C

1.
OVERVIEW
C# is a modern, general-purpose, object-oriented programming language
developed by Microsoft and approved by European Computer Manufacturers
Association (ECMA) and International Standards Organization (ISO).
C# was developed by Anders Hejlsberg and his team during the development of
.Net Framework.
C# is designed for Common Language Infrastructure (CLI), which consists of the
executable code and runtime environment that allows use of various high-level
languages on different computer platforms and architectures.
The following reasons make C# a widely used professional language:
 It is a modern, general-purpose programming language
 It is object oriented.
 It is component oriented.
 It is easy to learn.
 It is a tructured language.
 It produces efficient programs.
 It can be compiled on a variety of computer platforms.
 It is a part of .Net Framework.

1
 C#
Strong Programming Features of C#

Although C# constructs closely follow traditional high-level languages,

C and C++ and being an object-oriented programming language. It
has strong resemblance with Java, it has numerous strong
programming features that make it endearing to a number of
programmers worldwide.
Following is the list of few important features of C#:
 Boolean Conditions
 Automatic Garbage Collection
 Standard Library
 Assembly Versioning
 Properties and Events

 Delegates and Events Management

 Easy-to-use Generics
 Indexers Conditional Compilation
 Simple Multithreading
 LINQ and Lambda Expressions
 Integration with Windows
2
 C#

2. ENVIRONMENT
In this chapter, we will discuss the tools required for creating C#
programming. We have already mentioned that C# is part of .Net
framework and is used for writing .Net applications. Therefore, before
discussing the available tools for running a C# program, let us understand
how C# relates to the .Net framework.

The .Net Framework

The .Net framework is a revolutionary platform that helps you to write the
following types of applications:
 Windows applications
 Web applications
 Web services
The .Net framework applications are multi-platform applications. The
framework has been designed in such a way that it can be used from any of
the following languages: C#, C++, Visual Basic, Jscript, COBOL, etc. All
these languages can access the framework as well as communicate with
each other.
The .Net framework consists of an enormous library of codes used by the
client languages such as C#. Following are some of the components of
3
the .Net framework:
  The .Net Framework Class Library
 Common Language Specification
 Common Type System
 Metadata and Assemblies
 Windows Forms
 ASP.Net and ASP.Net AJAX
 ADO.Net
 Windows Workflow Foundation (WF)
 Windows Presentation Foundation
 Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
 LINQ
For the jobs each of these components perform,
please see ASP.Net - Introduction, and for details of
each component, please consult Microsoft's
documentation.
 C#

Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for C#

Microsoft provides the following development tools for C# programming:
 Visual Studio 2010 (VS)
 Visual C# 2010 Express (VCE)
 Visual Web Developer
The last two are freely available from Microsoft official website. Using these tools, you can write all kinds of C#
programs from simple command-line applications to more complex applications. You can also write C# source code
files using a basic text editor like Notepad, and compile the code into assemblies using the command-line compiler,
which is again a part of the .NET Framework.

Visual C# Express and Visual Web Developer Express edition are trimmed down versions of Visual Studio and has the
same appearance. They retain most features of Visual Studio. In this tutorial, we have used Visual C# 2010 Express.

You can download it from Microsoft Visual Studio. It gets installed automatically on your machine.
Writing C# Programs on Linux or Mac OS
Note: You need an active internet connection for installing the express edition.
Although the.NET Framework runs on the Windows operating system, there are some alternative versions that work
on other operating systems. Mono is an open-source version of the .NET Framework which includes a C# compiler
and runs on several operating systems, including various flavors of Linux and Mac OS. Kindly check Go Mono.

The stated purpose of Mono is not only to be able to run Microsoft .NET applications cross-platform, but also to
bring better development tools for Linux developers. Mono can be run on many operating systems including
Android, BSD, iOS, Linux, OS X, Windows, Solaris, and UNIX.

4
 C#

3. PROGRAM STRUCTURE
Before we study basic building blocks of the C# programming
language, let us look at a bare minimum C# program structure so that
we can take it as a reference in upcoming chapters.

