
is required for the nonstatic method Pitfall.add(int).

In the next program we use pointers to pass by reference. We rotate integer numbers.

// pointers2.cs

using System;

public class Rotate

{
public static unsafe void rot(int* p,int* q,int* r)
{
int t = *r;
*r = *p; *p = *q; *q = t;
}

public static unsafe void Main(string[] args)

{
int a = 10; int b = 12; int c = 17;
rot(&a,&b,&c);
2.10. PASS BY VALUE, PASS BY REFERENCE 23

Console.WriteLine("a = {0} and b = {1} and c = {2}",a,b,c);

} // end main
}

In the following program we use the keyword ref to pass by reference. We rotate
three integers.

// references.cs

using System;

public class Rotate

{
public static void rot(ref int p,ref int q,ref int r)
{
int t = r;
r = p; p = q; q = t;
}

public static void Main()

{
int a = 10; int b = 12; int c = 17;
rot(ref a,ref b,ref c);
Console.WriteLine("a = {0} and b = {1} and c = {2}",a,b,c);
} // end Main
}

In the following program we pass the first argument by reference and the second by
value.

// passing.cs

using System;

public class Passing

{
static void change(ref string sa,string sb)
{
sa = "yyy";
sb = "222";
}

public static void Main()

{
string s1 = "xxx";
string s2 = "111";
24 CHAPTER 2. CSHARP BASICS

change(ref s1,s2);
Console.Write("s1 = {0} and s2 = {1}",s1,s2); // => s1 = yyy s2 = 111
}
}

The out keyword explicitely speciefies that a variable should be passed by reference
to a method, and set in that method. A variable using this keyword must not be
initialized before the method call.

// Divide.cs

using System;

class Divider
{
public static int Divide1(int dividend,int divisor,out int r)
{
int quot = dividend/divisor;
r = dividend - quot*divisor;
return quot;
} // end Divide1

public static void Divide2(int dividend,int divisor,out int quot,out int r)

{
quot = dividend/divisor;
r = dividend - quot*divisor;
} // end Divide2

public static void Main()

{
int r;
int q = Divide1(123,14,out r);
Console.WriteLine("Quotient = {0} and Remainder = {1}",q,r);

int s;
int t;
Divide2(145,3,out s,out t);
Console.WriteLine("Quotient = {0} and Remainder = {1}",s,t);
} // end Main
}

2.11 Arrays
An array is a data structure that contains a number of variables. These are accessed
through computed indices. C# supports one-dimensional arrays, multidimensional
2.11. ARRAYS 25

arrays (rectangular arrays) and arrays of arrays (jagged arrays). As C, C++ and
Java C# arrays are zero indexed. This means the array indexes start as zero. When
declaring arrays, the square bracket [] must come after the type, not the identifiers,
for example int[] table. The size of the array is not part of its type as it is in the
C language. Thus

int[] numbers = new int[20];

We can initialise arrays very simply:

int[] numbers = {0, 1, 2, 3, 5};

This is identical to the complete initialisation statement:

int[] numbers = new int[] {0, 1, 2, 3, 5};

In C# arrays are actually objects. System.Array is the abstract base type of all
array types. The class Array contains methods for sorting and searching.

// myArray.cs

using System;

class myArray
{
public static void Main()
{
int[] numbers = { 4, 12345, 890, 23456789 };
int prod = numbers[2]*numbers[0];
Console.Write("prod = " + prod);
Console.Write("\n");
int numb = Array.BinarySearch(numbers,4);
Console.Write("numb = " + numb);
Console.Write("\n");
double[] d = new double[3];
d[0] = 1.1; d[1] = 3.4; d[2] = 8.9;
int dpos = Array.BinarySearch(d,8.9);
Console.Write("dpos = " + dpos);
Console.Write("\n");

string[] slist = { "otto", "uli", "carl", "marius", "jacob" };

int pos1 = Array.BinarySearch(slist,"carl");

Console.Write("pos1 = {0}",pos1);
Console.WriteLine();

Array.Sort(slist); // sorting the array

26 CHAPTER 2. CSHARP BASICS

int pos2 = Array.BinarySearch(slist,"carl");

Console.Write("pos2 = {0}",pos2);
Console.WriteLine();

for(int j=0;j<slist.Length;j++)
{
Console.WriteLine("{0} {1}",j,slist[j]);
}
}
}

To create multidimensional arrays the array initializer must have as many levels of
nesting as there are dimensions in the array. Thus:

int[,] numbers = {{0, 2}, {4, 6}, {8, 10}, {12, 17}, {16, 18}};

The outermost nesting level corresponds to the leftmost dimension. The innermost
nesting level corresponds to the rightmost dimension. The length of each dimension
of the array is determined by the number of elements at the corresponding nesting
level in the array initializer. Thus the example above creates a two-dimensional
array with a length of five for the leftmost dimension and a length of two for the
rightmost dimension. Or:

int[,] numbers = new int[5, 2];

and initialises the array with:

numbers[0, 0] = 0; numbers[0, 1] = 2;
numbers[1, 0] = 4; numbers[1, 1] = 6;
numbers[2, 0] = 8; numbers[2, 1] = 10;
numbers[3, 0] = 12; numbers[3, 1] = 14;
numbers[4, 0] = 16; numbers[4, 1] = 18;

We can also create jagged arrays, which are arrays of arrays. The element arrays do
not all have to be the same.

// twodim.cs

using System;

public class TwoDim

{
public static void Main()
{
int[][] matrix = new int[2][]; // rows
2.12. BITWISE OPERATIONS 27

matrix[0] = new int[2]; // columns

matrix[1] = new int[2]; // columns
matrix[0][0] = 2; matrix[0][0] = 4;
matrix[1][0] = 7; matrix[1][1] = 3;
int i = 1;
Console.WriteLine("matrix[" + i + "][" + i + "] = " + matrix[i][i]);

double[,] myarray;
myarray = new double[2,3];
myarray[0,0] = 3.1;
myarray[0,1] = 4.7;
myarray[0,2] = 3.3;
myarray[1,0] = 2.7;
myarray[1,1] = 1.1;
myarray[1,2] = 7.3;
double r = myarray[0,1]*myarray[1,2];
Console.WriteLine("r = " + r);
} // end Main
}

2.12 Bitwise Operations

Consider the integer number 17 (base 10, i.e. 17 = 1 · 101 + 7 · 100 . It can be written
in binary as
17 = 1 · 24 + 0 · 23 + 0 · 22 + 0 · 21 + 1 · 20 .
Thus the binary representation of 17 would be 10001. If 17 is considered as data
type int (32 bits) we have the binary representation

00000000000000000000000000010001

The bitwise operation in CSharp, C, C++ and Java are:

& AND
| OR (inclusive OR)
^ XOR (exclusive OR)
~ NOT

// bitwise.cs

using System;

class MylBitwise
{
public static void Main()
{
28 CHAPTER 2. CSHARP BASICS

int r3 = 4; int r4 = 5;
int r5 = r3 & r4; // bitwise AND
Console.WriteLine("Binary AND of 4 and 5 gives {0}",r5);

int r6 = 7; int r7 = 11;

int r8 = r6 | r7; // bitwise OR
Console.WriteLine("Binary OR 7 and 11 gives {0}",r8);

int r9 = r6 ^ r7; //bitwise XOR

Console.WriteLine("Binary XOR of 7 and 11 gives {0}",r9);

int x = 125;
int r10 = x^x;
Console.WriteLine("Binary XOR of 125 with itself gives {0}",r10);

int r11 = ~r9;

Console.WriteLine("Binary NOT of r9 gives {0}",r11);

int r12 = 4;
int r13 = ~r12; // one’s complement
int r14 = ++r13;
Console.WriteLine("two’s complement of 4 {0}",r14);
}
}

2.13 Shift Operation

We can use shift operation for fast integer multiplication by 2, 4, 8, ... and fast
integer division by 2, 4, 8, .... The shift operations are << and >>.
// MyShift.cs

using System;

class Shift
{
public static void Main()
{
int i = 17; // 17 in binary 10001
int j = i >> 1; // integer divison by 2
Console.WriteLine("j = " + j); // => 8
int k = i >> 2; // integer divison by 4
Console.WriteLine("k = " + k); // => 4

int m = 9;
2.14. COMMMAND-LINE ARGUMENTS 29

int n = m << 1; // multiplication by 2

Console.WriteLine("n = " + n); // => 18
int p = m << 2; // multiplication by 4
Console.WriteLine("p = " + p); // => 36
}
}

2.14 Commmand-Line Arguments

C# enables us to access command-line arguments by supplying and using the fol-
lowing parameters in function Main
Main(string[] args)
Basically a C# program consists of a class with a static member method (class
function) called Main. When the C# compiler (csc.exe) compiles a C# program
it marks the Main method as the entrypoint in the generated IL code. The Main
method may accept an array of string as its arguments (though this is optional). This
array will always contain the command line arguments passed to the program by its
user. We start counting from zero. The following program shows an application.

// CommandLine.cs

using System;

class CommandLine
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine("Hello{0}",args[0]);
Comsole.WriteLine("Goodbye.");
}
}

We run the program, for example

CommandLine World

2.15 Boxing and UnBoxing Types

Boxing refers to converting a value type to an object type, and unboxing refers to
the opposite. Boxing is carried out implicitly in C#, whereas we have to use type
casting to unbox to an appropiate data type. For example

int i;
Console.WriteLine("i={0}",i);
30 CHAPTER 2. CSHARP BASICS

The WriteLine() method requires an object, so in the above statement integer i

is implicitly boxed to an object and passed to the WriteLine method. An example
for unboxing is

int i;
object obj = i; // boxing is implicit
int j;
j = (int) obj; // to unbox we use type cast

Typically unboxing is done in a try block. If the object being unboxed is null
or if the unboxing cannot succeed because the object is of a different type, an
InvalidCastException is thrown.

2.16 Delegates
A delegate essentially creates a name for a the specific type/signature of a method.
Delegates are type safe function pointers. One must first declare a delegate.

// delegates.cs

using System;

// declare delegate with the signature of the

// encapsulated method
delegate void MyDelegate(string m,int a,int b);

class Application
{
public static void Main()
{
MyDelegate md = new MyDelegate(FirstMethod);
md += new MyDelegate(SecondMethod);
md("message A",4,5);
md("message B",7,11);
} // end Main

static void FirstMethod(string s1,int x1,int y1)

{
Console.WriteLine("1st method: " + s1);
int sum1 = x1 + y1;
Console.WriteLine("sum1 = " + sum1);
}

static void SecondMethod(string s2,int x2,int y2)

{
2.17. TYPES 31

Console.WriteLine("2st method: " + s2);

int sum2 = x2 + y2;
Console.WriteLine("sum2 = " + sum2);
}
}

The output is

1st method message A

sum1 = 9
2st method message A
sum2 = 9
1st method message B
sum1 = 18
2st method message B
sum2 = 18

2.17 Types
The typeof command is an operator. It resolves at compile time and operates over
a type. To check whether an object is compatible to a specific type is to apply the
is keyword.

// myTypeof.cs

using System;
using System.Text;

class myTypeof
{
public static void Main()
{
double b = 3.14;
string s = "xxx";
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("123456789");

Type at = typeof(double);
Console.WriteLine("at = {0}",at);
Type st = typeof(string);
Console.WriteLine("st = {0}",st);
Type sbt = typeof(StringBuilder);
Console.WriteLine("sbt = {0}",sbt);

if(s is string) Console.WriteLine(at);

if(s is StringBuilder) Console.Write("s is of the StringBuilder");
32 CHAPTER 2. CSHARP BASICS

else Console.Write("s is not of StringBuilder");

if(b is int) Console.WriteLine("b is int");

}
}

2.18 Reflection
Exposing and utilizing types at runtime is called reflection. The type of an object is
stored as an instance of System.Type class the reference to which can be obtained
using one of the following methods.

1. From the declaration type: If declaration AType var is legal then System.Type
representing AType can be obtained using the typeof operator as:

Type t = typeof(AType);

2. From an instance: Type of an instance obj can be obtained using GetType

method defined in System.Object as

Type t = obj.GetType();

3. From the type name within current assembly: System.Type offers a static method
called GetType to obtain a Type from a fully qualified name of the type. The name
will be searched in the current assembly

Type t = Type.GetType("FullyQualifiedTypeName");

4. From the type name within any assembly: First load the assembly and obtain a
reference to it. This reference can be used to obtain the Type with a given name:

using System.Reflection;
Assembly asm = Assembly.LoadFrom("AssemblyName");
Type t = asm.GetType("FullyQualifiedTypeName");

The program showtypes.cs displays all the Types defined in an assembly whose
name is passed in as first command line argument:

// showtypes.cs

using System;
using System.Reflection;

class ShowTypes
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
2.19. GENERICS 33

{
Assembly asm = Assembly.LoadFrom(args[0]);
Type[] types = asm.GetTypes();
foreach(Type t in types) Console.WriteLine(t);
}
}

We would run the program as, for example

showtypes datatypes.exe

Pass complete path to any .NET exe or dll to see the types declared in it.

The next program showmembers.cs takes the assembly name and type name as
its command line arguments and displays all the members defined in that type of
assembly.

// showmembers.cs

using System;
using System.Reflection;

class ShowMembers
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
Assembly asm = Assembly.LoadFrom(args[0]);
Type t = asm.GetType(args[1]);
MemberInfo[] members = t.GetMembers();
foreach(MemberInfo m in members) Console.WriteLine(m);
}
}

2.19 Generics
C# Generics are similar to C++ Templates. They were introduced in version 2.0
of the C# language and the common language runtime (CLR). Generics introduce
to the .NET Framework the concept of type parameters. This makes it possible to
design classes and methods that defer the specification of one or more types until the
class or method is declared and instantiated. The .NET Framework class library
contains several new generic collection classes in the System.Collections.Generic
namespace.

The standard example provided by Microsoft is a generic stack.

34 CHAPTER 2. CSHARP BASICS

public class Stack<T>

{
T[] m_Items;
public void Push(T item)
{...}
public T Pop()
{...}
}
Stack<int> stack = new Stack<int>();
stack.Push(1);
stack.Push(2);
int number = stack.Pop();

The generic stack code is

public class Stack<T>

{
readonly int m_Size;
int m_StackPointer = 0;
T[] m_Items;
public Stack():this(100)
{}
public Stack(int size)
{
m_Size = size;
m_Items = new T[m_Size];
}
public void Push(T item)
{
if(m_StackPointer >= m_Size)
throw new
StackOverflowException();
m_Items[m_StackPointer] = item;
m_StackPointer++;
}
public T Pop()
{
m_StackPointer--;
if(m_StackPointer >= 0)
{
return m_Items[m_StackPointer];
}
else
{
m_StackPointer = 0;
2.19. GENERICS 35

throw new
InvalidOperationException("Cannot " +
"pop an empty stack");
}
}
}
Chapter 3

String and StringBuilder

3.1 String Class

The most importent built-in class is the string class. The string class and the
StringBuilder class provide ways to perform string manipulations. The string
class provides an immutable object

string s = "Hello";

which means that once the value of the string instance is set, it cannot be changed.
Even though it appears that the application is changing the value of the string
instance, it is actually returning a new instance of the string class in memory.

// mystring.cs

using System;

class mystring
{
public static void Main()
{
string s1 = "otto";
int length = s1.Length;
Console.WriteLine(s1); // => otto
Console.WriteLine(length); // => 4

string s2 = "willi";
s2 = s2.Replace(’l’,’t’);
Console.WriteLine(s2); // witti

string s3 = "Johannesburg";
string result = s3.Substring(3,5);
Console.WriteLine(result); // => annes
36
3.1. STRING CLASS 37

string s4 = "olli&ulli&ruedi";
string[] textarray = s4.Split(’&’);
Console.WriteLine(textarray[1]); // => ulli

string s5 = string.Join(":",textarray);
Console.WriteLine(s5); // => olli:ulli:ruedi

char[] s6 = { ’o’, ’p’, ’a’ };

string s7 = new string(s6);
Console.WriteLine(s7); // => opa

string s8 = "xeNa";
string s9 = s8.ToUpper();
Console.WriteLine(s9); // => XENA

string s10 = "WILLI HANS";

string s11 = s10.ToLower();
Console.WriteLine("s11 = " + s11); // => willi hans

// use + to concatenate strings

string s12 = "Carl-";
string s13 = "Otto";
string s14 = s12 + s13;
Console.WriteLine("s14 = " + s14);

// use Equals() to compare strings

// case sensitive
bool b1 = s12.Equals(s13);
Console.WriteLine("b1 = " + b1); // => False

// can also use overloaded == to compare strings

// case sensitive
bool b2 = (s12 == s13);
Console.WriteLine("b2 = " + b2); // => False

// copy a string
string s15 = string.Copy(s14);
Console.WriteLine("s15 = " + s15);
} // end Main
}

Arrays of strings can be implemented as follows.

