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LinqPad Webcast

Writing LINQ Queries with LINQPad

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C# Experts

Marco Russo trains and consults with professional developers working with the .NET Framework and Microsoft SQL Server. He's active in developer communities and blogs, and has written three books.

Noah Gift is the co-author of Python For Unix and Linux by O'Reilly. He is an author, speaker, consultant, and community leader, writing for publications such as IBM Developerworks, Red Hat Magazine, O'Reilly, and MacTech, and Manning.

Jesse Liberty is a senior program manager for Microsoft Silverlight where he is responsible for the creation of tutorials, videos and other content to facilitate the learning and use of Silverlight. Jesse is well known in the industry in part because of his many bestselling books, including O'Reilly Media's Programming .NET 3.5,…

John Sharp is a principal technologist at Content Master, part of CM Group Ltd, a technical authoring and consulting company.

Chris Smith is a Software Design Engineer on the F# team at Microsoft. Although he helped design the language, his official role is to test the product to make sure it is ready to ship. Which means he understands the details of F# better than anybody else on the team. You can…

Tony Northrup , a Boston-area network security consultant and technology author, developed his interest in home automation after renting an apartment where every light was controlled by pulling a string. Tony's wife, Erica, ensures his home hacking projects are user-friendly and reliable, while his cat, Sammy, mangles every project within paw's reach.…

M. David Peterson is a software development consultant who specializes in XML, XSLT, C#, the .NET platform, and functional programming languages such as Lisp and Scheme. His first line of code was written in 1983 on a Timex Sinclair 1000 bought by his father. Currently residing in Salt Lake City, UT, he is…

Andrew Stellman comes from a programming background, and has managed teams of requirements analysts, designers, and developers. He and Jennifer Greene formed Stellman & Greene Consulting in 2003, with a focus on project management, software development, management consulting, and software process improvement.

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The Inner Circle

Andrew Stellman on C#

Aug 18-24, 2010
If you're serious about learning C#, join Andrew Stellman, author of Head First C#, as he discusses the nuances of C# 4.0, Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.

Learn C# Online

.NET Programming Certificate — Beginning and intermediate programmers will get a solid foundation in .NET programming. The certificate series includes these three courses: Learn XML; Learn Object-Oriented Programming Using Java; and Learn C#. Enroll today!

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C# Answers

O'Reilly Answers: Clever Hacks. Creative Ideas. Innovative Solutions.

• How to Trim Whitespace in C#
• How to Format Numeric Strings in C# 4.0
• How to Use Standard Numeric Format Strings in C# 4.0
• How to use the HashSet and SortedSet Collection Classes in C# 4.0
• How to Use HashSet and SortedSet in C# 4.0
• Using Jagged Arrays in C# 4.0
• XML Documentation
• Finding Elements in C# 4.0
• Common C# Exception Types
• How to Check Object Types in C#

C# News & Commentary

Understanding C#: Raising events using a temporary variable

By Andrew Stellman
September 10, 2010

A lot of C# developers notice that there's something odd about how we normally raise events in C#. We're always told to set a temporary variable equal to the event first, and then raise the event using that variable. It looks very strange—how could that variable do anything at all? But it turns out that there's a very good reason for using the temporary variable, and understanding that reason can help you become a better C# developer. This post shows a quick example of why you need that variable.

Build HTML documentation for your C# code with Sandcastle in under 5 minutes

By Andrew Stellman
September 3, 2010

If you've ever used a library that has accurate MSDN-style API documentation, you know how useful it can be. There are lots of ways to create HTML documentation. But the easiest way that I've found is to use Sandcastle. It's an open source documentation generator from Microsoft that reads your assemblies (DLL or EXE files) and their XML Comments and automatically generates HTML documentation. Sandcastle is a very flexible tool, which means it's also a very complex tool. Luckily, there's a companion tool, Sandcastle Help File Builder, that makes it really easy to get up and running with Sandcastle in minutes.

Understanding C#: String.Intern makes strings interesting

By Andrew Stellman
August 22, 2010

One of the first things a new C# developer learns is how to work with strings. We teach the basics of strings early on in Head First C#, and it's the same way with practically every other C# book I own. So it shouldn't be surprising that novice and intermediate C# developers feel like they've got a pretty good handle on strings. But strings are more interesting than they appear. One of the more interesting aspects of strings in C# and .NET is String.Intern, and understanding it can help make you a better C# developer. In this post, I'll go through a quick String.Intern tutorial to show you how it works.

Understanding C#: Use System.Console to build text-mode games

By Andrew Stellman
August 17, 2010

I'm a sucker for an old-school text-mode console game. Text-mode games rendered their "graphics" by drawing text characters at different positions on the screen using 16 background and foreground colors. They're also easier than ever to build in C# and .NET, thanks to theSystem.Console class, which lets you position the cursor, do animation by moving blocks of the buffer, use colors and special characters, and handle input from the user. In this tutorial post, I'll walk you through all of the tools you need to create a retro MS-DOS style text-mode video game, including a complete game that you can build yourself.

Essential developer skills: Refactoring in Visual Studio 2010

By Andrew Stellman
August 8, 2010

If you've been reading my blog posts, you know that I try to help novice and intermediate C# programmers improve their skills, and help progress along the developer career path. I think this goes beyond simply getting better at programming C# and .NET. There are additional skills that, in my opinion, really make a difference in your ability to code. It's possible to become an advanced programmer without them, but it's a lot easier with them. Refactoring is one of those skills, and I think that any C# developer—even a novice one—can benefit from it. If you're a C# developer looking to take the next step on your career path and you don't refactor your code regularly, this is a great starting point to help move to the next level.

Understanding C#: Explore types using the Type class and GetType()

By Andrew Stellman
August 5, 2010

One of the most powerful aspects of the C# programming language is its rich type system. But until you've got some experience building programs, it's difficult to appreciate it--in fact, it can be a little baffling at first. But we want to give you at least a taste of how types work in C# and .NET. This tutorial helps get you started exploring the type system. In it, you'll create a console application that gives you an introduction to some of the tools you have at your disposal to work with types.

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