The C# Programming Language

This is the eBook version of the printed book. If the print book includes a CD-ROM, this content is not included within the eBook version. “Based on my own experience, I can safely say that every .NET developer who reads this will have at least one ‘aha’ moment and will be a better developer for it.” –From the Foreword by Don Box   The popular C# programming language combines the high productivity of rapid application development languages with the raw power of C and C++. Now, C# 3.0 adds functional programming techniques and LINQ, Language INtegrated Query. The C# Programming Language, Third Edition, is the authoritative and annotated technical reference for C# 3.0.   Written by Anders Hejlsberg, the language’s architect, and his colleagues, Mads Torgersen, Scott Wiltamuth, and Peter Golde, this volume has been completely updated and reorganized for C# 3.0. The book provides the complete specification of the language, along with descriptions, reference materials, code samples, and annotations from nine prominent C# gurus.   The many annotations–a new feature in this edition–bring a depth and breadth of understanding rarely found in any programming book. As the main text of the book introduces the concepts of the C# language, cogent annotations explain why they are important, how they are used, how they relate to other languages, and even how they evolved.   This book is the definitive, must-have reference for any developer who wants to understand C#.

Table of Contents:
Foreword xi Preface xiii About the Authors xv About the Annotators xvii   Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Hello, World 2 1.2 Program Structure 4 1.3 Types and Variables 6 1.4 Expressions 10 1.5 Statements 13 1.6 Classes and Objects 18 1.7 Structs 41 1.8 Arrays 43 1.9 Interfaces 46 1.10 Enums 48 1.11 Delegates 49 1.12 Attributes 53   Chapter 2: Lexical Structure 55 2.1 Programs 55 2.2 Grammars 55 2.3 Lexical Analysis 57 2.4 Tokens 61 2.5 Preprocessing Directives 74   Chapter 3: Basic Concepts 87 3.1 Application Start-Up 87 3.2 Application Termination 88 3.3 Declarations 89 3.4 Members 92 3.5 Member Access 95 3.6 Signatures and Overloading 104 3.7 Scopes 106 3.8 Namespace and Type Names 112 3.9 Automatic Memory Management 116 3.10 Execution Order 121   Chapter 4: Types 123 4.1 Value Types 124 4.2 Reference Types 135 4.3 Boxing and Unboxing 137 4.4 Constructed Types 141 4.5 Type Parameters 145 4.6 Expression Tree Types 146   Chapter 5: Variables 149 5.1 Variable Categories 149 5.2 Default Values 154 5.3 Definite Assignment 155 5.4 Variable References 171 5.5 Atomicity of Variable References 172   Chapter 6: Conversions 173 6.1 Implicit Conversions 174 6.2 Explicit Conversions 180 6.3 Standard Conversions 188 6.4 User-Defined Conversions 188 6.5 Anonymous Function Conversions 193 6.6 Method Group Conversions 200   Chapter 7: Expressions 203 7.1 Expression Classifications 203 7.2 Operators 206 7.3 Member Lookup 214 7.4 Function Members 217 7.5 Primary Expressions 238 7.6 Unary Operators 280 7.7 Arithmetic Operators 285 7.8 Shift Operators 295 7.9 Relational and Type-Testing Operators 297 7.10 Logical Operators 307 7.11 Conditional Logical Operators 309 7.12 The Null Coalescing Operator 311 7.13 Conditional Operator 313 7.14 Anonymous Function Expressions 314 7.15 Query Expressions 324 7.16 Assignment Operators 339 7.17 Expressions 344 7.18 Constant Expressions 344 7.19 Boolean Expressions 346   Chapter 8: Statements 347 8.1 End Points and Reachability 348 8.2 Blocks 350 8.3 The Empty Statement 351 8.4 Labeled Statements 352 8.5 Declaration Statements 353 8.6 Expression Statements 357 8.7 Selection Statements 358 8.8 Iteration Statements 364 8.9 Jump Statements 373 8.10 The try Statement 380 8.11 The checked and unchecked Statements 385 8.12 The lock Statement 385 8.13 The using Statement 387 8.14 The yield Statement 390   Chapter 9: Namespaces 393 9.1 Compilation Units 393 9.2 Namespace Declarations 394 9.3 Extern Aliases 395 9.4 Using Directives 396 9.5 Namespace Members 403 9.6 Type Declarations 403 9.7 Namespace Alias Qualifiers 404   Chapter 10: Classes 407 10.1 Class Declarations 407 10.2 Partial Types 420 10.3 Class Members 429 10.4 Constants 443 10.5 Fields 445 10.6 Methods 455 10.7 Properties 478 10.8 Events 491 10.9 Indexers 498 10.10 Operators 503 10.11 Instance Constructors 510 10.12 Static Constructors 518 10.13 Destructors 520 10.14 Iterators 522   Chapter 11: Structs 537 11.1 Struct Declarations 537 11.2 Struct Members 539 11.3 Class and Struct Differences 539 11.4 Struct Examples 547   Chapter 12: Arrays 553 12.1 Array Types 553 12.2 Array Creation 555 12.3 Array Element Access 556 12.4 Array Members 556 12.5 Array Covariance 556 12.6 Array Initializers 557   Chapter 13: Interfaces 561 13.1 Interface Declarations 561 13.2 Interface Members 564 13.3 Fully Qualified Interface Member Names 569 13.4 Interface Implementations 570   Chapter 14: Enums 585 14.1 Enum Declarations 585 14.2 Enum Modifiers 586 14.3 Enum Members 586 14.4 The System.Enum Type 589 14.5 Enum Values and Operations 590   Chapter 15: Delegates 591 15.1 Delegate Declarations 592 15.2 Delegate Compatibility 595 15.3 Delegate Instantiation 595 15.4 Delegate Invocation 596   Chapter 16: Exceptions 599 16.1 Causes of Exceptions 599 16.2 The System.Exception Class 600 16.3 How Exceptions Are Handled 600 16.4 Common Exception Classes 601   Chapter 17: Attributes 603 17.1 Attribute Classes 603 17.2 Attribute Specification 607 17.3 Attribute Instances 613 17.4 Reserved Attributes 615 17.5 Attributes for Interoperation 621   Chapter 18: Unsafe Code 623 18.1 Unsafe Contexts 624 18.2 Pointer Types 627 18.3 Fixed and Moveable Variables 630 18.4 Pointer Conversions 631 18.5 Pointers in Expressions 633 18.6 The fixed Statement 640 18.7 Fixed-Size Buffers 645 18.8 Stack Allocation 648 18.9 Dynamic Memory Allocation 649   Appendix A: Documentation Comments 653 A.1 Introduction 653 A.2 Recommended Tags 655 A.3 Processing the Documentation File 666 A.4 An Example 672   Appendix B: Grammar 679 B.1 Lexical Grammar 679 B.2 Syntactic Grammar 689 B.3 Grammar Extensions for Unsafe Code 720   Appendix C: References 725   Index 727