// stringarrays.cs
38 CHAPTER 3. STRING AND STRINGBUILDER

using System;

class stringarrays
{
public static void Main()
{
// one-dimensional array of strings
string[] keywords = new string[] { "as", "do", "if", "in" };
Console.WriteLine(keywords[3]); // => in

// one-dimensional array of strings

string[] names = { "willi", "ola", "xena" };
Console.WriteLine(names[2]); // => xena

// two-dimensional array of strings

string[,] strArry = {{"1","one"}, {"2","two"}, {"3","three"}};
Console.WriteLine(strArry[0,0]); // => 1
Console.WriteLine(strArry[2,0]); // => 3
} // end Main
}

3.2 Convert Class

Using the Convert class we can convert string to numbers (integers and floating
point) and numbers (integers and floating point) to strings. The methods are

string ToString(T x) // any numerical type

bool ToBoolean(string s)
byte ToByte(string s)
char ToChar(string s)
short ToInt16(string s)
int ToInt32(string s)
long ToInt64(string s)
float ToSingle(string s)
double ToDouble(string s)
decimal ToDecimal(string s)

An example is

// MyConvert.cs

using System;

public class MyConvert

3.3. STRINGBUILDER CLASS 39

{
public static void Main()
{
int i = 34;
string s1 = Convert.ToString(i);
Console.WriteLine("s1 = " + s1);
double x = 3.14159;
string s2 = Convert.ToString(x);
Console.WriteLine("s2 = " + s2);

bool b = Convert.ToBoolean("true");
Console.WriteLine("b = " + b);
char c = Convert.ToChar("x");
Console.WriteLine("c = " + c);
int j = Convert.ToInt32("12345");
Console.WriteLine("j = " + j);
string s3 = "3.14159";
double y = Convert.ToDouble(s3);
Console.WriteLine("y = " + y);
}
}

3.3 StringBuilder Class

The StringBuilder class represents a mutable string a characters. It is called mu-
table because it can be modified once it has been created by using the methods
Append(), Insert(), Remove() and Replace(). The StringBuilder class is de-
fined in the System.Text namespace. Thus we have to add the following line in our
application.

using System.Text;

Using the StringBuilder class.

// mystringbuilder.cs

using System;
using System.Text; // for StringBuilder

class mystringbuilder
{
public static void Main()
{
string s = "carl";
StringBuilder b1 = new StringBuilder(s.Length+12);
40 CHAPTER 3. STRING AND STRINGBUILDER

b1.Append("carl");
b1.Append("-uli");
Console.WriteLine(b1); // => carl-uli
b1.Remove(3,2);
Console.WriteLine(b1); // => caruli

StringBuilder b2 = new StringBuilder("A.C");

b2.Insert(2,"B.");
Console.WriteLine(b2); // => A.B.C

b2.Replace(’.’,’:’);
Console.WriteLine(b2); // => A:B:C

StringBuilder b3 = new StringBuilder("stringbuilder");

b3.Remove(4,9);
Console.WriteLine(b3); // => stri
}
}

Another application of the StringBuilder class is given by generating the Thue-

Morse sequence. We apply recursion, i.e. the method mythuemorse calls itself.

// thuemorse.cs

using System;
using System.Text;

class ThueMorse
{
public static void Main()
{
for(int i=0;i<7;i++)
Console.WriteLine(mythuemorse(i));
}

public static StringBuilder mythuemorse(int n)

{
if(n == 0) return new StringBuilder("0",50);
StringBuilder tm = mythuemorse(n-1);
StringBuilder tm2 = new StringBuilder("",30);
for(int i=0;i<tm.Length;i++)
if(tm[i] == ’0’) tm2.Append("01"); else tm2.Append("10");
return tm2;
}
}
Chapter 4

Built-in Classes

4.1 DateTime Class

To get the dates and time we use the DateTime class. The DateTime class stores
both a full date and the full time. The two static members are Now and Today. Now
contains the date and time for the moment the call is made. Today returns the cur-
rent date. For formatting we could use d which would be the short date mm/dd/yyyy,
for example 9/24/2005 and D would be Saturday, September 24, 2005.

// myDate.cs

using System;

class myDate
{
public static void Main()
{
DateTime dt = DateTime.Now;
Console.WriteLine("Date Time output: {0}",dt); // 7/29/2006 3:18:03 PM
string s = dt.ToString();
Console.WriteLine("s = " + s);

DateTime today = DateTime.Today;

Console.WriteLine("Today is: {0}",today);

Console.WriteLine("Time output: {0}:{1}:{2}",dt.Hour,dt.Minute,dt.Second);

Console.WriteLine("Date output: {0}\\{1}\\{2}",dt.Year,dt.Month,dt.Day);

DateTime m1 = DateTime.Now;
int milli1 = m1.Millisecond;
Console.WriteLine("milli1 = " + milli1);
for(uint j=0;j<10000000;j++)
{ j = j*2; j = j/2; j++; j--; }
41
42 CHAPTER 4. BUILT-IN CLASSES

DateTime m2 = DateTime.Now;
int milli2 = m2.Millisecond;
Console.WriteLine("milli2 = " + milli2);
int diff = milli2 - milli1;
Console.WriteLine("diff = " + diff);

// Formats
DateTime currTime = DateTime.Now;
Console.WriteLine("d: {0:d}",currTime); // 9/24/2005
Console.WriteLine("D: {0:D}",currTime); // Saturday, September 24, 2005
}
}

4.2 Array Class

The Array class

class Array : IClonable, ICollection, IEnumerable, IList

cotains methods for manipulations of arrays. For example

int BinarySearch(Array array,object value);

int BinarySearch(Array array,int index,int length,object value);
public virtual object Clone();
void Clear(Array array,int index,int length);
void Copy(Array source,Array destination,int length);
int IndexOf(Array array,object value);
void Reverse(Array array);
void Reverse(Array array,int index,int length);

An example is

// MyArray.cs

using System;
//using System.Collections.IList;

class MyArray
{
public static void Main()
{
int[] a1 = { 669, 56, 45, 877, 123, 456, 777 };
int p1 = Array.BinarySearch(a1,877);

Console.WriteLine("p1: {0}", p1);

4.3. ARRAYLIST CLASS 43

string[] s1 = new string[] { "aaba", "baaba", "alla", "ana" };

Array.Sort(s1);
for(int i=0;i<s1.Length;i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("s1[" + i + "]=" + s1[i]);
}

Array.Reverse(s1);
for(int i=0;i<s1.Length;i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("s1[" + i + "]=" + s1[i]);
}

Array.Clear(a1,3,2);
for(int i=0;i<a1.Length;i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("a1[" + i + "]=" + a1[i]);
}

int j = Array.IndexOf(a1,123);
Console.WriteLine("j = " + j); // j = -1 why ?
}
}

4.3 ArrayList Class

An ArrayList is used in situations where we want an array-like list, but cannot
restrict the number of elements it may contain. The method Add() adds an element
to the list. An application of the ArrayList class is given below.
// arraylist.cs

using System;
using System.Collections;

class arraylist
{
public static void Main(string[] arg)
{
ArrayList alist = new ArrayList();
foreach(string s in arg) alist.Add(s);

for(int i=0;i<alist.Count;i++)
{
44 CHAPTER 4. BUILT-IN CLASSES

Console.Write("{0}",alist[i]);
}
Console.Write("\n");
Console.Write("Argument Count:{0}\n",alist.Count);

string s1 = "Xena";
alist.Insert(3,s1);
alist.RemoveAt(1);

ArrayList nlist = new ArrayList();

nlist = alist;

bool test = alist.Equals(nlist);

Console.WriteLine("{0}",test);
} // end main
}

4.4 ListDictionary Class

The ListDictionary class stores a key and a value. The method
public void Add(key,value)
adds an element to the ListDictionary. The method

void Remove(object key);

removes an element in the dictionary.

// Dictionary.cs

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Specialized;

class Dictionary
{
public static void Main()
{
ListDictionary population = new ListDictionary();
population.Add("Johannesburg",9345120);
population.Add("CapeTown",3500500);
population.Add("Durban",550500);

foreach(DictionaryEntry name in population)

{
4.5. CLASS IENUMERATOR 45

Console.WriteLine("{0} = {1}",name.Key,name.Value);
}
population.Remove("Durban");
foreach(DictionaryEntry name in population)
{
Console.WriteLine("{0} = {1}",name.Key,name.Value);
}
} // end Main()
}

4.5 Class IEnumerator

The method

public virtual IEnumerator GetEnumerator()

returns a System.Collections.IEnumerator for the current instance.

// Enumerator.cs

using System;
using System.Collections;

public class ArrayGetEnumerator

{
public static void Main()
{
string[,] strArry = {{"1","one"}, {"2","two"}, {"3","three"}};
Console.Write("The elements of the array are: ");
IEnumerator sEnum = strArry.GetEnumerator();

while(sEnum.MoveNext())
Console.Write(" {0}",sEnum.Current);
}
}

4.6 Mathematics Class and Random Class

The Math class is sealed. A sealed class cannot be used for inheritance. Additionally,
all the classes and data members are static, so we cannot create an object of type
Math. Instead, we use the members and methods with the class name. The Math
class also includes two constants, PI and E.

// distance.cs
46 CHAPTER 4. BUILT-IN CLASSES

using System;

class Distance
{
public static void Main()
{
double r = 6371.0;
double alpha1, alpha2, beta1, beta2, temp, theta, distance;
char dir;
string source, dest, line;

Console.WriteLine("Enter the name of the source: ");

source = Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("Enter the latitude of {0}: ", source);
Console.WriteLine("degrees: ");
line = Console.ReadLine();
beta1 = (double) System.Convert.ToInt32(line);
Console.WriteLine("minutes: ");
line = Console.ReadLine();
temp = (double) System.Convert.ToInt32(line);
beta1 += temp/60.0;
Console.WriteLine("N/S: ");
line = Console.ReadLine();
dir = line[0];
if(dir == ’S’ || dir == ’s’) beta1 = -beta1;

Console.WriteLine("Enter the longitude of {0}: ",source);

Console.WriteLine("degrees: ");
line = Console.ReadLine();
alpha1 = (double) System.Convert.ToInt32(line);
Console.WriteLine("minutes: ");
line = Console.ReadLine();
temp = (double) System.Convert.ToInt32(line);
alpha1 += temp/60.0;
Console.WriteLine("W/E: ");
line = Console.ReadLine();
dir = line[0];
if(dir == ’E’ || dir == ’e’) alpha1 = -alpha1;

Console.WriteLine("Enter the name of the destination: ");

dest = Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("Enter the latitude of {0}: ",dest);
Console.WriteLine("degrees: ");
line = Console.ReadLine();
4.6. MATHEMATICS CLASS AND RANDOM CLASS 47

beta2 = (double) System.Convert.ToInt32(line);

Console.WriteLine("minutes: ");
line = Console.ReadLine();
temp = (double) System.Convert.ToInt32(line);
beta2 += temp/60.0;
Console.WriteLine("N/S: ");
line = Console.ReadLine();
dir = line[0];
if(dir == ’S’ || dir == ’s’) beta2 = -beta2;

Console.WriteLine("Enter the longitude of {0}: ",dest);

Console.WriteLine("degrees: ");
line = Console.ReadLine();
alpha2 = (double) System.Convert.ToInt32(line);
Console.WriteLine("minutes: ");
line = Console.ReadLine();
temp = (double) System.Convert.ToInt32(line);
alpha2 += temp/60.0;
Console.WriteLine("W/E: ");
line = Console.ReadLine();
dir = line[0];
if(dir == ’E’ || dir == ’e’) alpha2 = -alpha2;

alpha1 *= Math.PI/180.0;
alpha2 *= Math.PI/180.0;
beta1 *= Math.PI/180.0;
beta2 *= Math.PI/180.0;
temp = Math.Cos(beta1)*Math.Cos(beta2)*Math.Cos(alpha1-alpha2)
+ Math.Sin(beta1)*Math.Sin(beta2);
theta = Math.Acos(temp);
distance = r*theta;
Console.WriteLine("The distance between {0} and {1} is {2} km",
source,dest,distance);
}
}

The following table shows a partial list of the Math methods.

48 CHAPTER 4. BUILT-IN CLASSES

Method Returns Argument Return

Data Type Data Type
Abs(x) Absolute value of x Overloaded Return matches
argument type
Atan(x) Angle in Radians Double Double
whose tangent is x
Cos(x) Cosine of x where x Double Double
is in radians
Exp(x) Value of e raised Double Double
to the power of x
Log(x) Natural log of x, Double Double
where x >= 0
Max(x1, x2) Larger of the two Overloaded Return matches
arguments argument type
Min(x1, x2) Smaller of the two Overloaded Return matches
arguments argument type
Pow(x1, x2) Value of x1 raised Double Double
to the power of x2
Round(x, y) Value of x rounded Overloaded Return matches
to y decimal places
Sin(x) Sine of x where x Double Double
is in radians
Sqrt(x) Square root of x Double Double
where x <= 0
Tan(x) Tangent of x where Double Double
x is in radians

The next program shows an application of the Random class.

// random.cs

using System;

class LearnRandom
{
public static void Main()
{
Random r = new Random();
Console.WriteLine("Random sequence(no seed,limit 0..int.MaxVal)");
Console.WriteLine();
for(int i=0;i<10;i++)
Console.WriteLine("random no: {0}",r.Next());
Console.WriteLine("Random sequence(no seed,limit 0..10)");
for(int i = 0;i<10;i++)
Console.WriteLine("random no: {0}",r.Next(10));
4.7. POINT CLASSES 49

Console.WriteLine("Random sequence(no seed,limit 50..100)");

for(int i=0;i<10;i++)
Console.WriteLine("random no: {0}",r.Next(50,100));
Console.WriteLine("Random sequence(no seed, limit 0..1)");
for(int i=0;i<10;i++)
Console.WriteLine("random no: {0}",r.NextDouble());
Console.WriteLine("Random sequence in byte array(no seed,limit 0..1)");
byte[] b = new byte[5];
r.NextBytes(b);
for(int i=0;i<b.Length;i++)
Console.WriteLine("random byte: {0}",b[i]);
}
}

4.7 Point Classes

The Point structure represents an ordered pair xy of integers. The PointF structure
represents an ordered pair of floating point x- and y- coordinates that define a point
in a two-dimensional plane.
// pointt.cs

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing;

class PointTest
{
public static void Main()
{
Point p = new Point(23,13);
Console.WriteLine("Our Point is: " + p);
int xcoord = p.X;
int ycoord = p.Y;
Console.WriteLine("The x coordinate is " + xcoord);
Console.WriteLine("The y coordinate is " + ycoord);
Point q = new Point(xcoord,ycoord);
bool b = p.Equals(q);
Console.WriteLine(" the points are equal: " + b);

PointF pF = new PointF((float)23.3333,(float)13.666666666667);

Console.WriteLine("Our Point is: " + pF);
float xcoordF = pF.X;
float ycoordF = pF.Y;
Console.WriteLine("The x coordinate is " + xcoordF);
50 CHAPTER 4. BUILT-IN CLASSES

Console.WriteLine("The y coordinate is " + ycoordF);

PointF qF = new PointF(xcoordF,ycoordF);
b = pF.Equals(qF);
Console.WriteLine(" the points are equal: " + b);
}
}

4.8 Class BitArray

For dealing with bit string we use the class BitArray, where 1 is identified with
true and 0 is identified with false. The constructor

BitArray a = new BitArray(16);

sets all elements to false.

// BitArrayTest.cs

using System;
using System.Collections;

public class BitArrayTest

{
static void Main()
{
BitArray a = new BitArray(16);
BitArray b = new BitArray(16);

a[3] = a[4] = a[5] = true;

b[4] = b[5] = b[6] = true;

BitArray c = a.And(b);
Console.WriteLine("Bitarray c");
int i;
for(i=0;i<16; i++)
Console.WriteLine(c[i]);
Console.WriteLine("");

BitArray d = (BitArray) c.Clone();

Console.WriteLine("Clone c into d");
for(i=0;i<16;i++)
Console.WriteLine(d[i]);

BitArray e = a.Not();
Console.WriteLine("Not a");
4.9. OBJECT CLASS 51

for(i=0;i<16;i++)
Console.WriteLine("e[" + i + "]=" + e[i]);

a.SetAll(true);
Console.WriteLine("a.SetAll(true)");
for(i=0;i<16;i++)
Console.WriteLine("f[" + i + "]=" + a[i]);

BitArray g = d.Not();
for(i=0;i<16;i++)
Console.WriteLine("g[" + i + "]=" + g[i]);

BitArray f = d.Xor(g);
Console.WriteLine("Xor d to get f");
for(i=0;i<16;i++)
Console.WriteLine("f[" + i + "]=" + f[i]);
}
}

4.9 Object Class

The Object class supports all classes in the .NET Framework class hierarchy and
provides low-level services to derived classes. This is the ultimate superclass of all
classes in the .NET Framework; it is the root of the type hierarchy. The C# syntax
is

[Serializable]
public class Object

Public static (non-instance) members of this type are safe for multithreaded opera-
tions. Instance members are not guaranteed to be thread-safe. Languages typically
do not require a class to declare inheeritance from Object since the inheritance is
implicit.

Since all classes in the .NET Framework are derived from Object, every method
defined in the Object class is available in all objects in the system. Derived classes
can and do override some of these methods, including

Object.Equals - support comparisons between objects

Object.Finalize - performs cleanup operations before an object is
automatically reclaimed
Object.GetHashCode - generates a number corresponding to the value
of the object to support the use of a hash table
Object.ToString - manufactures a human-readable text that describes
an instance of the class
52 CHAPTER 4. BUILT-IN CLASSES

The default constructor is called by derived class constructors to initialize state in

this type. Initializes a new instance of the Object class.

The method GetHashCode() serves as a hash function for a particular type, suitable
for use in hashing algorithms and data structures like a hash table.

The method GetType() gets the type of the current instance.

The following code compares the current instance with another object.

// object1.cs

using System;

public class object1

{
public static void Main()
{
Object obj1 = new Object();
Object obj2 = new Object();
Console.WriteLine(obj1.Equals(obj2)); // => false
obj2 = obj1;
Console.WriteLine(obj1.Equals(obj2)); // => true
}
}

The following example shows a Point class that overrides the Object.Equals()
method to provide value equality and a class Point3D, which is derived from the
Point class. The Object.Equals() method uses Object.GetType() to determine
whether the run-time types of the two objects are identical.

