C# Programming Language (Covering C# 4.0), The

The popular C# programming language combines the high productivity of rapid application development languages with the raw power of C and C++. Updated to cover the new features of C# 4.0, including dynamic binding, named and optional parameters, and covariant and contravariant generic types, this release takes the language to the next level by adding the ability to cleanly write programs that don’t rely on static type definitions. This allows dynamic programming languages such as Python, Ruby, and JavaScript to feel native to C#. The C# Programming Language, Fourth Edition, continues to be the authoritative and annotated technical reference for C# 4.0. 7nbsp; Written by Anders Hejlsberg, the language’s architect, and his colleagues, Mads Torgersen, Scott Wiltamuth, and Peter Golde, this volume has been completely updated for C# 4.0. The book provides the complete specification of the language, along with descriptions, reference materials, code samples, and annotations from twelve prominent C# gurus.   The many annotations 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#. With annotations from: Brad Abrams, Joseph Albahari, Krzysztof Cwalina, Jesse Liberty, Eric Lippert, Christian Nagel, Vladimir Reshetnikov, Marek Safar, Chris Sells, Peter Sestoft, Jon Skeet, and Bill Wagner.

Table of Contents:
Foreword xi Preface xiii About the Authors xv About the Annotators xvii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Hello, World 3 1.2 Program Structure 4 1.3 Types and Variables 6 1.4 Expressions 13 1.5 Statements 16 1.6 Classes and Objects 21 1.7 Structs 50 1.8 Arrays 53 1.9 Interfaces 56 1.10 Enums 58 1.11 Delegates 60 1.12 Attributes 61 Chapter 2: Lexical Structure 65 2.1 Programs 65 2.2 Grammars 65 2.3 Lexical Analysis 67 2.4 Tokens 71 2.5 Preprocessing Directives 85 Chapter 3: Basic Concepts 99 3.1 Application Start-up 99 3.2 Application Termination 100 3.3 Declarations 101 3.4 Members 105 3.5 Member Access 107 3.6 Signatures and Overloading 117 3.7 Scopes 120 3.8 Namespace and Type Names 127 3.9 Automatic Memory Management 132 3.10 Execution Order 137 Chapter 4: Types 139 4.1 Value Types 140 4.2 Reference Types 152 4.3 Boxing and Unboxing 155 4.4 Constructed Types 160 4.5 Type Parameters 164 4.6 Expression Tree Types 165 4.7 The dynamic Type 166 Chapter 5: Variables 169 5.1 Variable Categories 169 5.2 Default Values 175 5.3 Definite Assignment 176 5.4 Variable References 192 5.5 Atomicity of Variable References 193 Chapter 6: Conversions 195 6.1 Implicit Conversions 196 6.2 Explicit Conversions 204 6.3 Standard Conversions 213 6.4 User-Defined Conversions 214 6.5 Anonymous Function Conversions 219 6.6 Method Group Conversions 226 Chapter 7: Expressions 231 7.1 Expression Classifications 231 7.2 Static and Dynamic Binding 234 7.3 Operators 238 7.4 Member Lookup 247 7.5 Function Members 250 7.6 Primary Expressions 278 7.7 Unary Operators 326 7.8 Arithmetic Operators 331 7.9 Shift Operators 343 7.10 Relational and Type-Testing Operators 344 7.11 Logical Operators 355 7.12 Conditional Logical Operators 358 7.13 The Null Coalescing Operator 360 7.14 Conditional Operator 361 7.15 Anonymous Function Expressions 364 7.16 Query Expressions 373 7.17 Assignment Operators 389 7.18 Expression 395 7.19 Constant Expressions 395 7.20 Boolean Expressions 397 Chapter 8: Statements 399 8.1 End Points and Reachability 400 8.2 Blocks 402 8.3 The Empty Statement 404 8.4 Labeled Statements 406 8.5 Declaration Statements 407 8.6 Expression Statements 412 8.7 Selection Statements 413 8.8 Iteration Statements 420 8.9 Jump Statements 429 8.10 The try Statement 438 8.11 The checked and unchecked Statements 443 8.12 The lock Statement 443 8.13 The using Statement 445 8.14 The yield Statement 449 Chapter 9: Namespaces 453 9.1 Compilation Units 453 9.2 Namespace Declarations 454 9.3 Extern Aliases 456 9.4 Using Directives 457 9.5 Namespace Members 463 9.6 Type Declarations 464 9.7 Namespace Alias Qualifiers 464 Chapter 10: Classes 467 10.1 Class Declarations 467 10.2 Partial Types 481 10.3 Class Members 490 10.4 Constants 506 10.5 Fields 509 10.6 Methods 520 10.7 Properties 545 10.8 Events 559 10.9 Indexers 566 10.10 Operators 571 10.11 Instance Constructors 579 10.12 Static Constructors 586 10.13 Destructors 589 10.14 Iterators 592 Chapter 11: Structs 607 11.1 Struct Declarations 608 11.2 Struct Members 609 11.3 Class and Struct Differences 610 11.4 Struct Examples 619 Chapter 12: Arrays 625 12.1 Array Types 625 12.2 Array Creation 628 12.3 Array Element Access 628 12.4 Array Members 628 12.5 Array Covariance 629 12.6 Array Initializers 630 Chapter 13: Interfaces 633 13.1 Interface Declarations 633 13.2 Interface Members 639 13.3 Fully Qualified Interface Member Names 645 13.4 Interface Implementations 645 Chapter 14: Enums 663 14.1 Enum Declarations 663 14.2 Enum Modifiers 664 14.3 Enum Members 665 14.4 The System.Enum Type 668 14.5 Enum Values and Operations 668 Chapter 15: Delegates 671 15.1 Delegate Declarations 672 15.2 Delegate Compatibility 676 15.3 Delegate Instantiation 676 15.4 Delegate Invocation 677 Chapter 16: Exceptions 681 16.1 Causes of Exceptions 683 16.2 The System.Exception Class 683 16.3 How Exceptions Are Handled 684 16.4 Common Exception Classes 685 Chapter 17: Attributes 687 17.1 Attribute Classes 688 17.2 Attribute Specification 692 17.3 Attribute Instances 698 17.4 Reserved Attributes 699 17.5 Attributes for Interoperation 707 Chapter 18: Unsafe Code 709 18.1 Unsafe Contexts 710 18.2 Pointer Types 713 18.3 Fixed and Moveable Variables 716 18.4 Pointer Conversions 717 18.5 Pointers in Expressions 720 18.6 The fixed Statement 728 18.7 Fixed-Size Buffers 733 18.8 Stack Allocation 736 18.9 Dynamic Memory Allocation 738 Appendix A: Documentation Comments 741 A.1 Introduction 741 A.2 Recommended Tags 743 A.3 Processing the Documentation File 754 A.4 An Example 760 Appendix B: Grammar 767 B.1 Lexical Grammar 767 B.2 Syntactic Grammar 777 B.3 Grammar Extensions for Unsafe Code 809 Appendix C: References 813 Index 815