Creating Hello World Program

A C# program consists of the following parts:
 Namespace declaration
 A class
 Class methods
 Class attributes
 A Main method
 Statements and Expressions
 Comments
Let us look at a simple code that prints the words "Hello World":

5
 C#

When this code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:
Hello World

Let us look at the various parts of the given program:

 The first line of the program using System; - the using keyword is used to include the System namespace
in the program. A program generally has multiple using statements.
 The next line has the namespace declaration. A namespace is a collection of classes. The
HelloWorldApplication namespace contains the class HelloWorld.
 The next line has a class declaration, the class HelloWorld contains the data and method definitions that your
program uses. Classes generally contain multiple methods. Methods define the behavior of the class.
However, the HelloWorld class has only one method Main.
 The next line defines the Main method, which is the entry point for all C# programs. The Main method
states what the class does when executed.
 The next line /*...*/ is ignored by the compiler and it is put to add
comments in the program.
 The Main method specifies its behavior with the statement
Console.WriteLine("Hello World");
 WriteLine is a method of the Console class defined in the System namespace. This statement causes the
message "Hello, World!" to be displayed on the screen.
 The last line Console.ReadKey(); is for the VS.NET Users. This makes the program wait for a key press and
it prevents the screen from running and closing quickly when the program is launched from Visual
Studio .NET.
It is worth to note the following points:
 C# is case sensitive.
Compiling andand
 All statements Executing theend
expression must Program
with a semicolon (;).
If you are using Visual Studio.Net for compiling and executing C# programs, take the following steps:
 The program execution starts at the Main method.
 Start Visual Studio.
 Unlike Java, program file name could be different from the class name.
 On the menu bar, choose File -> New -> Project.
 Choose Visual C# from templates, and then choose Windows.
 Choose Console Application.

6
 C#

 Specify a name for your project and click OK button. This creates a new project in Solution Explorer.
 Write code in the Code Editor.
 Click the Run button or press F5 key to execute the project. A Command Prompt window appears that
contains the line Hello World.
You can compile a C# program by using the command-line instead of the Visual Studio IDE:
 Open a text editor and add the above-mentioned code.
 Save the file as helloworld.cs
 Open the command prompt tool and go to the directory where you saved the file.
 Type csc helloworld.cs and press enter to compile your code.
 If there are no errors in your code, the command prompt takes you to the next line and generates
helloworld.exe executable file.
 Type helloworld to execute your program.
 You can see the output Hello World printed on the screen.
C# is an object-oriented programming language. In Object-Oriented Programming methodology, a program consists
of various objects that interact with each other by means of actions. The actions that an object may take are called
methods. Objects of the same kind are said to have the same type or are said to be in the same class.

For example, let us consider a Rectangle object. It has attributes such as length and width. Depending upon the
using System;
design, it may need ways for accepting the values of these attributes, calculating the area, and displaying details.

Let us look RectangleApplication

namespace at implementation of a Rectangle class and discuss C# basic syntax:

class Rectangle

// member variables double length; double width;

public void Acceptdetails()

length = 4.5;
7
 C#

width = 3.5;

public double GetArea()

return length * width;

public void Display()

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

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

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

class ExecuteRectangle

{ }

} static void Main(string[] args)

Rectangle r = new Rectangle();

r.Acceptdetails(); r.Display();

Console.ReadLine();

}
When
} the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

Length: 4.5

8
 C#

Width: 3.5

Area: 15.75

The using Keyword

The first statement in any C# program is
using System;

The using keyword is used for including the namespaces in the program. A program can include multiple using
statements.

The class Keyword

The class keyword is used for declaring a class.

Comments in C#
Comments are used for explaining code. Compilers ignore the comment entries. The multiline comments in C#
programs start
/* This with /*demonstrates
program and terminates with the characters
*/ as shown below:
The basic syntax of C# programming Language */

Single-line comments are indicated by the '//' symbol. For example,

}//end class Rectangle

Member Variables
Variables are attributes or data members of a class, used for storing data. In the preceding program, the
Rectangle class has two member variables named length and width.

Member Functions
Functions are set of statements that perform a specific task. The member functions of a class are declared within
the class. Our sample class Rectangle contains three member functions: AcceptDetails, GetArea and Display.

Instantiating a Class
In the preceding program, the class ExecuteRectangle contains the Main() method and instantiates the Rectangle
class.