// object2.cs

using System;

class Point : Object

{
protected int x, y;

public Point() { this.x = 0; this.y = 0; }

public Point(int X,int Y)

{ this.x = X; this.y = Y; }

public override bool Equals(Object obj)

4.9. OBJECT CLASS 53

{ // check for null and compare run-time types

if(obj == null || GetType() != obj.GetType()) return false;
Point p = (Point) obj;
return (x == p.x) && (y == p.y);
}

public override int GetHashCode()

{ return x^y; } // ^ XOR operation
} // end class Point

class Point3D : Point

{
int z;

public Point3D(int X,int Y,int Z)

{
this.x = X; this.y = Y; this.z = Z;
}

public override bool Equals(Object obj)

{ return base.Equals(obj) && z == ((Point3D) obj).z; }

public override int GetHashCode()

{ return base.GetHashCode() ^ z; }
} // end class Point3D

public class object1

{
public static void Main()
{
Point p1 = new Point(5,7);
Point p2 = new Point(6,8);
bool b1 = p1.Equals(p2);
Console.WriteLine("b1 = " + b1);

int h1 = p1.GetHashCode();
Console.WriteLine("h1 = " + h1);

Point3D p3 = new Point3D(5,6,9);

Point3D p4 = new Point3D(5,6,9);
bool b2 = p3.Equals(p4);
Console.WriteLine("b2 = " + b2);

int h2 = p3.GetHashCode();
Console.WriteLine("h2 = " + h2);
54 CHAPTER 4. BUILT-IN CLASSES

}
}

The method

protected object MemberwiseClone();

creates a shallow copy of the current object, i.e. it returns a shallow copy of the
current object. The following code shows how to copy an instance of a class using
Object.MemberwiseClone().

// object3.cs

using System;

class MyBaseClass
{
public static string CompanyName = "KXK";
public int age;
public string name;
}

class MyDerivedClass : MyBaseClass

{
public static void Main()
{
// create an instance of MyDerivedClass and assign values
// to its fields
MyDerivedClass m1 = new MyDerivedClass();
m1.age = 42;
m1.name = "John";

// performs a shallow copy of m1 and assign it to m2

MyDerivedClass m2 = (MyDerivedClass) m1.MemberwiseClone();
Console.WriteLine("age = " + m2.age);
Console.WriteLine("name = " + m2.name);
}
}
Chapter 5

Object-Oriented Programming

5.1 Write your own class

In CSharp we can write our own class. Object-oriented programming is essentially
programming in terms of smaller units called objects. An object oriented program is
composed of one or more objects. Each object holds some data (fields or attributes)
as defined by its class. The class also defines a set of functions (also called methods
or operations) which can be invoked on its objects. Generally the data is hidden
within the objects (instances) and can be accessed only through functions defined
by its class (encapsulation). One or more objects (instances) can be created from
a class by a process called instantiation. The process of deciding which attributes
and operations will be supported by an object (i.e. defining the class) is called
abstraction. We say the state of the object is defined by the attributes it supports
and its behaviour is defined by the operations it implements. The term passing a
message to an object means invoking its operation. Sometimes the set of operations
supported by an object is also referred to as the interface exposed by this object.

The following program shows an example for class Person. The Person is described
by his name, age and sex. Thus we have three attributes:

myName, myAge, mySex.

These private data members are only visible inside the body of class Person1.

// Person1.cs

using System;

class Person1
{
private string myName = "N/A";
private int myAge = 0;
private char mySex = ’n’;
55
56 CHAPTER 5. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

// default constructor
public Person1() { }

// constructor
public Person1(string name,int age,char sex)
{
this.myName = name;
this.myAge = age;
this.mySex = sex;
}

// declare a Name property of type string

public string Name
{
get { return myName; }
set { myName = value; }
}

public int Age

{
get { return myAge; }
set { myAge = value; }
}

public char Sex

{
get { return mySex; }
set { mySex = value; }
}

public override string ToString()

{
return "Name = " + Name + ", Age = " + Age + ", Sex = " + Sex;
}

public override bool Equals(object o)

{
if((myName==((Person1) o).myName) &&
(myAge==((Person1) o).myAge) &&
(mySex==((Person1) o).mySex))
return true;
else return false;
}
5.1. WRITE YOUR OWN CLASS 57

public static void Main()

{
// create a new Person object using default constructor
Person1 person1 = new Person1();

// Set some values on the person object

person1.Name = "Joe";
person1.Age = 99;
person1.Sex = ’m’;
Console.WriteLine("Person details - {0}",person1);

Person1 person2 = new Person1();

person2.Name = "Jane";
person2.Age = 31;
person2.Sex = ’f’;
Console.WriteLine("Person details - {0}",person2);

Person1 person3 = new Person1();

person3.Name = "Jane";
person3.Age = 31;
person3.Sex = ’f’;
Console.WriteLine("Person details - {0}",person3);

bool same = person2.Equals(person3);

Console.WriteLine("same person = " + same);

Person1 person4 = new Person1("otto",42,’m’);

Console.WriteLine("Person details: " + person4.myName);
Console.WriteLine("Person details: " + person4.mySex);

// array of persons
Person1[] pmany = new Person1[2];
pmany[0] = new Person1("Carl",23,’m’);
pmany[1] = new Person1("Ola",7,’f’);
Console.WriteLine("name of person[0]: " + pmany[0].myName);
Console.WriteLine("sex of person[1]: " + pmany[1].mySex);
} // end Main
}
class Person1 defines three private member variables, myName, myAge, mySex.
These variable are visible only inside the body of class Person1. To access these
variable outside the class we use the special property methods Name, Age, and Sex.
The CSharp compiler translates for example the Name property to a pair of methods,
namely
public string get_Name()
58 CHAPTER 5. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

{ return myName; }

public void set_Name(string value)

{ myName = value; }

The class Person1 contains the Main() method. In some application it would be
better to keep the class Person1 without the Main() method and have an extra file
which calls the Person objects. The file Person.cs only contains the class Person
and no Main() method.

// Person.cs

using System;

class Person
{
public string myName = "N/A";
public int myAge = 0;
public char mySex = ’n’;

// default constructor
public Person() { }

// constructor
public Person(string name,int age,char sex)
{
this.myName = name;
this.myAge = age;
this.mySex = sex;
}

// declare a Name property of type string

public string Name
{
get { return myName; }
set { myName = value; }
}

public int Age

{
get { return myAge; }
set { myAge = value; }
}

public char Sex

5.1. WRITE YOUR OWN CLASS 59

{
get { return mySex; }
set { mySex = value; }
}

public override string ToString()

{
return "Name = " + Name + ", Age = " + Age + ", Sex = " + Sex;
}

public override bool Equals(object o)

{
if((myName==((Person) o).myName) &&
(myAge==((Person) o).myAge) &&
(mySex==((Person) o).mySex))
return true;
else return false;
}
}

To generate the Person.dll file we run

csc /t:library Person.cs

The file PersonMain.cs contains the Main() method.

// PersonMain.cs

using System;

class PersonMain
{
public static void Main()
{
// create a new Person object using default constructor
Person person1 = new Person();

// Set some values on the person object

person1.Name = "Joe";
person1.Age = 99;
person1.Sex = ’m’;
Console.WriteLine("Person details - {0}",person1);

Person person2 = new Person();

person2.Name = "Jane";
person2.Age = 31;
60 CHAPTER 5. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

person2.Sex = ’f’;
Console.WriteLine("Person details - {0}",person2);

Person person3 = new Person();

person3.Name = "Jane";
person3.Age = 31;
person3.Sex = ’f’;
Console.WriteLine("Person details - {0}",person3);

bool same = person2.Equals(person3);

Console.WriteLine("same person = " + same);

// increment the age of person3

person3.Age++;
Console.WriteLine("person3 new age: " + person3.Age);

Person person4 = new Person("otto",42,’m’);

Console.WriteLine("Person details: " + person4.myName);
Console.WriteLine("Person details: " + person4.mySex);

// array of persons
Person[] pmany = new Person[2];
pmany[0] = new Person("Carl",23,’m’);
pmany[1] = new Person("Ola",7,’f’);
Console.WriteLine("name of person[0]: " + pmany[0].myName);
Console.WriteLine("sex of person[1]: " + pmany[1].mySex);
} // end Main
}

To get the PersonMain.exe file we run

csc /r:Person.dll PersonMain.cs

However, we can also use the short-cut

csc Person.cs PersonMain.cs

to generate the PersonMain.exe file.

5.2 Override Methods

When we write our own class in most cases we should override the methods

string ToString(), bool Equals(), object Clone()

An example is given below

5.2. OVERRIDE METHODS 61

// Point3D.cs

using System;

public class Point3D

{
public double X;
public double Y;
public double Z;

public Point3D() { } // default constructor

public Point3D(double x,double y,double z)

{
this.X = x;
this.Y = y;
this.Z = z;
}

// square of distance between two Points

public double distance(Point3D p1,Point3D p2)
{
return (p1.X-p2.X)*(p1.X-p2.X)+(p1.Y-p2.Y)*(p1.Y-p2.Y)+(p1.Z-p2.Z)*(p1.Z-p2.Z);
}

public override string ToString()

{
return String.Format("({0},{1},{2})",X,Y,Z);
}

public override bool Equals(object o)

{
if((X==((Point3D) o).X) && (Y==((Point3D) o).Y) && (Z==((Point3D) o).Z))
return true;
else return false;
}

public object Clone()

{
object o = new Point3D(X,Y,Z);
return o;
}
}

An application of this class is

62 CHAPTER 5. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

// Point3DMain.cs

using System;

public class Point3DMain

{
public static void Main()
{
double x = 2.1;
double y = 3.1;
double z = 4.5;
Point3D p1 = new Point3D(x,y,z);
Console.WriteLine("p1 = " + p1);

double a = 2.1;
double b = 3.1;
double c = 4.5;
Point3D p2 = new Point3D(a,b,c);
bool r = p1.Equals(p2);
Console.WriteLine("r = " + r);

double k = 2.0;
double m = 1.0;
double n = 7.5;
Point3D p3 = new Point3D(k,m,n);
Point3D p4 = new Point3D(0.0,0.0,0.0);
p4 = (Point3D) p3.Clone(); // type conversion
Console.WriteLine("p4 = " + p4);

Point3D q = new Point3D();

double d = q.distance(p1,p3);
Console.WriteLine("d = " + d);
}
}

5.3 Inheritance
Inheritance is one of the primary concepts of object-oriented programming. It
allows us to reuse existing code. In the next program we use inheritence. The
class Car is derived from class Vehicle. In the class Car we use code from the
class Vehicle. First we must declare our intention to use Vehicle as the base
class of Car. This is accomplished through the Car class declaration

public class Car : Vehicle

5.3. INHERITANCE 63

Then the colon, : , and the keyword base call the base class constructor. C#
supports single class inheritance only.

// MVehicle.cs

using System;

class Vehicle
{
private int weight;
private int topSpeed;
private double price;

public Vehicle() {}

public Vehicle(int aWeight,int aTopSpeed,double aPrice)

{
weight = aWeight;
topSpeed = aTopSpeed;
price = aPrice;
}

public int getWeight() { return weight;}

public int getTopSpeed() { return topSpeed; }

public double getPrice() { return price; }

public virtual void print()

{
Console.WriteLine("Weight: {0} kg",weight);
Console.WriteLine("Top Speed: {0} km/h",topSpeed);
Console.WriteLine("Price: {0} Dollar",price);
}
} // end class Vehicle

class Car : Vehicle

{
private int numberCylinders;
private int horsepower;
private int displacement;

public Car() { }

public Car(int aWeight,int aTopSpeed,double aPrice,int aNumberCylinders,

64 CHAPTER 5. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

int aHorsepower,int aDisplacement) : base(aWeight,aTopSpeed,aPrice)

{
numberCylinders = aNumberCylinders;
horsepower = aHorsepower;
displacement = aDisplacement;
}

public int getNumberCylinders() { return numberCylinders; }

public int getHorsepower() { return horsepower; }
public int getDisplacement() { return displacement; }

public override void print()

{
base.print();
Console.WriteLine("Cylinders: {0} ",numberCylinders);
Console.WriteLine("Horsepower: {0} ",horsepower);
Console.WriteLine("Diplacement: {0} cubic cm",displacement);
}
}

class myCar
{
public static void Main()
{
Vehicle aVehicle = new Vehicle(15000,120,30000.00);
Console.Write("A vehicle: ");
aVehicle.print();
Console.WriteLine("");
Car aCar = new Car(3500,100,12000.00,6,120,300);
Console.Write("A car: ");
aCar.print();
Console.WriteLine("");
}
}

An interface looks like a class, but has no implementation. The only thing it contains
are definitions of events, indexers, methods, and/or properties. The reason interfaces
only provide definitions is because they are inherited by classes and structs, which
must provide an implementation for each interface member defined. Since interfaces
must be defined by inheriting classes and structs, they must define a contract. The
following program shows an example.

// Policies.cs

public interface Policy

5.3. INHERITANCE 65

{
double Rate(double principal,int period);
}

public class BronzePolicy : Policy

{
public double Rate(double p,int n)
{ return 7; }
}

public class SilverPolicy : Policy

{
public double Rate(double p,int n)
{ return (p < 25000.0) ? 8 : 10; }
}

public class GoldPolicy

{
public double Rate(double p,int n)
{ return (n < 5) ? 9 : 11; }
}

public class PlatinumPolicy : Policy

{
public double Rate(double p,int n)
{
double r = (p < 50000.0) ? 10 : 12;
if(n >= 3) r += 1;
return r;
}
}

Each policy provides a Rate method which returns the rate of interest for a given
principal and for a given period. All policy classes implement the Policy interface
except GoldPolicy which defines Rate without implementing policy. We compile
Policies.cs to create Policies.dll via

csc /t:library Policies.cs

Using reflection we can also create an instance of a class and invoke its member
methods at runtime. This feature can be used to write more generic (dynamically
extensible) programs which receive names of classes at runtime.

The investment.cs program including Main accepts principal, period and policy
name as arguments args[0], args[1], and args[2]. We compile investment.cs
as
66 CHAPTER 5. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

csc /r:Policies.dll investment.cs

We would execute the program, for example,

investment 60000 5 SilverPolicy,Policies

// investment.cs

using System;
using System.Reflection;

class Investment
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
double p = Double.Parse(args[0]); // string to double
int n = Int32.Parse(args[1]); // string to int
Type t = Type.GetType(args[2]);
Policy pol = (Policy) Activator.CreateInstance(t);
double r = pol.Rate(p,n);
double amount = p*Math.Pow(1.0+r/100.0,n);
Console.WriteLine("you will get {0:#.00}",amount);
}
}

5.4 Overloading Methods

Methods in a class can be overloaded. The methods of a class may have the same
name
if they have different numbers of parameters, or
if they have different parameter types, or
if they have different parameter kinds.

We overload the method max() to find the maximum of numbers.

// methods.cs

using System;

public class Maximizer

{
public class Maximum
{
public static double max(double p,double q)
{
5.5. OPERATOR OVERLOADING 67

if(p > q) return p;

return q;
}

public static double max(double p,double q,double r)

{
return max(max(p,q),r);
}

public static double max(double[] list)

{
if(list.Length == 0) return 0;
double max = list[0];
foreach(double val in list)
{
if(val > max) max = val;
}
return max;
}

public static void Main(string[] args)

{
Console.WriteLine("maximum of 4.5 and 4.7 is {0}",max(4.5,4.7));
Console.WriteLine("maximum of 3.1, 2.4, 4.9 is {0}",max(3.1,2.4,4.9));
double[] array = new double[4];
array[0] = 3.1; array[1] = 5.7; array[2] = 3.9; array[3] = 2.1;
Console.WriteLine("maximum element in array = {0}",max(array));
} // end main
}
}

Exercise. Add a method max(int,int,int,int) to the program that find the

maximum of four integer numbers.

5.5 Operator Overloading

Operators can be overloaded (operator overloading) such that

+, -, *, \, %, []

In the next program we overload + to add two complex numbers.

// Complex.cs

using System;
68 CHAPTER 5. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

public class Complex

{
public double real; // real part of complex number
public double imag; // imaginary part of number

public Complex(double real,double imag)

{
this.real = real;
this.imag = imag;
}

public static Complex operator + (Complex c1,Complex c2)

{
c1.real = c1.real + c2.real;
c1.imag = c1.imag + c2.imag;
return c1;
}
}

class ComplexMain
{
public static void Main()
{
Complex r1 = new Complex(1.0,2.0);
Complex r2 = new Complex(2.0,1.0);
r1 = r1 + r2;
Console.WriteLine("Real: {0} Imaginary: {1}i",r1.real,r1.imag);
}
}

Exercise. Overload in the program also * for the multiplication of two complex
numbers. The multiplication of two complex numbers z1 = a + ib and z2 = c + id
(with a, b, c, d real) is given by z1 ∗ z2 = a ∗ c − b ∗ d + i(ad + bc).

5.6 Structures
In CSharp we can also use structures. Structures do not contain methods. The
objects are stored on the stack compared to classes which are stored on the heap.
There is no inheritance for structure. The program also shows how enumeration can
be used.

// enumeration.cs

using System;
5.7. DELEGATES 69

enum MemberType { Lions, Elefant, Jackals, Eagles, Dogs };

struct ClubMember
{
public string Name;
public int Age;
public MemberType Group;
}

class enumeration
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
ClubMember a; // Value types are automatically initialized
a.Name = "John";
a.Age = 13;
a.Group = MemberType.Eagles;

ClubMember b = a; // new copy of a is assigned to b

b.Age = 17; // a.Age remains 13
Console.WriteLine("Member {0} is {1} year old and belongs to group of {2}",
a.Name,a.Age,a.Group);
} // end main
}

5.7 Delegates
A delegate in C# allows us to pass methods of one class to objects of other classes
that can call those methods. We can pass method m in class A, wrapped in a dele-
gate, to class B and class B will be able to call method m in class A. We can pass
both static and instance methods. This concept is familiar to C++ where one uses
function pointers to pass functions as parameters to other methods in the same
class or in another class. C# delegates are implemented in the .NET framework as
a class derived from System.Delegate. Thus the use of delegates involves four steps.

