Learning to Program in Visual C# 2008 Course

In this course, you’ll learn to use Visual Studio 2008 to explore the Visual Basic 2008 language. The course starts with a quick overview of the .NET platform, examining assemblies, Microsoft Intermediate Language, Visual Studio profiles, XML comments, IntelliSense, and debugging. From there, you’ll learn all the language features that you must internalize in order to create full-featured Web or Windows applications that make best use of the .NET platform. You’ll learn about data types, variables, and operators, along with all the important flow control structures. You’ll work through several examples demonstrating the power of the .NET Framework, and dig into creating and consuming your own classes and objects. The course moves on to working with data structures, such as arrays and collection classes, before finishing up with discussions of generics, handling exceptions and working with delegates and events. By the end of this course, you will understand the important basic concepts that will allow you to start creating the applications you need.

Upon completion of this course, the participant will be able to:

> Build and debug applications using Visual Studio 2008.
> Create and use variables, operators, and data types.
> Find and use the classes you need within the .NET Framework.
> Manage flow control within your code, branching and looping as needed.
> Create and consume classes and objects.
> Add and consume properties and methods in your classes.
> Make use of .NET's object-oriented features, such as overloading, inheritance and interfaces.
> Store, retrieve, and manipulate multiple values using arrays.
> Work with .NET generics.
> Make best use of the .NET Framework's support for collection classes.
> Handle exceptions in your code.
> Create and use delegates, and understand how they relate to events.
> Use anonymous types, lambda expressions, extension methods, object initializers, and implicit type declaration.

Getting Started with .NET
Thinking about .NET
Using Visual Studio 2008
Debugging Your Code and Handling Exceptions

Data Types and Variables
Introducing Variables and Data Types
Working with Variables and Data Types

Using the .NET Framework
Using .NET Framework Classes
Working with Strings
Working with Dates and Times
The My Namespace

Branching and Flow Control
Conditional Branching
Repeating Code Blocks
Unconditional Branching

Classes and Objects
Introducing Objects and Classes
Creating Your Own Class
Working with Classes

Properties and Methods
Working with Properties
Working with Methods

Object-Oriented Techniques
Inheritance
Interfaces
Organizing Classes

Working with Arrays
Introducing Arrays
Manipulating Arrays

Delegates and Events
Motivating Delegates
Introducing Delegates
Working with Events

Generics
Introducing Generics
Generics and Arrays
Generic Interfaces
Generic Constraints
Generics and Lists

Handling Exceptions
Perspectives and Exception Handling
Getting Started with Exception Handling
Catching Specific Exceptions
Raising Errors
Running Code Unconditionally
Creating Exception Classes

Collection Classes
Generics, Collections, and Interfaces
The Generic List
Working with Dictionaries, Stacks, and Queues
Creating Your Own Generic Collection Classes

This course assumes that participants have some programming background. No specific experience with Visual Studio 2008 or the .NET Framework is required. As with any such course, the more experience you bring to the course, the more you’ll get out of it. This course moves quickly through a broad range of programming topics, but it does not require any prior .NET skills.