Identifiers 9
 C#

An identifier is a name used to identify a class, variable, function, or any other user- defined item. The basic rules
for naming classes in C# are as follows:
 A name must begin with a letter that could be followed by a sequence of letters, digits (0 - 9) or underscore.
The first character in an identifier cannot be a digit.
 It must not contain any embedded space or symbol such as ? - +! @ # % ^ &
* ( ) [ ] { } . ; : " ' / and \. However, an underscore ( _ ) can be used.
It should not be a C# keyword.
C# Keywords
Keywords are reserved words predefined to the C# compiler. These keywords cannot be used as identifiers.
However, if you want to use these keywords as identifiers, you may prefix the keyword with the @ character.

In C#, some identifiers have special meaning in context of code, such as get and set are called contextual
keywords.

The following table lists the reserved keywords andReserved

contextual keywords in C#:
Keywords

bool break byte case

abstract as base
class const continue decimal
catch char checked
double else enum event
default delegate do
finally fixed float for
explicit extern false
in (generic modifier)
implicit In int
foreach goto if

lock long namespace new

interface internal is
out (generic
out modifier) override params
null object operator

readonly ref return sbyte

private protected public
stackalloc static string struct
sealed short sizeof
true try typeof uint
switch this throw
ushort using virtual void
ulong unchecked unsafe

volatile while

10
 C#

Contextual Keywords
add alias ascending descending dynamic from get
partial
global group into join let orderby
(type)
partial (method)
remove select set

11
 C#

4. BASIC SYNTAX
C# is an object-oriented programming language. In Object-Oriented Programming methodology, a program consists
of various objects that interact with each other by means of actions. The actions that an object may take are
called methods. Objects of the same kind are said to have the same type or, more often, are said to be in the same
class.

For example, let us consider an object Rectangle. It has attributes such as length and width. Depending upon the
design, it may need ways for accepting the values of these attributes, calculating area, and display details.

Let us look at an implementation of a Rectangle class and discuss C# basic syntax:

using System;

namespace RectangleApplication

class Rectangle

// member variables double length; double

width;

public void Acceptdetails()

length = 4.5;

width = 3.5;

public double GetArea()

{
12
return length * width;

}
 C#

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

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

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

class ExecuteRectangle

static void Main(string[] args)

Rectangle r = new Rectangle(); r.Acceptdetails();

r.Display(); Console.ReadLine();

} code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

When the above

}
Length: 4.5

}
Width: 3.5

Area: 15.75

The using Keyword

The first statement in any C# program is -

using System;

13
 C#

The using keyword is used for including the namespaces in the program. A program can include multiple using
statements.

The class Keyword

Comments
The inisC#
class keyword used for declaring a class.
Comments are used for explaining code. Compiler ignores the comment entries. The multiline comments in C#
programs start with /* and terminates with the characters
*/ as shown below:
/* This program demonstrates

The basic syntax of C# programming Language */

Single-line comments are indicated by the '//' symbol. For example,

}//end class Rectangle

Member Variables
Variables are attributes or data members of a class. They are used for storing data. In the preceding program, the
Rectangle class has two member variables named length and width.

Member Functions
Functions are set of statements that perform a specific task. The member functions of a class are declared within
the class. Our sample class Rectangle contains three member functions: AcceptDetails, GetArea, and Display.

Instantiating a Class
In the preceding program, the class ExecuteRectangle is used as a class, which contains the Main() method
and instantiates the Rectangle class.

14
 C#

Identifiers
An identifier is a name used to identify a class, variable, function, or any other user- defined item. The basic rules
for naming classes in C# are as follows:

 A name must begin with a letter that could be followed by a sequence of letters, digits (0 - 9), or underscore.
The first character in an identifier cannot be a digit.
 It must not contain any embedded space or symbol like ? - +! @ # % ^ & * ( ) [ ] { } . ; : " ' / and \.
However, an underscore ( _ ) can be used.

C# Keywords
It should not be a C# keyword.
Keywords are reserved words predefined to the C# compiler. These keywords cannot be used as identifiers.
However, if you want to use these keywords as identifiers, you may prefix them with the @ character.

In C#, some identifiers have special meaning in context of code, such as get and set, these are called contextual
keywords.