1. Declare a delegate object with a signature that exactly matches the method
signature that we are trying to encapsulate.
2. Define all the methods whose signature match the signature of the delegate object
that we have defined in step 1.
3. Create delegate object and plug in the methods that we want to encapsulate.
4. Call the encapsulated methods through the delegate object.

The following C# program shows the above four steps.

70 CHAPTER 5. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

// Delegate.cs

using System;

// Step 1. Declare a delegate with the signature of the

// encapsulated method
public delegate void MyDelegate(string input);

// Step 2. Define methods that match with the signature

// of delegate declaration
class Class1
{
public void delegateMethod1(string input)
{
Console.WriteLine("delegateMethod1: the input to the method is {0}",input);
}

public void delegateMethod2(string input)

{
Console.WriteLine("delegateMethod2: the input to the method is {0}",input);
}
} // end class Class1

// Step 3. Create delegate object and plug in the methods

class Class2
{
public MyDelegate createDelegate()
{
Class1 c2 = new Class1();
MyDelegate d1 = new MyDelegate(c2.delegateMethod1);
MyDelegate d2 = new MyDelegate(c2.delegateMethod2);
MyDelegate d3 = d1 + d2;
return d3;
}
} // end class Class2

// Step 4. Call the encapsulated method through the delegate

class Class3
{
public void callDelegate(MyDelegate d,string input)
{
d(input);
}
} // end class Class3
5.7. DELEGATES 71

class Driver
{
public static void Main()
{
Class2 c2 = new Class2();
MyDelegate d = c2.createDelegate();
Class3 c3 = new Class3();
c3.callDelegate(d,"calling the delegate");
} // end Main
}

The output is:

delegateMethod1: the input to the method is calling the delegate

delegateMethod2: the input to the method is calling the delegate

Another example is given below. Here we use delegates to compare strings.

// MyDelegate.cs

using System;

// this is the delegate declaration

public delegate int Comparer(object obj1,object obj2);

public class Name

{
public string FirstName = null;
public string LastName = null;

public Name(string first,string last)

{
FirstName = first;
LastName = last;
}

public static int CompareFirstNames(object name1,object name2)

{
string n1 = ((Name) name1).FirstName; // type conversion
string n2 = ((Name) name2).FirstName; // type conversion

if(string.Compare(n1,n2) > 0) { return 1; }

else if(string.Compare(n1,n2) < 0) { return -1; }
else { return 0; }
} // end method CompareNames()
72 CHAPTER 5. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

public override string ToString()

{ return FirstName + " " + LastName; }
} // end class Name

class SimpleDelegate
{
Name[] names = new Name[4];

public SimpleDelegate()
{
names[0] = new Name("John","Smithlone");
names[1] = new Name("Carl","Xenon");
names[2] = new Name("Rolf","Cooper");
names[3] = new Name("Ola","Jones");
}

static void Main()

{
SimpleDelegate sd = new SimpleDelegate();

// the delegate instantiation

Comparer cmp = new Comparer(Name.CompareFirstNames);

Console.WriteLine("\nBefore Sort:\n");
sd.PrintNames();

// observe the delegate argument

sd.Sort(cmp);

Console.WriteLine("\nAfter Sort:\n");

sd. PrintNames();
}

public void Sort(Comparer compare)

{
object temp;

for(int i=0;i<names.Length;i++)
{
for(int j=i;j<names.Length;j++)
{
// using delegate "compare" just like a normal method
if(compare(names[i],names[j])>0)
5.7. DELEGATES 73

{
temp = names[i];
names[i] = names[j];
names[j] = (Name) temp;
} // end if
}
}
} // end method Sort

public void PrintNames()

{
Console.WriteLine("Names:\n");

foreach(Name name in names)

{
Console.WriteLine(name.ToString());
}
} // end method PrintNames()
}
Chapter 6

Streams and File Manipulations

6.1 Introduction
A stream is a sequence of bytes. A byte is 8 bits. The Stream class and its subclasses
provide a generic view of data sources and repositories, isolating the programmer
from the specific details of the operating system and underlying devices. Streams
involve the following three operations:

1) Streams can be read from. Reading is the transfer of data from a stream into a
data structure, such as an array of bytes.

2) Streams can be written to. Writing is the transfer of data from a data structure
into a stream.

3) Streams can support seeking. Seeking is the query and modifying of the current
position within a stream.

6.2 Binary File Manipulations

System.IO.BinaryWriter and System.IO.BinaryReader can be used for writing
and reading primitive data types

byte, short, int, long, float, double, bool, char

and also the data type string and StringBuilder to a stream (binary file manip-
ulation).

74
6.2. BINARY FILE MANIPULATIONS 75

// BinaryIO1.cs

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;

class BinaryIO1
{
private static void WriteData(int i,double d,char c,bool b)
{
Stream s = File.OpenWrite("info.dat");
BinaryWriter bw = new BinaryWriter(s);
bw.Write(i);
bw.Write(d);
bw.Write(c);
bw.Write(b);
bw.Close();
s.Close();
}

private static void ReadData()

{
Stream s = File.OpenRead("info.dat");
BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(s);
int i = br.ReadInt32();
double d = br.ReadDouble();
char c = br.ReadChar();
bool b = br.ReadBoolean();
br.Close();
s.Close();
Console.WriteLine("{0},{1},{2},{3}",i,d,c,b);
}

public static void Main(string[] args)

{
WriteData(12345,3.14159,’y’,true);
ReadData();
}
}

// BinaryIO2.cs

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
76 CHAPTER 6. STREAMS AND FILE MANIPULATIONS

class BinaryIO2
{
private static void WriteData(string t,StringBuilder sb)
{
Stream s = File.OpenWrite("info.dat");
BinaryWriter bw = new BinaryWriter(s);
// write length-prefixed string
bw.Write(t);
bw.Write(sb.ToString());
bw.Close();
s.Close();
}

private static void ReadData()

{
Stream s = File.OpenRead("info.dat");
BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(s);
string t = br.ReadString();
string sb = br.ReadString();
br.Close();
s.Close();
Console.WriteLine("{0},{1}",t,sb);
}

public static void Main(string[] args)

{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("Hello World!");
WriteData("Hello Egoli",sb);
ReadData();
}
}

6.3 Text File Manipulation

Reading a text file. The class FileStream is useful for reading and writing files on
a file system, as well as other file-related operating system handles (including pipes,
standard input, standard output, and so on). FileStream buffers input and output
for better performance. The FileStrean class can open a file in one of two modes,
either synchronously or asynchronously, with signigicant performance consequences
for the synchronous methods (FileStream.Read and FileStream.Write) and the
asynchronous methods FileStream.BeginRead and FileStream.BeginWrite). Both
sets of methods will work in either mode; however, the mode will affect the perfor-
mance of these methods. FileStream defaults to opening files synchronously, but
6.3. TEXT FILE MANIPULATION 77

provides a constructor to open files asynchronously. FileStream objects support

random access to files using the FileStream.Seek method. The Seek method al-
lows the read/write position to be moved to any position within the file. This is
done with byte offset reference point parameters. The byte offset is relative to the
seek reference point, which can be the beginning, the current position, or the end
of the underlying file, as represented by the three properties of the SeekOrigin class.

We convert the array of bytes into an ASCII text for displaying it on the console.

// readfile.cs

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text; // for encoding

class ReadFile
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
Stream s = new FileStream(args[0],FileMode.Open);
int size = (int) s.Length;
byte[] buffer = new byte[size];
s.Read(buffer,0,buffer.Length);
s.Close();
string text = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer);
Console.WriteLine(text);
}
}

Writing to a file (text mode). We append the text provided by the line

string text = "all the good men and women" + "\r\n";

to the file provided by args[0].

// writefile.cs

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text; // for encoding

class WriteFile
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
Stream s = new FileStream(args[0],FileMode.Append,FileAccess.Write);
78 CHAPTER 6. STREAMS AND FILE MANIPULATIONS

string text = "all the good men and women" + "\r\n"; // append end
// of line characters
byte[] buffer = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(text);
s.Write(buffer,0,buffer.Length);
s.Close(); // also flushes the stream
}
}

Writing the date and time into a file using the DateTime class..

// placeorder.cs

using System;
using System.IO;

class PlaceOrder
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
DateTime dt = DateTime.Now;
string today = dt.ToString("dd-MMM-yyyy");
string record = today + "|" + String.Join("|",args);
StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter("order.txt",true);
sw.WriteLine(record);
sw.Close();
}
}

The useful classes in reading/writing text files are: StreamReader and StreamWriter.
Given the file datain.txt with the two lines

Green 4750 3000.40

Bakley 3451 2800.50

the following program reads the file line by line and displays it on the Console and
also writes it to the output file dataout.txt.

// Filemanipulation.cs

using System;
using System.IO;

class FileManipulation
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
6.4. BYTE BY BYTE MANIPULATION 79

FileInfo fr = new FileInfo(@"c:\csharp\datain.txt");

StreamReader reader = fr.OpenText();
string sline;
string[] substrings;
char[] separators = { ’ ’,’,’,’\t’ };
string name;
int ID;
float gpa;
StreamWriter writer =
new StreamWriter(@"c:\csharp\dataout.txt",false);
sline = reader.ReadLine();
while(sline != null)
{
substrings = sline.Split(separators,3);
name = substrings[0];
ID = int.Parse(substrings[1]);
gpa = float.Parse(substrings[2]);
Console.WriteLine("{0} {1} {2}",name,ID,gpa);
writer.WriteLine("{0} {1} {2}",name,ID,gpa);
sline = reader.ReadLine();
}
writer.Flush();
writer.Close();
}
}

6.4 Byte by Byte Manipulation

For reading and writing bytes we use the methods ReadByte() and WriteByte().
The type conversion to char is necessary in the following program. What happens
if we remove (char) ?
// BytebyByte.cs

using System;
using System.IO;

public class BytebyByte

{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
FileStream s = new FileStream(args[0],FileMode.Open,FileAccess.Read,
FileShare.Read);
BufferedStream bs = new BufferedStream(s);
while(bs.Length > bs.Position)
80 CHAPTER 6. STREAMS AND FILE MANIPULATIONS

{
Console.Write((char) bs.ReadByte()); }
}
bs.Close();
s.Close();
}

In the following example we copy byte by byte a file into another file.

// TestFile.cs

using System;
using System.IO;

class TestFile
{
static void Copy(string from,string to,int pos)
{
try
{
FileStream sin = new FileStream(from,FileMode.Open);
FileStream sout = new FileStream(to,FileMode.Create);
sin.Seek(pos,SeekOrigin.Begin);

int ch = sin.ReadByte();

while(ch >= 0)
{
sout.WriteByte((byte) ch); // type conversion
ch = sin.ReadByte();
}
sin.Close();
sout.Close();
}
catch (FileNotFoundException e)
{
Console.WriteLine("--file {0} not found",e.FileName);
}
}

public static void Main(string[] arg)

{
Copy(arg[0],arg[1],0);
}
}
6.5. OBJECT SERIALIZATION 81

In the next program we count the number of curly brackets in a file.

// Oops1.cs

using System;
using System.IO;

class Oops
{
public static void Main()
{
char cl = ’{’;
int countcl = 0;
char cr = ’}’;
int countcr = 0;

FileStream fin = new FileStream("data.dat",FileMode.Open,FileAccess.Read);

BufferedStream bs = new BufferedStream(fin);

while(bs.Length > bs.Position)

{
char ch = (char) bs.ReadByte();
if(ch == cl) countcl++;
if(ch == cr) countcr++;
} // end while
fin.Close();
Console.WriteLine("countcl = " + countcl);
Console.WriteLine("countcr = " + countcr);
} // end Main
}

Exercise. Extend the program so that it also counts the number of rectangular
brackets (left and right) and parentheses (left and right).

6.5 Object Serialization

Often we want to store a complete object in a stream. This is achieved by a process
called object serialization. By serialization we mean converting an object, or a
connected graph of objects (a set of objects with some set of references to each
other), stored within memory into a linear sequence of bytes. This string of bytes
contains all of the information that was held in the object started with.

// employee.cs

using System;
82 CHAPTER 6. STREAMS AND FILE MANIPULATIONS

using System.Runtime.Serialization;

[Serializable]
public class Employee
{
public string Name;
public string Job;
public double Salary;

public Employee(string name,string job,double salary)

{
Name = name;
Job = job;
Salary = salary;
}

public Employee() { }

// we override the ToString() method of System.Object.

// This method is invoked whenever an Employee object
// is to be converted to a string
public override string ToString()
{
return String.Format("{0} is a {1} and earns {2}",Name,Job,Salary);
}
} // end class Employee end file

In the following program we apply now object serialization to Employee.

// binsertest1.cs

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;

class BinarySerializatioTest1
{
static BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();

private static void WriteEmployee(Employee emp)

{
Stream s = File.OpenWrite("emp.bin");
bf.Serialize(s,emp);
s.Close();
}
6.6. XML DOCUMENTS 83

private static void ReadEmployee()

{
Stream s = File.OpenRead("emp.bin");
Employee emp = (Employee) bf.Deserialize(s);
s.Close();
Console.WriteLine(emp); // displays emp.ToString()
}

public static void Main(string[] args)

{
Employee emp = new Employee("Jack","Clerk",44000);
WriteEmployee(emp);
ReadEmployee();
}
}

6.6 XML Documents

The .NET framework provides an XML parser for reading and modifying XML docu-
ments. Given below is the file emp.xml containing information (id,name, job,salary)
about employees. There are five employees.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<employees>
<employee id="101">
<name> John </name>
<job> manager </job>
<salary> 72000 </salary>
</employee>
<employee id="102">
<name> Jane </name>
<job> steno </job>
<salary> 23000 </salary>
</employee>
<employee id="103">
<name> Jim </name>
<job> salesman </job>
<salary> 36000 </salary>
</employee>
<employee id="104">
<name> Jill </name>
<job> clerk </job>
<salary> 45000 </salary>
</employee>
84 CHAPTER 6. STREAMS AND FILE MANIPULATIONS

<employee id="105">
<name>Jeff</name>
<job>CEO</job>
<salary>105000</salary>
</employee>
</employees>

The program listemp.cs displays id, and salary of each employee in the file
emp.xml.

// listemp.cs

using System;
using System.Xml;

class ListEmployees
{
public static void Main()
{
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
// load employee.xml in XmlDocument
doc.Load("emp.xml");
// obtain a list of all employee element
XmlNodeList list = doc.GetElementsByTagName("employee");
foreach(XmlNode emp in list)
{
// obtain value of id attribute of the employee tag
string id = emp.Attributes["id"].Value;
// obtain value of salary subtag of the employee tag
string sal = emp["salary"].FirstChild.Value;
Console.WriteLine("{0}\t{1}",id,sal);
}
}
}

The program addemp.cs takes informations from the command line (id, name, job,
salary) and makes a new entry in the file emp.xml.

// addemp.cs

using System;
using System.Xml;

class AddEmployee
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
6.6. XML DOCUMENTS 85

{
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load("emp.xml");
// create a new employee element and value of its attribute
XmlElement emp = doc.CreateElement("employee");
emp.SetAttribute("id",args[0]);
// create a name tag and st its value
XmlNode name = doc.CreateNode("element","name","");
name.InnerText = args[1];
// make name tag a subtag of newly created employee tag
emp.AppendChild(name);
XmlNode job = doc.CreateNode("element","job","");
job.InnerText = args[2];
emp.AppendChild(job);
XmlNode sal = doc.CreateNode("element","salary","");
sal.InnerText = args[3];
emp.AppendChild(sal);
// add the newly created employee tag to the root (employees) tag
doc.DocumentElement.AppendChild(emp);
// save the modified document
doc.Save("emp.xml");
}
}

We execute the program with (for example)

addemp 105 willi president 50000

Chapter 7

Graphics

7.1 Drawing Methods

The Windows.Forms namespace contains classes for creating Windows based appli-
cations. In this namespace we find the Form class and many other controls that can
be added to forms to create user interfaces. The System.Drawing namespace pro-
vides access to GDI + basic graphics functionality. The Graphics object provides
methods for drawing a variety of lines and shapes. Simple or complex shapes can
be rendered in solid or transparent colors, or using user-defined gradient or image
textures. Lines, open curves, and outline shapes are created using a Pen object. To
fill in an area, such as a rectangle or a closed curve, a Brush object is required. The
drawing methods are

DrawString(), DrawLine(), DrawRectangle(),

DrawEllipse(), DrawPie(), DrawPolygon(),
DrawArc()

and DrawImage(). Using DrawImage() we can display an image.

The method DrawString() takes five arguments

DrawString(string,Font,Brush,int X,int Y)

The first argument is a string, i.e. the text we want to display. The last two
arguments is the position where we put the string. The method DrawEllipse() is
given by

DrawEllipse(System.Drawing.Pen,float x,float y,float width,float height)

Every method in the Graphics class has to be accessed by creating an object of that
class. We can easily update the above program to render other graphical shapes like
Rectangle, Ellipse, etc. All we have to do is to apply the relevant methods ap-
propriately.

86
7.1. DRAWING METHODS 87

Using the Pen class we can specify colour of the border and also the thickness. The
Pen class is applied for drawing shapes. The Brush is applied for filling shapes such
as SolidBrush and HatchStyleBrush.

The default Graphics unit is Pixel. By applying the PageUnit property, we can
change the unit of measurement to Inch and Millimeter.

// HelloGraphics.cs

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;

public class Hello : Form

{
public Hello()
{
this.Paint += new PaintEventHandler(f1_paint);
}

private void f1_paint(object sender,PaintEventArgs e)

{
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
g.DrawString("Hello C#",new Font("Verdana",20),new SolidBrush(Color.Tomato),
40,40);

g.DrawRectangle(new Pen(Color.Pink,3),20,20,150,100);
}

public static void Main()

{
Application.Run(new Hello());
}
}

The method

DrawPolygon(System.Drawing.Pen,new Point[]{
new Point(x,y),new Point(x,y),
new Point(x,y),new Point(x,y),
new Point(x,y),new Point(x,y)});

draws a polygon for a given set of points. The following program shows how do
draw two triangles using this method.
88 CHAPTER 7. GRAPHICS

// MyPolygon.cs

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;

class Triangle : Form

{
public Triangle()
{
this.Paint += new PaintEventHandler(draw_triangle);
}

public void draw_triangle(Object sender,PaintEventArgs e)

{
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
Pen pen1 = new Pen(Color.Blue,2);
Pen pen2 = new Pen(Color.Green,2);

g.DrawPolygon(pen1,new Point[]{new Point(150,50),

new Point(50,150),new Point(250,150)});
g.DrawPolygon(pen2,new Point[]{new Point(50,155),
new Point(250,155),new Point(250,255)});
}

public static void Main()

{
Application.Run(new Triangle());
}
}

The following program shows how to use

FillRectangle(Brush,float x,float y,float width,float height);

FillEllipse(Brush,float x,float y, float width,float height);
FillPie(Brush,float x,float y,float width,float height,float angleX,float angleY);

// Fill.cs

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;

public class Fill : Form

{
public Fill()
7.2. COLOR CLASS 89

{
this.Paint += new PaintEventHandler(fillpaint);
}

private void fillpaint(object sender,PaintEventArgs e)

{
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
g.FillRectangle(new SolidBrush(Color.Red),15,15,100,150);
g.FillEllipse(new SolidBrush(Color.Blue),50,50,150,120);
g.FillPie(new SolidBrush(Color.Yellow),200,200,40,40,0,90);
}

public static void Main()

{
Application.Run(new Fill());
}
}

7.2 Color Class

The Color class provides “constants” for common colors such as White, Black,
Blue, Red, Green, Pink. To create a Color structure from the specified 8-bit Color
(red,green,blue) we call for example

Color myColor = Color.FromArgb(0,255,125);

The alpha-value is implicit 255 (no transparency). To create a Color structure from
the four ARGB component (alpha,red,green,blue) we call for example

Color myColor = Color.FromArgb(51,255,0,0);

Alpha is also known as transparency where 255 is totally solid and 0 is totally
transparent.

// draw.cs

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;

public class Draw : Form

{
public Draw() { } // default constructor

protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)

90 CHAPTER 7. GRAPHICS

{
FontFamily fontFamily = new FontFamily("Times New Roman");
Font font = new Font(fontFamily,24,FontStyle.Bold,GraphicsUnit.Pixel);
PointF pointF = new PointF(30,10);
SolidBrush solidbrush =
new SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(51,255,0,0));
e.Graphics.DrawString ("Hello",font,solidbrush,pointF);

Pen myPen = new Pen(Color.Red);

myPen.Width = 50;
e.Graphics.DrawEllipse(myPen,new Rectangle(33,45,40,50));
e.Graphics.DrawLine(myPen,1,1,45,65);
e.Graphics.DrawBezier(myPen,15,15,30,30,45,30,87,20);
}

public static void Main()

{
Application.Run(new Draw());
}
}

In C# the user can choose a color by applying the ColorDialog class appropriatly.
First we have to create an object of ColorDialog class

ColorDialog cd = new ColorDialog();

An example is given in the followsing program

// ColorD.cs

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;

public class ColorD : Form

{
Button b = new Button();
TextBox tb = new TextBox();
ColorDialog clg = new ColorDialog();

public ColorD()
{
b.Click += new EventHandler(b_click);
b.Text = "OK";
tb.Location = new Point(50,50);
this.Controls.Add(b);
7.3. BUTTON AND EVENTHANDLER 91

this.Controls.Add(tb);
}

public void b_click(object sender,EventArgs e)

{
clg.ShowDialog();
tb.BackColor = clg.Color;
}

public static void Main(string[] args)

{
Application.Run(new ColorD());
}
}

7.3 Button and EventHandler

The Button class defines a Click event of type EventHandler. Inside the Button
class, the Click member is exactly like a private field of type EventHandler. How-
ever, outside the Button class, the Click member can only be used on the left-hand
side of the += and -= operators. The operator += adds a handler for the event, and
the -= operator removes a handler for the event.
// Winhello.cs

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Drawing;

class WinHello : Form

{
private Button bnclick;

public WinHello()
{
Text = "Hello World";
Size = new Size(400,400);
bnclick = new Button();
bnclick.Text = "Click.Me";
bnclick.Size = new Size(60,24);
bnclick.Location = new Point(20,60);
bnclick.Click += new EventHandler(bnclick_Click);
Controls.Add(bnclick);
Closing += new CancelEventHandler(WinHello_Closing);
92 CHAPTER 7. GRAPHICS

private void bnclick_Click(object sender,EventArgs ev)

{
MessageBox.Show("Hello Egoli!!!!","Button Clicked",
MessageBoxButtons.OK,MessageBoxIcon.Information);
}

private void WinHello_Closing(object sender,CancelEventArgs ev)

{
if(MessageBox.Show("Are you sure?","Confirm exit",
MessageBoxButtons.YesNo,MessageBoxIcon.Question)
== DialogResult.No) ev.Cancel = true;
}

// Initialize the main thread

// using Single Threaded Apartment (STA) model
public static void Main()
{
Application.Run(new WinHello());
}
}

We can create a Font selection dialog box using the FontDialog class. The following
program gives an example

// Fonts.cs

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;

public class Fonts : Form

{
Button b = new Button();
TextBox tb = new TextBox();
FontDialog flg = new FontDialog();

public Fonts()
{
b.Click += new EventHandler(b_click);
b.Text = "OK";
tb.Location = new Point(50,50);
this.Controls.Add(b);
this.Controls.Add(tb);
7.4. DISPLAYING IMAGES 93

public void b_click(object sender,EventArgs e)

{
flg.ShowDialog();
tb.Font = flg.Font;
}

public static void Main(string[] args)

{
Application.Run(new Fonts());
}

7.4 Displaying Images

Next we provide a program that displays images using the method DrawImage. The
file formats could be bmp, gif or jpeg.
// mydrawim.cs

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Drawing.Drawing2D;
using System.Windows.Forms;

public class Texturedbru : Form

{
public Texturedbru()
{
this.Text = "Using Texture Brushes";
this.Paint += new PaintEventHandler(Text_bru);
}

public void Text_bru(object sender,PaintEventArgs e)

{
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
Image bgimage = new Bitmap("forest.bmp");
g.DrawImage(bgimage,20,20,1000,600);
}

public static void Main()

{
Application.Run(new Texturedbru());
94 CHAPTER 7. GRAPHICS

}
}

Another option to display the picture is

// textbru.cs

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Drawing.Drawing2D;
using System.Windows.Forms;

public class Texturedbru : Form

{
Brush bgbrush;

public Texturedbru()
{
this.Text = "Using Texture Brushes";
Image bgimage = new Bitmap("forest.bmp");
bgbrush = new TextureBrush(bgimage);
this.Paint += new PaintEventHandler(Text_bru);
}

public void Text_bru(object sender,PaintEventArgs e )

{
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
g.FillEllipse(bgbrush,50,50,500,300);
g.FillEllipse(bgbrush,150,150,450,300);
g.FillRectangle(bgbrush,350,450,100,130);
}

public static void Main()

{
Application.Run(new Texturedbru());
}
}

7.5 Overriding OnPaint

The next program shows how to override OnPaint(). We create a Button and
clicking on it switches the color of the circle from red to blue and vice versa.

// MyOnPaint.cs
7.5. OVERRIDING ONPAINT 95

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;

class Draw : Form

{
private SolidBrush b = new SolidBrush(Color.Red);

public Draw()
{
Button button1 = new Button();
button1.Text = "Click Me";
button1.Location = new Point(210,220);
button1.Click += new EventHandler(HandleClick);
Controls.Add(button1);
}

protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)

{
int diameter = 200;
int x = 50;
int y = 30;

if(b.Color == Color.Blue)
{
b.Color = Color.Red;
}
else
{
b.Color = Color.Blue;
}
e.Graphics.FillEllipse(b,x,y,diameter,diameter);
} // end OnPaint

void HandleClick(object sender,EventArgs e)

{
this.Refresh();
}

public static void Main()

{
Application.Run(new Draw());
}
}
96 CHAPTER 7. GRAPHICS

Another example we consider a rotation line.

// Rotate.cs

using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Drawing.Drawing2D;
using System;

class TimerVector : Form

{
float rot;
public static void Main()
{
Application.Run(new TimerVector());
}

private void TimerEvent(Object myObject,EventArgs myEventArgs)

{
Invalidate();
}

protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs pea)

{
Graphics g = pea.Graphics;
GraphicsState gs = g.Save();
Pen myPen = new Pen(Color.Black,3);
float x1 = ClientSize.Width/4;
float y1 = ClientSize.Height/4;
float x2 = (ClientSize.Width*3)/4;
float y2 = (ClientSize.Height*3)/4;
float centerx = ClientSize.Width/2;
float centery = ClientSize.Height/2;
g.TranslateTransform(-centerx,-centery);
g.RotateTransform(rot,MatrixOrder.Append);
g.TranslateTransform(centerx,centery,MatrixOrder.Append);
g.SmoothingMode = SmoothingMode.AntiAlias;
g.DrawLine(myPen,x1,y1,x2,y2);
g.Restore(gs);
rot = (rot + 1)%360;
}

public TimerVector()
{
rot = 0.0f;
7.5. OVERRIDING ONPAINT 97

Timer t = new Timer();

t.Interval = 100;
t.Tick += new EventHandler(TimerEvent);
t.Start();
}
}

Another example is

// Flicker.cs

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;

class Flicker : Form

{
private Timer t = new Timer();
private Size playerSize = new Size(50,50);
private Point playerPosition = new Point(0,0);

public Flicker()
{
ClientSize = new Size(500,500);
SetStyle(ControlStyles.DoubleBuffer,true);
SetStyle(ControlStyles.UserPaint,true);
SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint,true);
t.Interval = 40;
t.Tick += new EventHandler(TimerOnTick);
t.Enabled = true;
this.KeyDown += new KeyEventHandler(OnKeyPress);
}

private void TimerOnTick(object sender,EventArgs e)

{
this.Refresh();
this.Text = DateTime.Now.ToString();
this.Text += " " + this.PlayerPosition.ToString();
}

private Point PlayerPosition

{
get { return this.playerPosition; }

set
98 CHAPTER 7. GRAPHICS

{
if(value.X < 0)
{
this.playerPosition.X = this.ClientSize.Width-this.playerSize.Width;
}
else if(value.X+this.playerSize.Width > this.ClientSize.Width)
{
this.playerPosition.X = 0;
}
else
{
this.playerPosition.X = value.X;
}

if(value.Y < 0)
{
this.playerPosition.Y = this.ClientSize.Height-this.playerSize.Height;
}
else if(value.Y+this.playerSize.Height > this.ClientSize.Height)
{
this.playerPosition.Y = 0;
}
else
{
this.playerPosition.Y = value.Y;
}
}
}

private void OnKeyPress(object sender,KeyEventArgs e)

{
if(e.KeyValue == 37)
{
this.PlayerPosition =
new Point(this.PlayerPosition.X-this.playerSize.Width,this.PlayerPosition.Y);
}
if(e.KeyValue == 38)
{
this.PlayerPosition =
new Point(this.PlayerPosition.X,this.PlayerPosition.Y-this.playerSize.Width);
}
if(e.KeyValue == 39)
{
this.PlayerPosition =
new Point(this.PlayerPosition.X+this.playerSize.Height,this.PlayerPosition.Y);
7.5. OVERRIDING ONPAINT 99

if(e.KeyValue == 40)
{
this.PlayerPosition =
new Point(this.PlayerPosition.X,this.PlayerPosition.Y+this.playerSize.Height);
}
}

protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)

{
e.Graphics.FillRectangle(new SolidBrush(Color.Red),this.PlayerPosition.X,
this.playerPosition.Y,this.playerSize.Width,
this.playerSize.Height);
}

public static void Main()

{
Application.Run(new Flicker());
}
}
Chapter 8

Events

Event handling is familiar to any developer who has programmed graphical user in-
terfaces (GUI). When a user interacts with a GUI control (e.g., clicking a button on
a form), one or more methods are executed in response to the above event. Events
can also be generated without user interactions. Event handlers are methods in an
object that are executed in response to some events occuring in the application. To
understand the event handling model of the .NET framework, we need to unter-
stand the concept of delegate. A delegate in C# allows us to pass methods of one
class to objects to other classes that can call those methods. We can pass method
m in class A, wrapped in a delegate, to class B and class B will be able to call
method m. We can pass both static and instance methods.

An event handler in C# is a delegate with a special signature, given below

public delegate void MyEventHandler(object sender,MyEventArgs e)

The first parameter (sender) in the above declaration specifies the object that fired
the event. The second parameter (e) holds data that can be used in the event han-
dler. The class MyEventArgs is derived from the class EventArgs. EventArgs is the
base class of more specialized classes, like MouseEventArgs, ListChangedEventArgs,
etc.

Thus an event is a notification sent by a sender object to a listener object. The lis-
tener registers an event handler method with the sender. When the event occurs the
sender invokes event handler methods of all its registered listerners. The event han-
dler is registered by adding +=. The -= operator removes the handler from the event.

As an example we set up two classes A and B to see how this event handling mecha-
nism works in .NET framework. The delegates require that we define methods with
the exact same signature as that of the delegate declaration. Class A will provide
event handlers (methods with the same signature as that of the event declaration).
It will create the delegate objects and hook up the event handler. Class A will then
pass the delegate objects to class B. When an event occurs in class B, it will execute
the event handler method of class B.
100
 101

// MyHandler.cs

using System;

// Step 1. Create delegate object

public delegate void MyHandler1(object sender,MyEventArgs e);
public delegate void MyHandler2(object sender,MyEventArgs e);

// Step 2. Create event handler methods

class A
{
public const string m_id = "Class A";
public void OnHandler1(object sender,MyEventArgs e)
{
Console.WriteLine("I am in OnHandler1 and MyEventArgs is {0}",e.m_id);
}

public void OnHandler2(object sender,MyEventArgs e)

{
Console.WriteLine("I am in OnHandler2 and MyEventArgs is {0}",e.m_id);
}

// Step 3. Create delegates, plug in the handler and register

// with the object that will fire the events
public A(B b)
{
MyHandler1 d1 = new MyHandler1(OnHandler1);
MyHandler2 d2 = new MyHandler2(OnHandler2);
b.Event1 += d1;
b.Event2 += d2;
}
} // end class A

// Step 4. Call the encapsulated method through the delegate (fires events)
class B
{
public event MyHandler1 Event1;
public event MyHandler2 Event2;
public void FireEvent1(MyEventArgs e)
{
if(Event1 != null) { Event1(this,e); }
}
public void FireEvent2(MyEventArgs e)
{
if(Event2 != null) { Event2(this,e); }
102 CHAPTER 8. EVENTS

}
} // end class B

public class MyEventArgs

{
public string m_id;
} // end class MyEventArgs

class Driver
{
public static void Main()
{
B b = new B();
A a = new A(b);
MyEventArgs e1 = new MyEventArgs();
MyEventArgs e2 = new MyEventArgs();
e1.m_id = "Event args for event 1";
e2.m_id = "Event args for event 2";
b.FireEvent1(e1);
b.FireEvent2(e2);
} // end Main
}

The next program shows GUI event handling in C#. We create two buttons each of
them fires an event.

// evthand.cs

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing;

class MyForm : Form

{
MyForm()
{
// button1 top left corner
Button button1 = new Button();
button1.Text = "Button";
button1.Click += new EventHandler(HandleClick1);
Controls.Add(button1);

Button button2 = new Button();

button2.Location = new Point(40,40);
button2.Size = new Size(60,40);
 103

button2.Text = "New Button";

button2.Click += new EventHandler(HandleClick2);
Controls.Add(button2);
}

void HandleClick1(object sender,EventArgs e)

{
MessageBox.Show("The click event fire!");
}

void HandleClick2(object sender,EventArgs e)

{
Console.WriteLine("Console click fire!");
}

public static void Main()

{
Application.Run(new MyForm());
}
}
Chapter 9

Processes and Threads

9.1 Processes
A process in its simplest form is a running application. The Process class provides
access to local and remote processes and enables us to start and stop local system
processes.

The Process.Start() method starts a process resource by specifying the name of

a document or application file and associates the resource with a new process com-
ponent. Thus we can start other applications from within our application.

The program below launches notepad.exe, winhlp32.exe and asynchronously counts

up from 0 to 100001, then destroys the notepad.exe process using the Kill()
method. It counts again from 0 to 2000 and then kills the winhlp32.exe process.
Each process has an Id number.

// process1.cs

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;

class Processtest
{
public static void Main()
{
Process p = Process.Start("notepad.exe");
string name = p.ProcessName;
int id = p.Id;
DateTime started = p.StartTime;
Console.WriteLine("name = " + name);
Console.WriteLine("id = " + id);
Console.WriteLine("StartTime = " + started);

104
9.2. THREADS 105

Process w = Process.Start("winhlp32.exe");

for(int i=0;i<100001;i++) Console.WriteLine(i);

p.Kill();
for(int j=0;j<2000;j++) Console.WriteLine(j);
w.Kill();
}
}

If we also want to load a file (for example process2.cs) with notepad.exe we

change this line to

Process p = Process.Start("notepad.exe","c:\\csharp\\process2.cs");

The detect process completion we use the method

WaitForExit()

9.2 Threads
9.2.1 Introduction
A thread is an execution stream within a process. A thread is also called a lightweight
process. It has it own execution stack, local variables, and program counter. There
may be more than one thread in a process. Threads are part of the same process
which execute concurrently. In .NET Base Class Library (BCL) the System.Threading
namespace provides various classes for executing and controlling threads.