The following table lists the reserved keywords and contextual keywords in C#:
Reserved Keywords

abstract as base bool break byte case

catch char checked class const continue decimal

default delegate do double else enum event

explicit extern false finally fixed float for

in (generic modifier)
foreach goto if implicit in int

interface internal is lock long namespace new

out (generic
null object operator out modifier) override params

private protected public readonly ref return sbyte

15
 C#

sealed short sizeof stackalloc static string struct

switch this throw true try typeof uint

ulong unchecked unsafe ushort using virtual void

volatile while

Contextual Keywords

add alias ascending descending dynamic from get

partial (type)
global group into join let orderby

partial (method)
remove select set

16
 C#

5. DATA TYPES
The variables in C#, are categorized into the following types:
 Value types
 Reference types
 Pointer types
Value Type
Value type variables can be assigned a value directly. They are derived from the class
System.ValueType.

The value types directly contain data. Some examples are int, char, and float, which stores numbers, alphabets,
and floating point numbers, respectively. When you declare an int type, the system allocates memory to store the
value.

The following table lists the available value types in C# 2010:

Default Value
Type Represents Range

bool Boolean value True or False False

byte 8-bit unsigned integer 0 to 255 0

char 16-bit Unicode character U +0000 to U +ffff '\0'

128-bit precise decimal values with 28-29

decimal significant digits (-7.9 x 1028 to 7.9 x 1028) / 100 to 28 0.0M

64-bit double-precision floating point

double (+/-)5.0 x 10-324 to (+/-)1.7 x 10308 0.0D
type

32-bit single-precision floating point

float -3.4 x 1038 to + 3.4 x 1038 0.0F
type

Int 32-bit signed integer type -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 0

-923,372,036,854,775,808 to
long 64-bit signed integer type 0L
9,223,372,036,854,775,807

sbyte 8-bit signed integer type -128 to 127 0 17

 C#

short 16-bit signed integer type -32,768 to 32,767 0

32-bit unsigned integer type

uint 0 to 4,294,967,295 0

64-bit unsigned integer type

ulong 0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 0

16-bit unsigned integer type

ushort 0 to 65,535 0

To get the exact size of a type or a variable on a particular platform, you can use the sizeof method. The
expression sizeof(type) yields the storage size of the object or type in bytes. Following is an example to get the size
of int type on any machine:
namespace DataTypeApplication

class Program

static void Main(string[] args)

Console.WriteLine("Size of int: {0}", sizeof(int)); Console.ReadLine();

} the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:
When

}
Size of int: 4

Reference Type
The reference types do not contain the actual data stored in a variable, but they contain a reference to the
variables.

In other words, they refer to a memory location. Using multiple variables, the reference types can refer to a
memory location. If the data in the memory location is changed by one of the variables, the other variable
automatically reflects this
18
 C#

change in value. Example are: object, of built-in reference types

dynamic, and string.

Object Type
The Object Type is the ultimate base class for all data types in C# Common Type System (CTS). Object is an alias
for System.Object class. The object types can be assigned values of any other types, value types, reference types,
predefined or user- defined types. However, before assigning values, it needs type conversion.

When a value type is converted to object type, it is called boxing and on the other hand, when an object type is
converted to a value type, it is called unboxing.
object obj;

obj = 100; // this is boxing

Dynamic Type
You can store any type of value in the dynamic data type variable. Type checking for these types of variables takes
place at run-time.

Syntax for declaring a dynamic type is:

dynamic <variable_name> = value;

For example,

dynamic d = 20;

Dynamic types are similar to object types except that type checking for object type variables takes place at compile
time, whereas that for the dynamic type variables takes place at run time.

String Type
The String Type allows you to assign any string values to a variable. The string type is an alias for the
System.String class. It is derived from object type. The value for a string type can be assigned using string literals
in two forms: quoted and @quoted.

For example,
String str = "Tutorials Point";

19
 C#

A @quoted string literal looks as follows:

@"Tutorials Point";

The user-defined reference types are: class, interface, or delegate. We will discuss these types in later
chapter.

Pointer Type
Pointer type variables store the memory address of another type. Pointers in C# have the same
capabilities as the pointers in C or C++.
type* identifier;
Syntax for declaring a pointer type is:
For example,

char* cptr;

int* iptr;
We will discuss pointer types in the chapter 'Unsafe Codes'.

20