The following program Threads0.cs is the simple example. We create a Thread

instance by passing it an object of ThreadStart delegate which contains a reference
to our ThreadJob method. Thus the code creates a new thread which runs the
ThreadJob method, and starts it. That thread counts from 0 to 1 while the main
thread counts from 0 to 5.

// Threads0.cs

using System;
using System.Threading;

public class Threads0

{
static void Main()
{
ThreadStart job = new ThreadStart(ThreadJob);
Thread thread = new Thread(job);
106 CHAPTER 9. PROCESSES AND THREADS

thread.Start();

int i = 0;
while(i < 6)
{
Console.WriteLine("Main thread: {0}",i);
i++;
} // end while
} // end Main

static void ThreadJob()

{
int i = 0;
while(i < 2)
{
Console.WriteLine("Other thread: {0}",i);
i++;
} // end while
} // end ThreadJob
}

An output could be

Main thread: 0
Main thread: 1
Main thread: 2
Main thread: 3
Main thread: 4
Main thread: 5
Other thread: 0
Other thread: 1

At another run the output could be

Other thread: 0
Other thread: 1
Main thread: 0
Main thread: 1
Main thread: 2
Main thread: 3
Main thread: 4
Main thread: 5

9.2.2 Background Thread

In the program threadtest2.cs the Thread t is set to the background thread
9.2. THREADS 107

t.IsBackgound = true;

The thread will terminate when the application terminates.

// threadtest2.cs

using System;
using System.Threading; // for Thread class

class ThreadTest2
{
public static void SayHello()
{
for(int i=1;;i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("Hello {0}",i);
}
}

public static void Main()

{
Thread t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(SayHello));
t.IsBackground = true;
t.Start();
for(int i=1;i<1001;i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("Bye {0}",i);
}
}
}

9.2.3 Sleep Method

Once a thread has been started it is often useful for that thread to pause for a
fixed period of time. Calling Thread.Sleep causes the thread to immediately
block for a fixed number of milliseconds. The Sleep method takes as a param-
eter a timeout, which is the number of milliseconds that the thread should re-
main blocked. The Sleep method is called when a thread wants to put itself to
sleep. One thread cannot call Sleep on another thread. Calling Thread.Sleep(0)
causes a thread to yield the remainder of its timeslice to another thread. Calling
Thread.Sleep(Timeout.Infinite) causes a thread to sleep until it is interrupted
by another thread that calls Thread.Interrupt. A thread can also be paused
by calling Thread.Suspend. When a thread calls Thread.Suspend on itself, the
call blocks until the thread is resumed by another thread. When one thread calls
Thread.Suspend on another thread, the call is a non-blocking call that causes the
108 CHAPTER 9. PROCESSES AND THREADS

other thread to pause.

The following program Threads0.cs is the simple example. We create a Thread

instance by passing it an object of ThreadStart delegate which contains a reference
to our ThreadJob method. Thus the code creates a new thread which runs the
ThreadJob method, and starts it. That thread counts from 0 to 9 fairly fast (about
twice a second) while the main thread counts from 0 to 4 fairly slowly (about once a
second). The way they count at different speeds is by each of them including a call
to Thread.Sleep(), which just makes the current thread sleep (do nothing) for the
specified period of time (milliseconds). Between each count in the main thread we
sleep for 1000ms, and between each count in the other thread we sleep for 500ms.

// ThreadsSleep.cs

using System;
using System.Threading;

public class ThreadsSleep

{
static void Main()
{
ThreadStart job = new ThreadStart(ThreadJob);
Thread thread = new Thread(job);
thread.Start();

int i = 0;
while(i < 5)
{
Console.WriteLine("Main thread: {0}",i);
Thread.Sleep(1000);
i++;
} // end while
} // end Main

static void ThreadJob()

{
int i = 0;
while(i < 10)
{
Console.WriteLine("Other thread: {0}",i);
Thread.Sleep(500);
i++;
} // end while
} // end ThreadJob
}
9.2. THREADS 109

A typical output could be

Main thread: 0
Other thread: 0
Other thread: 1
Main thread: 1
Other thread: 2
Other thread: 3
Other thread: 4
Main thread: 2
Other thread: 5
Main thread: 3
Other thread: 6
Other thread: 7
Main thread: 4
Other thread: 8
Other thread: 9

At another run this could change.

9.2.4 Join Methods

The method Join() blocks the calling thread until a thread terminates.

// joiningthread.cs

using System;
using System.Threading;

class JoiningThread
{
public static void Run()
{
for(int i=1;i<3;i++)
Console.WriteLine("Hello {0}",i);
}

public static void Main()

{
Thread t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(Run));
t.Start();
for(int i=1;i<6;i++)
Console.WriteLine("Welcome {0}",i);
t.Join();
Console.WriteLine("Goodbye");
}
110 CHAPTER 9. PROCESSES AND THREADS

The output is

Welcome 1
Welcome 2
Welcome 3
Welcome 4
Welcome 5
Hello 1
Hello 2

9.3 Monitor
While one thread is in a read/increment/write operation, no other threads can try
to do the same thing. This is where monitors come in. Every object in .NET has
a monitor associated with it. A thread can enter (or acquire) a monitor only if no
other thread has currently “got” it. Once a thread has acquired a monitor, it can
acquire it more times, or exit (or release) it. The monitor is only available to other
threads again once it has exited as many times as it was entered. If a thread tries
to acquire a monitor which is owened by another thread, it will block until it is able
to acquire it. There may be more than one thread trying to acquire the monitor,
in which case when the current owner thread releases it for the last time, only one
of the threads will acquire it - the other one will have to wait for the new owner to
release it too. The Pulse(object) method notifies a thread in the waiting queue
of a change in the locked object’s state. The method Wait(object) waits for the
Monitor Pulse.

// waitingthread.cs

using System;
using System.Threading;

class WaitingThread
{
static object obj = new object();

public static void thread1()

{
for(int i=1;i<6;i++)
Console.WriteLine("Welcome: {0}",i);
Monitor.Enter(obj);
Monitor.Pulse(obj);
Monitor.Exit(obj);
}
9.4. SYNCHRONIZATION 111

public static void thread2()

{
for(int i=1;i<15;i++)
Console.WriteLine("Hello: {0}",i);
Monitor.Enter(obj);
Monitor.Pulse(obj);
Monitor.Exit(obj);
}

public static void thread3()

{
for(int i=1;i<8;i++)
Console.WriteLine("Good Night: {0}",i);
Monitor.Enter(obj);
Monitor.Wait(obj);
Monitor.Pulse(obj);
Monitor.Exit(obj);
}

public static void Main()

{
ThreadStart job1 = new ThreadStart(thread1);
ThreadStart job2 = new ThreadStart(thread2);
ThreadStart job3 = new ThreadStart(thread3);
Thread t1 = new Thread(job1);
Thread t2 = new Thread(job2);
Thread t3 = new Thread(job3);
t1.Start();
t2.Start();
t3.Start();
}
}

If thread3 runs last after thread1 and thread2 have completed it freeze at

Good Night: 7

9.4 Synchronization
When two or more threads share a common resource access needs to be serialized in a
process called synchronization. Synchronization is done with the lock() operation.
The first program is without the lock operation. In the second program the lock
operation is introduced.
112 CHAPTER 9. PROCESSES AND THREADS

// syncthreads1.cs

using System;
using System.Threading;

class Account
{
private double balance = 5000;

public void Withdraw(double amount)

{
Console.WriteLine("WITHDRAWING {0}",amount);
if(amount > balance) throw new Exception("INSUFFICIENT FUNDS");
Thread.Sleep(10); // do other stuff
balance -= amount;
Console.WriteLine("BALANCE {0}",balance);
}
}

class SymnThread
{
static Account acc = new Account();

public static void Run()

{
acc.Withdraw(3000);
}

public static void Main()

{
new Thread(new ThreadStart(Run)).Start();
acc.Withdraw(3000);
}
}

Now we introduce the lock.

// syncthreads2.cs

using System;
using System.Threading;

class Account
{
private double balance = 5000;
9.5. DEADLOCK 113

public void Withdraw(double amount)

{
Console.WriteLine("WITHDRAWING {0}",amount);
lock(this)
{
if(amount > balance) throw new Exception("INSUFFICIENT FUNDS");
Thread.Sleep(10); // do other stuff
balance -= amount;
}
Console.WriteLine("BALANCE {0}",balance);
}
}

class SymnThread
{
static Account acc = new Account();

public static void Run()

{
acc.Withdraw(3000);
}

public static void Main()

{
new Thread(new ThreadStart(Run)).Start();
acc.Withdraw(3000);
}
}

9.5 Deadlock
The second major problem of multi-threading is that of deadlocks. Simply put, this
is when two threads each holds a monitor that the other one wants. Each blocks,
waiting for the monitor that it’s waiting for to be released - and so the monitors are
never released, and the application hangs (or at least those threads involved in the
deadlock hang). An example is given below.
// Deadlock.cs

using System;
using System.Threading;

public class Deadlock

{
114 CHAPTER 9. PROCESSES AND THREADS

static readonly object firstLock = new object();

static readonly object secondLock = new object();

static void ThreadJob()

{
Console.WriteLine("\t\t\t\tLocking firstLock");
lock(firstLock)
{
Console.WriteLine("\t\t\t\tLocked firstLock");
// Wait until we are fairly sure the first thread
// has grabbed secondlock
Thread.Sleep(1000);
Console.WriteLine("\t\t\t\tLocking secondLock");
lock(secondLock)
{
Console.WriteLine("\t\t\t\tLocked secondLock");
}
Console.WriteLine("\t\t\t\tReleased secondLock");
}
Console.WriteLine("\t\t\t\tReleased firstLock");
} // end method ThreadJob

public static void Main()

{
new Thread(new ThreadStart(ThreadJob)).Start();
// wait until we are fairly sure the other thread
// has grabbed firstlock
Thread.Sleep(500);
Console.WriteLine("Locking secondLock");
lock(secondLock)
{
Console.WriteLine("Locked secondLock");
Console.WriteLine("Locking firstLock");
lock(firstLock)
{
Console.WriteLine("Locked firstLock");
}
Console.WriteLine("Released firstLock");
}
Console.WriteLine("Released secondLock");
} // end Main
} // end class
9.6. INTERLOCKED CLASS 115

9.6 Interlocked Class

An operation is atomic if it is indivisible - in other words, nothing else can happen
in the middle. Thus with an atomic write, we cannot have another thread reading
the value half way through the write, and ending up “seeing” half of the old value
and half of the new value. Sinilarly, with an atomic read, we cannot have another
thread changing the value half way through the read, ending up with a value which
is neither the old nor the new value. For example, for a long (64 bits) on a 32 bit
machine, if one thread is changing the value from 0 to 0x0123456789ABCDEF, there
is no guarantee that another thread will not see the value as 0x0123456700000000
or 0x0000000089ABCDEF.

The Interlocked class provides a set of methods for performing atomic changes: ex-
changes (optionally performing a comparison first), increments and decrements. The
Exchange and CompareExchange methods act on a variables of type int, object,
or float; the Increment and Decrement methods act on variables of type int and
long.

// interlocked.cs

using System;
using System.Threading;

public class MyInterlocked

{
static long count = 0;

public static void Main()

{
ThreadStart job = new ThreadStart(ThreadJob);
Thread thread = new Thread(job);
thread.Start();

for(long i=0;i<5;i++)
{
Interlocked.Increment(ref count);
Console.WriteLine("I am in for loop in main");
}
thread.Join();
Console.WriteLine("final count: {0}",count);
} // end Main

static void ThreadJob()

{
long i = 0;
116 CHAPTER 9. PROCESSES AND THREADS

while(i < 5)
{
Interlocked.Increment(ref count);
Console.WriteLine("I am in ThreadJob");
i++;
}
} // end ThreadJob
}

First the for loop in Main will run to the end and then the while loop will be done.

9.7 Thread Pooling

We can use thread pooling to make much more efficient use of multiple threads,
depending on our application. Many applications use multiple threads, but often
those threads spend a great deal of time in the sleeping state waiting for an event
to occur. Other threads might enter a sleeping state and be awakend only periodi-
cally to poll for a change or update status information before going to sleep again.
Using thread pooling provides our application with a pool of worker threads that
are managed by the system, allowing us to concentrate on application tasks rather
than thread management. An example is given below.

// ThreadsSum2.cs

using System;
using System.Threading;

class ThreadsSum
{
public static void Sum1(Object o)
{
int sum1 = 0;
int[] a1 = (int[]) o;
for(int i=0;i<a1.Length;i++)
{
sum1 += a1[i];
}
Console.WriteLine("sum1 = " + sum1);
}

public static void Sum2(Object o)

{
int sum2 = 0;
int[] a2 = (int[]) o;
for(int i=0;i<a2.Length;i++)
9.8. THREADING IN WINDOWS FORMS 117

{
sum2 += a2[i];
}
Console.WriteLine("sum2 = " + sum2);
}

public static void Main()

{
int[] a1 = { 2, 3, 4 };
int[] a2 = { 4, 5, 7 };

if(ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(new WaitCallback(Sum1),a1))
Console.WriteLine("Sum1 queued");
if(ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(new WaitCallback(Sum2),a2))
Console.WriteLine("Sum2 queued");

Thread.Sleep(10); // Give other threads a turn

}
}

9.8 Threading in Windows Forms

How to handle threading in a UI? There are two rules for Windows Forms:

1) Never invoke any method or property on a control created on another thread other
than Invoke, BeginInvoke, EndInvoke or CreateGraphics, and InvokeRequired.
Each control is effectively bound to a thread which runs its message pump. If we
try to access or change anything in the UI (for example changing the Text prop-
erty) from a different thread, we run a risk of our program hanging or misbehaving
in other ways. We may get away with it in some cases. Fortunately, the Invoke,
BeginInvoke and EndInvoke methods have been provided so that we can ask the
UI thread to call a method in a safe manner.

2) Never execute a long-running piece of code in the UI thread. If our code is running
in the UI thread, that means no other code is running in that thread. That means
we won’t receive events, our controls won’t be repainted, etc. We can execute long-
running code and periodically call Application.DoEvents(). It means we have
to consider re-entrancy issues etc, which are harder to diagnose and fix than ”nor-
mal” threading problems. We have to judge when to call DoEvents, and we can’t
use anything which might block (network access, for instance) without risking an
unresponsive UI. There are message pumping issues in terms of COM objects as well.

If we have a piece of long-running code which we need to execute, we need to create

a new thread (or use a thread pool thread if we prefer) to execute it on, and make
118 CHAPTER 9. PROCESSES AND THREADS

sure it doesn’t directly try to update the UI with its results. The thread creation
part is the same as any other threading problem. It is interesting going the other
way - invoking a method on the UI thread in order to update the UI. There are two
different ways of invoking a method on the UI thread, one synchronous (Invoke)
and one asynchronous (BeginInvoke). They work in much the same way - we spec-
ify a delegate and (optionally) some arguments, and a message goes on the queue
for the UI thread to process. If we use Invoke, the current thread will block until
the delegate has been executed. If we use BeginInvoke, the call will return imme-
diately. If we need to get the return value of a delegate invoked asynchronously, we
can use EndInvoke with the IAsyncResult returned by BeginInvoke to wait until
the delegate has completed and fetch the return value.

There are two options when working out how to get information between the various
threads involved. The first option is to have state in the class itself, setting it in
one thread, retrieving and processing it in the other (updating the display in the UI
thread, for example). The second option is to pass the information as parameters
in the delegate. Using state somewhere is necessary if we are creating a new thread
rather than using the thread pool - but that doesn’t mean we have to use state to
return information to the UI. However, creating a delegate with lots of parameters
feels clumsy, and is in some ways less efficient than using a simple MethodInvoker
or EventHandler delegate. These two delegates are treated in a special (fast) man-
ner by Invoke and BeginInvoke. MethodInvoker is just a delegate which takes no
parameters and returns no value (like ThreadStart), and EventHandler takes two
parameters (a sender and an EventArgs parameter and returns no value. However if
we pass an EventHandler delegate to Invoke or BeginInvoke then even if we specify
parameters ourself, they are ignored - when the method is invoked, the sender will
be the control we have invoked it with, and the EventArgs will be EventArgs.Empty.

Here is an example which shows several of the above concepts.

// ThreadingForms.cs

using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing;

public class Test : Form

{
delegate void StringParameterDelegate(string value);
Label statusIndicator;
Label counter;
Button button;

readonly object stateLock = new object();

9.8. THREADING IN WINDOWS FORMS 119

int target;
int currentCount;

Random rng = new Random();

Test()
{
Size = new Size(180,120);
Text = "Test";

Label lbl = new Label();

lbl.Text = "Status:";
lbl.Size = new Size(50,20);
lbl.Location = new Point(10,10);
Controls.Add(lbl);

lbl = new Label();

lbl.Text = "Count:";
lbl.Size = new Size(50,20);
lbl.Location = new Point(10,34);
Controls.Add(lbl);

statusIndicator = new Label();

statusIndicator.Size = new Size(100,20);
statusIndicator.Location = new Point(70,10);
Controls.Add(statusIndicator);

counter = new Label();

counter.Size = new Size(100,20);
counter.Location = new Point(70,34);
Controls.Add(counter);

button = new Button();

button.Text = "Run";
button.Size = new Size(50,20);
button.Location = new Point(10,58);
Controls.Add(button);
button.Click += new EventHandler(StartThread);
}

void StartThread(object sender,EventArgs e)

{
button.Enabled = false;
lock(stateLock)
{
120 CHAPTER 9. PROCESSES AND THREADS

target = rng.Next(100);
}
Thread t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(ThreadJob));
t.IsBackground = true;
t.Start();
}

void ThreadJob()
{
MethodInvoker updateCounterDelegate = new MethodInvoker(UpdateCount);
int localTarget;
lock(stateLock)
{
localTarget = target;
}
UpdateStatus("Starting");

lock(stateLock)
{
currentCount = 0;
}
Invoke(updateCounterDelegate);
// Pause before starting
Thread.Sleep(500);
UpdateStatus("Counting");
for(int i=0;i<localTarget;i++)
{
lock(stateLock)
{
currentCount = i;
}
// Synchronously show the counter
Invoke(updateCounterDelegate);
Thread.Sleep(100);
}
UpdateStatus("Finished");
Invoke(new MethodInvoker(EnableButton));
}

void UpdateStatus(string value)

{
if(InvokeRequired)
{
// We’re not in the UI thread, so we need to call BeginInvoke
BeginInvoke(new StringParameterDelegate(UpdateStatus),new object[]{value});
9.8. THREADING IN WINDOWS FORMS 121

return;
}
// Must be on the UI thread if we’ve got this far
statusIndicator.Text = value;
}

void UpdateCount()
{
int tmpCount;
lock(stateLock)
{
tmpCount = currentCount;
}
counter.Text = tmpCount.ToString();
}

void EnableButton()
{
button.Enabled = true;
}

static void Main()

{
Application.Run(new Test());
}
}

State is used to tell the worker thread what number to count up to. A delegate taking
a parameter is used to ask the UI to update the status label. The worker thread’s
principal method actually just calls UpdateStatus, which uses InvokeRequired
to detect whether or not it needs to ”change thread”. If it does, it then calls
BeginInvoke to execute the same method again from the UI thread. This is quite
a common way of making a method which interacts with the UI thread-safe. The
choice of BeginInvoke rather than Invoke here was just to demonstrate how to
invoke a method asynchronously. In real code, we would decide based on whether
we needed to block to wait for the access to the UI to complete before continuing
or not. It is quite rare to actually require UI access to complete first, so we should
use BeginInvoke instead of Invoke. Another approach might be to have a property
which did the appropriate invoking when necessary. It is easier to use from the
client code, but slightly harder work in that we would either have to have another
method anyway, or get the MethodInfo for the property setter in order to construct
the delegate to invoke. In this case we actually know that BeginInvoke is required
because we are running in the worker thread anyway. We do not call EndInvoke after
the BeginInvoke. Unlike all other asynchronous methods we do not need to call
EndInvoke unless we need the return value of the delegate’s method. BeginInvoke
122 CHAPTER 9. PROCESSES AND THREADS

is also different to all of the other asynchronous methods as it doesn’t cause the
delegate to be run on a thread pool thread. State is used again to tell the UI thread
how far we have counted so far. We use a MethodInvoker delegate to execute
UpdateCount. We call this using Invoke to make sure that it executes on the UI
thread. This time there’s no attempt to detect whether or not an Invoke is required.
If we call BeginInvoke it will have a different effect than calling the method directly
as it will occur later, rather than in the current execution flow, of course. Again,
we actually know that we need to call Invoke here anyway. A button is provided to
let the user start the thread. It is disabled while the thread is running, and another
MethodInvoker delegate is used to enable the button again afterwards. All state
which is shared between threads (the current count and the target) is accessed in
locks in the way described earlier. We spend as little time as possible in the lock, not
updating the UI or anything else while holding the lock. This probably doesn’t make
too much difference here. It would be disastrous to still have the lock in the worker
thread when synchronously invoking UpdateCount - the UI thread would then try
to acquire the lock as well, and we end up with deadlock. The worker thread is
set to be a background thread (IsBackground=true;) so that when the UI thread
exits, the whole application finishes. In other cases where we have a thread which
should keep running even after the UI thread has quit, we need to be careful not
to call Invoke or BeginInvoke when the UI thread is no longer running - we will
either block permanently (waiting for the message to be taken off the queue, with
nothing actually looking at messages) or receive an exception.

9.9 Asynchronous Programming Model

When a caller invokes a method, the call is synchronous that is the caller has to
wait for the method to return before the remaining code can be executed. .NET has
an inbuilt support for asynchronous method invocation. Here the caller can issue a
request for invocation of a method and concurreently execute the remaining code.
For every delegate declared in an assembly the compiler emits a class (subclass of
System.MulticastDelegate) with Invoke, BeginInvoke and EndInvoke methods.
For example, consider a delegate declared as

delegate int MyWorker(char c,int m);

The compiler will emit the MyWorker class

class MyWorker : System.MulticastDelegate

{
public int Invoke(char c,int m);
public System.IAsyncResult BeginInvoke(char c,int m,System.AsyncCallback cb,
object asyncState);
public int EndInvoke(System.IAsyncResult result);
}
9.10. TIMERS 123

The BeginInvoke and EndInvoke methods can be used for asynchronous invoca-
tion of a method pointed by MyWorker delegate. In the program below the method
DoWork (it displays character c m number of times) is invoked asynchronously with
character ’+’, in the next statement this method is directly invoked with character
’*’. Both ’+’ and ’*’ are displayed (1000 times each) on the Console simultane-
ously. As an asynchronous call executes within its own background thread, we have
used Console.Read() to pause the main thread.

// Asynchronous.cs

using System;

delegate int MyWorker(char c,int m);

class AsncTest
{
static MyWorker worker;

static int DoWork(char c,int m)

{
int t = Environment.TickCount; // returns number of milliseconds
// elapsed since the system started
for(int i=1;i<=m;i++) Console.Write(c);
return (Environment.TickCount - t);
}

public static void Main()

{
Console.WriteLine("Start");
worker = new MyWorker(DoWork);
worker.BeginInvoke(’+’,1000,null,null); // asynchronous call
DoWork(’*’,1000); // synchronous call
Console.Read(); // pause until user presses a key
}
}

9.10 Timers
There are various different timers available in .NET, each of which basically calls
a delegate after a certain amount of time has passed. All the timers implement
IDispossible. so we have to make sure to dispose when we are not using them
anymore.

// Timers.cs
124 CHAPTER 9. PROCESSES AND THREADS

using System;
using System.Threading;

public class Timers

{
public static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine("Started at {0:HH:mm:ss.fff}",DateTime.Now);
// Start in three seconds, then fire every second
using(Timer timer = new Timer(new TimerCallback(Tick),null,3000,1000))
{
// wait for 10 seconds
Thread.Sleep(10000);
// then go slow for another 10 seconds
timer.Change(0,2000);
Thread.Sleep(10000);
}
// the timerm will now have been disposed automatically due
// to the using statement so there won’t be any other threads running
} // end Main()

static void Tick(object state)

{
Console.WriteLine("Ticked at {0:HH:mm:ss.fff}",DateTime.Now);
}
}

9.11 Interrupt and Abort

There are two methods in the Thread class which are used for stopping threads -
Abort and Interrupt. Calling Thread.Abort aborts that thread as soon as possible.
Aborting a thread which is executing unmanaged code has no effect until the CLR
gets control again. Calling Thread.Interrupt is similar, but less drastic. This
causes a ThreadInterruptedException exception to be thrown the next time the
thread enters the WaitSleepJoin state, or immediately if the thread is already in
that state.
// Interruptthread.cs

using System;
using System.Threading;

class SleepingThread
{
public static void Run()
9.11. INTERRUPT AND ABORT 125

{
for(int i=1;i<6;i++)
Console.WriteLine("Welcome {0}",i);

try
{
Thread.Sleep(5000);
}
catch(ThreadInterruptedException e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Sleep Interrupted");
}
Console.WriteLine("Goodbye");
}

public static void Main()

{
Thread t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(Run));
t.Start();
for(int i=1;i<16;i++)
Console.WriteLine("Hello {0}",i);
t.Interrupt();
}
}

The program threadtest1.cs uses the Abort method.

// threadtest1.cs

using System;
using System.Threading; // for Thread class

class ThreadTest1
{
public static void SayHello()
{
for(int i=1;;i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("Hello {0}",i);
}
}

public static void Main()

{
Thread t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(SayHello));
126 CHAPTER 9. PROCESSES AND THREADS

t.Start();
for(int i=1;i<1001;i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("Bye {0}",i);
}
t.Abort();
}
}
Chapter 10

Sockets Programming

10.1 Introduction
Most interprocess communication uses the client server model. These terms refer to
the two processes which will communicating with each other. One of the processes,
the client, connects to the other process, the server, typically to make a request for
information. A good analogy is a person who makes a phone call to another person.

The client needs to know of the existence of and the address of the server, but the
server does not need to know the address of (or even the existence of) the client
prior to the connection being established. Once a connection is established, both
sides can send and receive information.

The system calls for establishing a connection are different for the client and the
server, but both involve the basic construct of a socket. A socket is one end of an
interprocess communication channel. The two processes each establish their own
socket.

The steps for establishing a socket on the client side are:

1. Create a socket
2. Connect the socket to the address of the server
3. Send and receive data

The steps for establishing a socket on the server side are:

1. Create a socket
2. Bind the socket to an address. For the server socket on the Internet, an address
consists of a port number on the host machine.
3. Listen for connections.
4. Accept a connection. This call typically blocks until a client connects with the
server.
127
128 CHAPTER 10. SOCKETS PROGRAMMING

5. Send and receive data.

Thus a socket is a communication mechanism. A socket is normally identified by an

integer which may be called the socket descriptor. The socket mechanism was first
introduced in the 4.2 BSD Unix system in 1983 in conjunction with the TCP/IP
protocols that first appeared in the 4.1 BSD Unix system in late 1981.

Thus besides the IPAddress we also need a port number (2 bytes) which is arbitrary
except for the well know port numbers associated with popular applications.

Formally a socket is defined by a group of four numbers. There are

1) The remote host identification number or address (IPAddress)

2) The remote host port number
3) The local host identification number or address (IPAddress)
4) The local host port number

10.2 Transmission Control Protocol

TCP is reliable connection oriented protocol.

Example 1. When the server program is run it will indicate at which IPAddress
it is running and the port it is listening to. Now run the client program so that we
establish a connection with the server. When the connection is established the server
will display the IPAddress and port from where it has accepted the connection. The
client will ask for the string which is to be transmitted to the server. The server on
reciept of the string will display it, send an acknowledgement which will be received
by the client.
10.2. TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL 129

// Server1.cs

using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;

class Server1
{
public static void Main()
{
try
{
// use local IP address and use the same in the client
IPAddress ipAd = IPAddress.Parse("152.106.40.84");
TcpListener listener = new TcpListener(ipAd,2055);
// start listening at the specified port 2055
listener.Start();

Console.WriteLine("Server is running at port 2055...");

Console.WriteLine("The local End point is: " + listener.LocalEndpoint);
Console.WriteLine("Waiting for a connection...");

Socket s = listener.AcceptSocket();
Console.WriteLine("Connection accepted from " + s.RemoteEndPoint);

byte[] b = new byte[100];

int k = s.Receive(b);
Console.WriteLine("Received...");
for(int i=0;i<k;i++)
Console.Write(Convert.ToChar(b[i]));

ASCIIEncoding asen = new ASCIIEncoding();

s.Send(asen.GetBytes("The string was received by the server."));
Console.WriteLine("\nSent Acknowledgement");
// clean up
s.Close();
listener.Stop();
} // end try
catch(Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Error... " + e.StackTrace);
} // end catch
} // end Main
} // end class Server1
130 CHAPTER 10. SOCKETS PROGRAMMING

// Client1.cs

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;

class Client1
{
public static void Main()
{
try
{
TcpClient tcpclnt = new TcpClient();
Console.WriteLine("Connecting...");
tcpclnt.Connect("152.106.40.84",2055);

Console.WriteLine("Connected");
Console.Write("Enter the string to be transmitted: ");
String str = Console.ReadLine();
Stream stm = tcpclnt.GetStream();
ASCIIEncoding asen = new ASCIIEncoding();
byte[] ba = asen.GetBytes(str);
Console.WriteLine("Transmitting...");
stm.Write(ba,0,ba.Length);
byte[] bb = new byte[100];
int k = stm.Read(bb,0,100);

for(int i=0;i<k;i++)
Console.Write(Convert.ToChar(bb[i]));
// clean up
tcpclnt.Close();
} // end try
catch(Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Error... " + e.StackTrace);
} // end catch
} // end Main
} // end class Client1
10.2. TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL 131

Example 2. In our second example we include an xml-file (Server2.exe.config)

on the Server side we can query from the Client. On the Server side we first compile

csc /D:LOG Server2.cs

The code between #if LOG and endif will be added by the compiler only if the sym-
bol LOG is defined during compilation (conditional compilation). Next we compile
the Client side

csc Client2.cs

Then on the Server side we start running the exe-file Server2 and finally we start
the exe-file Client2 on the Client side.

// Server2.cs

using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Configuration;

class EmployeeTCPServer
{
static TcpListener listener;
const int LIMIT = 5; // 5 concurrent clients

public static void Main()

{
IPAddress ipAd = IPAddress.Parse("152.106.40.84");
listener = new TcpListener(ipAd,2055);
listener.Start();
#if LOG
Console.WriteLine("Server mounted,listening to port 2055");
#endif
for(int i=0;i<LIMIT;i++)
{
Thread t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(Service));
t.Start();
} // end for loop
} // end Main

public static void Service()

{
while(true)
132 CHAPTER 10. SOCKETS PROGRAMMING

{
Socket soc = listener.AcceptSocket();
#if LOG
Console.WriteLine("Connected: {0}",soc.RemoteEndPoint);
#endif
try
{
Stream s = new NetworkStream(soc);
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(s);
StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(s);
sw.AutoFlush = true; // enable automatic flushing
sw.WriteLine("{0} Employees available",ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Count);
while(true)
{
string name = sr.ReadLine();
if(name == "" || name == null) break;
string job = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[name];
if(job == null) job = "No such employee";
sw.WriteLine(job);
} // end while
s.Close();
} // end try
catch(Exception e)
{
#if LOG
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
#endif
} // end catch
#if LOG
Console.WriteLine("Disconnected: {0}",soc.RemoteEndPoint);
#endif
soc.Close();
}
}
} // end class Server2
10.2. TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL 133

The file (xml-file) Server2.exe.config is given by

<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="john" value="manager"/>
<add key="jane" value="steno"/>
<add key="jim" value="clerk"/>
<add key="jack" value="salesman"/>
</appSettings>
</configuration>
134 CHAPTER 10. SOCKETS PROGRAMMING

The Client2.cs is given by

// Client2.cs

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net.Sockets;

class Client2
{
public static void Main()
{
TcpClient client = new TcpClient("152.106.40.84",2055);
try
{
Stream s = client.GetStream();
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(s);
StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(s);
sw.AutoFlush = true;
Console.WriteLine(sr.ReadLine());
while(true)
{
Console.Write("Name: ");
string name = Console.ReadLine();
sw.WriteLine(name);
if(name == "") break;
Console.WriteLine(sr.ReadLine());
} // end while
s.Close();
} finally
{
// code in finally block is guranteed to execute irrespective
// whether any exception occurs or does not occur in the try block
client.Close();
} // end finally
} // end Main
} // end class Client2
10.3. USER DATAGRAM PROTOCOL 135

10.3 User Datagram Protocol

UDP is not very reliable (but fast) connectionless protocol.

Example. The UDPServer1.cs file is given by

// UDPServer1.cs

using System;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Text;
using System.Configuration;

class ServerUDP
{
public static void Main()
{
UdpClient udpc = new UdpClient(2055);
Console.WriteLine("Server started servicing on port 2055");
IPEndPoint ep = null;
while(true)
{
byte[] rdata = udpc.Receive(ref ep);
string name = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(rdata);
string job = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[name];
if(job==null) job = "No such employee";
byte[] sdata = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(job);
udpc.Send(sdata,sdata.Length,ep);
} // end while
} // end Main
}

The xml-file UDPServer1.exe.config is given by

<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="john" value="manager"/>
<add key="jane" value="steno"/>
<add key="jim" value="clerk"/>
<add key="jack" value="salesman"/>
</appSettings>
</configuration>
136 CHAPTER 10. SOCKETS PROGRAMMING

The UDPClient1.cs file is given by

// UDPClient1.cs

using System;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Text;

class ClientUDP
{
public static void Main()
{
UdpClient udpc = new UdpClient("152.106.40.84",2055);
IPEndPoint ep = null;
while(true)
{
Console.Write("Name: ");
string name = Console.ReadLine();
if(name == "") break;
byte[] sdata = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(name);
udpc.Send(sdata,sdata.Length);
byte[] rdata = udpc.Receive(ref ep);
string job = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(rdata);
Console.WriteLine("job = " + job);
} // end while
} // end Main
}

We include an xml-file (UDPServer1.exe.config) on the Server side we can query

from the Client. On the Server side we first compile

csc UDPServer1.cs

Next we compile the Client side

csc UDPClient1.cs

Then on the Server side we start running the exe-file UDPServer1 and finally we
start the exe-file UDPClient1 on the Client side.
Chapter 11

Remoting

11.1 Introduction
Object running in one Virtual Machine (VM) should be able to access (call functions
on) objects that are in a different Virtual Machine. Usually this means the two
processes are running on two different computers. To set up remoting we proceed
as follows:

Instantiate target object (on server)

Setup our channels
Register our object (on server)
Get a reference to object (on client)
Call method on server from the client

For example on the Server side:

public class Server {

public static void Main() {

Target t = new Target();

RemotingServices.Marshal(t,"me");

IChannel c = new HttpChannel(8080);

ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(c);

Console.WriteLine("Server ready. ");

Console.ReadLine();
}
}

137
138 CHAPTER 11. REMOTING

On the Client side we have

public class Client {

public static void Main() {

string url = "http://localhost:8080/me";

Type to = typeof(Target);
Target t = (Target) RemotingServices.Connect(to,url);
Console.WriteLine("Connected to server.");
try {
string msg = Console.ReadLine();
t.sendMessage(msg);
} catch(Exception e) {
Console.WriteLine("Error " + e.Message);
}
}
}

A shared class (i.e. it is on the Client and Server side) is

public class Target : System.MarshalByRefObject

{
public void sendMessage(string msg)
{ System.Console.WriteLine(msg); }
}

Reference types passed via remoting must be serializable or marshal-by-reference.

Serializable == pass-by-value

Copy of object is made.

MarshalByRefObject == pass-by-reference

proxy object is passed.

An example for the second case is:

public class Counter : MarshalByRefObject {

int count = 0;
public void incCount() { count++; }
public int getCount() { return count; }
}

An example for the first case is:

11.1. INTRODUCTION 139

[Serializable]
public class Counter {
int count = 0;
public void incCount() { count++; }
public int getCount() { return count; }
}

We have to import:

using System;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Http; // for Http
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp; // for Tcp

Shared objects must be available to both the client and the server. Make a separate
assembly for it

csc /t:library Shared.cs

csc /r:Shared.dll Server.cs
csc /r:Shared.dll Client.cs

There are three main items in the process of remoting. The Interface, the Client
and the Server. The Interface is a .dll file (generated from a .cs file) which is on
the Client and Server side. The Server provides an implementation of the Interface
and makes it available to call. The Client calls the Server using the Interface.
140 CHAPTER 11. REMOTING

Example. The client provides a string to the server and the server returns the
length of the string.

We first create an interface with the file MyInterface.cs.

// MyInterface.cs

public interface MyInterface

{
int FunctionOne(string str);
}

MyInterface.cs is on the Server and Client side. We compile to MyInterface.dll

on the Client and Server side with

csc /t:library MyInterface.cs

On the Server side we now create our class which we invoke from a remote ma-
chine (client). RemoteObject.cs is on the Server side and is the implementation of
MyInterface.cs.

// RemoteObject.cs

using System;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;

public class MyRemoteClass : MarshalByRefObject, MyInterface

{
public int FunctionOne(string str)
{
return str.Length; // length of string
}
}

Any class derived from MarshalByRefObject allows remote clients to invoke its
methods. Now on the Server side we compile

csc /t:library /r:MyInterface.dll RemoteObject.cs

This creates the file RemoteObject.dll on the Server side.

11.1. INTRODUCTION 141

Next we provide our Server on the Server side.

// ServerTcp.cs

using System;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp;

public class MyServer

{
public static void Main()
{
TcpChannel m_TcpChan = new TcpChannel(9999);
ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(m_TcpChan,false);
RemotingConfiguration.RegisterWellKnownServiceType(
Type.GetType("MyRemoteClass,RemoteObject"),
"FirstRemote",WellKnownObjectMode.SingleCall);
System.Console.WriteLine("Press ENTER to quit");
System.Console.ReadLine();
} // end Main
} // end class MyServer

First we create a TcpChannel object which we use to transport messages across our
remoting boundary. We select 9999 as the TCP port to listen on. This could cause
problems with firewalls. We use

ChannelServices.RegisterChannel

to register our TcpChannel with the channel services. Then we use

RemoteConfiguration.RegisterWellKnownServiceType

to register our RemoteClass object as a well-known type. Now this object can be
remoted.

We are using the string FirstRemote here which will be used as part of the URL
that the client uses to access the remote object. We use SingleCall mode here
which means a new instance is created for each remote call.

Remark. One could have also used Singleton in which case one object would have
been instantiated and used by all connecting clients.

Next we generate the exe file for ServerTcp via

csc /r:RemoteObject.dll ServerTcp.cs

142 CHAPTER 11. REMOTING

Now we write our Client program ClientTcp.cs on the client side.

// ClientTcp.cs

using System;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp;

public class MyClient

{
public static void Main()
{
TcpChannel m_TcpChan = new TcpChannel();
ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(m_TcpChan,false);
MyInterface m_RemoteObject =
(MyInterface) Activator.GetObject(typeof(MyInterface),
"tcp://192.168.0.3:9999/FirstRemote");
Console.WriteLine(m_RemoteObject.FunctionOne("willi hans steeb"));
// for LocalHost
// "tcp://LocalHost:9999/FirstRemote");
} // end Main
} // end class MyClient

Just as in the Server we have a TcpChannel object, though in this case we do not
have to specify a port. We also use

ChannelService.RegisterChannel

to register the channel. We use

Activator.GetObject

to obtain an instance of the MyInterface object. The IP address of the remote

machine (Server) is 192.168.0.3 with the port 9999. The string FirstRemote
which forms part of the URL was that we passed to

RemotingConfiguration.RegisterWellKnownServiceType

on the Server.

To obtain the ClientTcp.exe file we run

csc /r:MyInterface.dll ClientTcp.cs

11.1. INTRODUCTION 143

To run everything on the Server side we enter the exe file at the command line

ServerTcp

Then on the Client side we enter the exe file at the command line

ClientTcp

Then we are provide with the length of the string. In the present case 16.
144 CHAPTER 11. REMOTING

Instead of using Tcp we can also use Http. Then the files ServerTcp.cs and
ClientTcp.cs are replaced by ServerHttp.cs and ClientHttp.cs shown below.

// ServerHttp.cs
// on Server side

using System;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Http;

public class MyServer

{
public static void Main()
{
HttpChannel chan = new HttpChannel(8080);
ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(chan,false);
RemotingConfiguration.RegisterWellKnownServiceType(
Type.GetType("MyRemoteClass,RemoteObject"),
"FirstRemote",WellKnownObjectMode.SingleCall);
System.Console.WriteLine("Press ENTER to quit");
System.Console.ReadLine();
} // end Main
} // end class MyServer
11.1. INTRODUCTION 145

// Client.cs
// on client side

using System;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Http;

public class MyClient

{
public static void Main()
{
HttpChannel chan = new HttpChannel();
ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(chan,false);
MyInterface m_RemoteObject =
(MyInterface) Activator.GetObject(typeof(MyInterface),
"http://152.106.41.42:8080/FirstRemote");
Console.WriteLine(m_RemoteObject.FunctionOne("willi hans"));
// for LocalHost
// "tcp://LocalHost:9999/FirstRemote");
} // end Main
} // end class MyClient
Chapter 12

Accessing Databases

12.1 Introduction
The .NET Framework uses ADO.NET to access databases. ADO.NET is a set of
managed classes within the .NET Framework. It operates on a disconnected data
access model. When an application requests data a new database connection is
created and destroyed when the request is completed. A disconnected data access
model is frugal with resources, which is desirable.

One important advantage of ADO.NET is that information is stored and transferred

in XML.

ADO.NET allows access to many different databases. There are two basic types of
connections. SQLClient is used for Microsoft’s SQL Server and OLEDB is used for
all other database formats.

In order to use SQL with SQL Server or SQL Server Express the following namespace
must be specified.

using System.Data.SqlClient;

In order to use OLEDB the following namespace must be specified.

using System.Data.OleDb;

Accessing a database requires that a .NET Data Provider is set up. A Data Provider
consists of

• Connection

• Command

• DataReader

• DataAdapter
146
12.2. EXAMPLES 147

A Dataset can be understood as a virtual database table that resides in RAM. A

DataSet can contain a set of tables with all the metadata necessary to represent
the structure of the original database. It can be manipulated and updated indepen-
dantly of the database. A DataSet is not always required.

The Connection creates the actual connection to the database. The Connection
object contains all the information needed to open the connection, for example the
userid and password. A Connection String is required to connect to a database.
The easiest way to find the correct connection string for a DBMS is to search the
Web. A good site to start with is http://www.connectionstrings.com.

In order to open and close a database connection the Connection methods Open
and Close are used respectively.

The Command executes an instruction against the database. For example, this
could be a SQL query or a stored procedure.

A DataReader is used for fast and efficient forward-reading, read-only database ac-
cess. It returns individual rows directly to the application. The data is not cached.

A DataAdapter handles retrieving and updating data. It is a middle-layer be-

tween the database (Data Provider) and the disconnected DataSet. It decouples the
DataSet from the database and allows a single DataSet to represent more than one
database.

12.2 Examples
The following program shows how to connect to a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or
Sql Express database and retrieve some basic information about the server. Care
must be taken is creating an appropriate connection string (CON STRING in these
examples). Knowledge of SQL is required.

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Text;

namespace csDB
{
class OpenSQLDB
{
public const string CON_STRING = "Data Source=mySqlDB;Initial
Catalog=dbTest;User ID=JoeUser;Password=User1234";
148 CHAPTER 12. ACCESSING DATABASES

static void Main(string[] args)

{
Console.WriteLine("Connecting to db\n");
SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(CON_STRING);
connection.Open();
Console.WriteLine("Server Version: {0}",
connection.ServerVersion);
Console.WriteLine("Database: {0}",
connection.Database);
Console.WriteLine("Data Source: {0}",
connection.DataSource);
Console.WriteLine("Stats Enabled: {0}",
connection.StatisticsEnabled);
} // end Main
} // end class
} // end namespace

Embedding the user ID and password, as in the above code, is not a good idea; a
change in the database means the code will have to be modified and recompiled. In
addition, it is not secure. ASP.NET solves this problem by using the web.config file.

The following is an extract from a web.config file.

<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="DBConnect"
value="server=mySqlDB.newdb,net;initial
catalog=dbTest;user id=JoeUser;pwd=User1234;"/>
<appSettings>

...
<\configuration>

The following line of code fetches the connection string from web.config.

string CON_STRING=ConfigurationSettings.Appsettings["DBConnect"];

The basic method of retrieving data using a Data Reader is as follows. A standard
SQL query is used and submitted to the database via a SqlCommand object. In the
case of data retrieval the SELECT statement is used.

SqlCommand cmDB = new SqlCommand();

cmDB.Connection = connection ;
cmDB.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM tblCustomer";
SqlDataReader myReader = cmDB.ExecuteReader();
12.2. EXAMPLES 149

while(myReader.Read())
{
// Do something with the data
// In the following code, the myReader[0] accesses the FIRST field of data
// the selected record. myReader[1] then accesses the SECOND field.
// string strTmp = myReader[0].ToString() + " " + myReader[1].ToString();
}
myReader.Close();

A wildcard search can be achieved as follows. The assumption is that a TextBox

called txtSearch is used to input the search parameters. A Trim() is used to remove
whitespace.

string strSearch =
"SELECT * FROM tblCustomer where fldCustName LIKE ’" +
TextBox1.Text.Trim() + "%’"; // SQL uses a % for wildcard
myReader = cmDB.ExecuteReader();

The following code shows how to access particular fields using a Data Reader.

// Access SQL EXPRESS db and retrieve data and put field

// values into variables
string CON_STRING =
"Data Source=ejd\\sqlexpress;" +
"Initial Catalog=dbCustomer;Integrated Security=True";
string strSQL =
"SELECT * FROM tblCustomer WHERE" +
" fldCustSurname = ’Hardy’ AND fldCustName = ’Frank’";

int id; string strName, strSurname; float fltCred, fltBal;

SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(CON_STRING);

connection.Open();
SqlCommand cmDB = new SqlCommand();
cmDB.Connection = connection;
cmDB.CommandText = strSQL;
SqlDataReader rdr = cmDB.ExecuteReader();

while (rdr.Read())
{
id = (int) rdr["fldCustomerID"];
strName = (string) rdr["fldCustName"];
// etc etc
TextBox1.Text = id + " " + strName;
150 CHAPTER 12. ACCESSING DATABASES

rdr.Close();
connection.Close();

The following code shows how to insert a row into a database, using a SQL INSERT
command.

String CON_STRING
= @"Data Source=mname\sqlexpress;" +
"Initial Catalog=dbCustomer" +
";Integrated Security=True";
SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(CON_STRING);
connection.Open();
String MyString
= @"INSERT INTO tblCustomer(fldCustName, fldCustSurname)" +
"VALUES(’Angus’, ’MacBeth’)";
SqlCommand MyCmd = new SqlCommand(MyString, connection);
MyCmd.ExecuteScalar();
connection.Close();

It is likely that the C# programmer will have a need to extract some data from a
TextBox, either on a Windows or Web Form, and insert that value into a table. In
the case of wanting to insert the values from two TextBoxes called txtFirstName
and txtSurname, you would have the following statement in C#.

String MyString
= @"INSERT INTO tblCustomer(fldCustName, fldCustSurname)"
+ "VALUES(’"
+ txtFirstName.Text.Trim()
+ "’, ’"
+ txtSurname.Text.Trim()
+ "’)";

The following code shows how to edit a row in a database, using a SQL UPDATE
command.

string CON_STRING =
@"Data Source=mname\sqlexpress;" +
"Initial Catalog=dbCustomer;Integrated Security=True";

SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(CON_STRING);

connection.Open();
String MyString =
"UPDATE tblCustomer SET fldCustCred = ’1000’ " +
12.2. EXAMPLES 151

"WHERE fldCustName = ’Angus’";

SqlCommand MyCmd = new SqlCommand(MyString, connection);

MyCmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
connection.Close();

The following code shows how to delete data in a database, using a SQL DELETE
command. This program uses a TRY... CATCH block for exception handling.

string CON_STRING =
"Data Source=mname\\sqlexpress;" +
"Initial Catalog=dbCustomer;" +
"Integrated Security=True";

SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(CON_STRING);

try
{
connection.Open();
String MyString = @"DELETE FROM tblCustomer " +
"WHERE fldCustName = ’Greg’";
SqlCommand MyCmd = new SqlCommand(MyString, connection);

MyCmd.ExecuteScalar();

}
catch (Exception ex)
{
TextBox1.Text = ex.Message;
}
finally
{
connection.Close();
}
Chapter 13

ASP.NET

13.1 Introduction
ASP.NET is Microsoft’s Web technology built on the .NET Framework. Of all
the available .NET languages, C# is perhaps the best language to write ASP.NET
applications. This chapter outlines some additional code that is required when pro-
gramming web applications.

13.2 State Management

Web Forms can be thought of a seperate applications. That leaves the problem
of maintaining state between the Web Forms of a single application. The Session
object can achieve this. The code below shows how to save a variable using the
Session object.

string strTmp = "Some string";

Session["sessionTmp"] = strTmp;
Response.Redirect("default2.aspx");

The following code retrieves the data from the Session object.

string strRetSess = Session["sessionTmp"].ToString();

A Query String can be created using a HyperLink control.

HyperLink1.NavigateUrl = "default.aspx?name=evan";

The Query String can be retrieved by using the Request object.

String strTmp = Request.QueryString["name"];

For the longer term storage of data, cookies can be used. Below is some code for
creating cookies.
152
13.3. PAGE LOAD 153

//Create a new cookie, passing the name into the constructor

HttpCookie cookie = new HttpCookie("Names");

//Set the cookies value (In this case from a DropDownList)

cookie.Value = DropDownList1.SelectedItem.ToString();

//Set the cookie to expire in 1 minute

DateTime dtNow = DateTime.Now;
TimeSpan tsMinute = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 1, 0);
cookie.Expires = dtNow + tsMinute;

//Add the cookie

Response.Cookies.Add(cookie);

// Redirect to another Web Form

Response.Redirect("default2.aspx");

Data from a cookie is retrieved using the Request object.

// Cookie name
String strCookieName = "Names";

//Grab the cookie

HttpCookie cookie = Request.Cookies[strCookieName];

//Check to make sure the cookie exists

if (null == cookie)
{
Response.Write("Cookie not found. <br><hr>");
}
else
{
//Write the cookie value
String strCookieValue = cookie.Value.ToString();
}

A cookie can be deleted in the following manner.

cookie.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(-1);
Response.Cookies.Add(cookie);

13.3 Page Load

In the Page Load event, we employ the following code to ensure that some code is
only executed the first time a Web Form is loaded.
154 CHAPTER 13. ASP.NET

if(!IsPostBack)
{
// Code in this block will only execute once
StateDropDownList.Items.Add{"Gauteng"};
StateDropDownList.Items.Add{"Northern Province"};
}
Bibliography

[1] http://www.codeproject.com/csharp

[2] C# Language Specification

155
Index

ADO.NET, 146 Namespace, 7

Arrays of Strings, 37 Null character, 11
Arrays, Jagged, 26
Arrays, Multidimensional, 26 Operator overloading, 67
Arrays, One-Dimensional, 25 Pointer, 18
ASP.NET, 148 Preprocessor Directives, 3
Atomic, 115 Process, 104
binary representation, 27
Query String, 152
Bitwise operation, 27
Boxing, 29 Recursion, 19
by reference, 24 Request Object, 152
Client server model, 127 Sealed, 45
Cookies, 153 SELECT, 148
Cookies, Deleting, 153 Serialization, 81
Session Object, 152
Data Provider, 146
Structures, 68
Data Types, 8
Delegate, 69 Thread, 105
DELETE, 151 Thue-Morse sequence, 40
Dereferencing, 18 Type conversion, 11
Enumeration, 68 UPDATE, 150
Event, 100 Using, 6
Exception Handling, 7
Worker threads, 116
Floating point division, 12
XML, 83, 146
Identifiers, 2
Inheritence, 62
INSERT, 150
Integer division, 12
Interface, 64
Jagged arrays, 25
Keywords, 2
Keywords, Contextual, 3
Maths, 45
156