Object Oriented Programming

Introduction to C#

Contents
Introducing C#
Writing applications in C#
Visual Studio .NET
Basic C# language concepts

Introducing C#
C# (C-sharp) is a language that targets one
and only one platform, namely .NET
That doesnt mean its restricted to Windows
There are now .NET implementations on
other operating systems including Linux
As long as we get to grips with object oriented
programming, C# is a simple language to
master

Introducing C#

C# derives its power from .NET and the framework

class library
The most similar language to C# is Java
There are a number of striking similarities
BUT there is one fundamental difference
Java runs on a virtual machine and is interpreted
C# programs runs in native machine code
This is because of the power of .NET and leads to
much more efficient programs

Writing applications in C#
An application in C# can be one of three types
Console application (.exe)
Windows application (.exe)
Library of Types (.dll)
The .dll is not executable
These 3 types exclude the more advanced
web-based applications

Writing applications in C#
Before we look at the more detailed structure
and syntax of C# programs, we will show a
simple example of each type
In each case we will use the command line
compiler (csc) to create the binary (assembly)
Later in this lecture we will look at using
Visual Studio to create our applications

Writing applications in C#

Example 1 A console application

This example inputs a number from the
console and displays the square root back
to the console
Uses a simple iterative algorithm rather
than calling a Math library function

Writing applications in C#
using System;
class Square_Root
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
double a,root;
do
{
Console.Write("Enter a number: ");
a=Convert.ToDouble(Console.ReadLine());
if (a<0)
Console.WriteLine(Enter a positive number!");
} while (a<0);
root=a/2;
double root_old;
do
{
root_old=root;
root=(root_old+a/root_old)/2;
} while (Math.Abs(root_old-root)>1.0E-6);
Console.WriteLine("The square root of " + a + " is " + root);
}
}

Writing applications in C#

Writing applications in C#

We can see that everything in a C# application is in

a class
In this case the class defines a program entry point
Main
This makes the application binary an executable
Note the use of the System namespace
Classes referred to such as Console and Math
actually System.Console and System.Math

Writing applications in C#

Example 2 A windows application

A simple GUI displaying a menu
This example displays a window with
couple of menu buttons
Clicking on a menu button displays a
pop-up dialog box
The code listing demonstrates the
simplicity of GUI programming in C#

Writing applications in C#
using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
class App{
public static void Main(){
Application.Run(new MenuForm());
}
}
class MenuForm:Form{
public MenuForm(){
this.ContextMenu = new ContextMenu(SetupMenu());
this.Menu = new MainMenu(SetupMenu());
}
MenuItem[] SetupMenu(){
MenuItem file = new MenuItem("&File");
file.MenuItems.Add("Exit", new EventHandler(OnExit));
MenuItem messages = new MenuItem("&Message Boxes");
EventHandler handler = new EventHandler(OnMessageBox);
messages.MenuItems.Add("Message Box 1", handler);
messages.MenuItems.Add("Message Box 2", handler);
return new MenuItem[]{file, messages};
}
void OnExit(Object sender, EventArgs args){
this.Close();
}
void OnMessageBox(Object sender, EventArgs args){
MenuItem item = sender as MenuItem;
MessageBox.Show(this, "You selected menu item - "+item.Text);
}
}

Writing applications in C#

Writing applications in C#

Writing applications in C#

This program is considerably more complex than

the previous example
It uses the System.Drawing and
System.Windows.Forms namespaces
The (System.Windows.Forms).Form class is a
standard outer graphics container for most
windows/GUI applications
It also uses event handling to respond to user
interaction (menu button clicks)

Writing applications in C#

Example 3 A library
We can take some of the code from
example 1 for computing the square root
and make it a library
It will not have a Main method
We indicate that we are compiling to a
.dll using the /Target:library option

Writing applications in C#
using System;
public class Square_Root_Class
{
public static double calcRoot(double number)
{
double root;
root=number/2;
double root_old;
do
{
root_old=root;
root=(root_old+number/root_old)/2;
} while (Math.Abs(root_old-root)>1.0E-6);
return root;
}
}

Writing applications in C#

Writing applications in C#

We can now write a simple program

containing a Main method which uses this
library class
The only thing we need to do is to
reference the library .dll using the /r
switch when we compile the application

Writing applications in C#
using System;
class Square_Root
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
double a,root;
do
{
Console.Write("Enter a number: ");
a=Convert.ToDouble(Console.ReadLine());
if (a<0)
Console.WriteLine("Please enter a positive
number!");
} while (a<0);
root=Square_Root_Class.calcRoot(a);
Console.WriteLine("The square root of " + a + " is " +
root);
}
}

Writing applications in C#

Visual Studio .NET

VS.NET is an Integrated Development Environment or

IDE
It includes a source code editors (usually pretty
fancy ones containing language help features)
Software project management tools
Online-help and
Debugging
GUI design tools
And lots more......

Visual Studio .NET

Creating a new project gives the user the option of

the language and project type
Visual Basic, C++, C#, J#
Console, Windows, Class Library, Active Web
Page or Web Service

Visual Studio .NET

Visual Studio .NET

We can group our projects under a common

solution
Each application has just one solution but may
comprise many projects
A single solution can comprise projects written
in different languages
Each project contains a number of files including
source files, executables and xml files containing
information about the project and resources

Visual Studio .NET

We can add each of our previous 3 example

applications (projects) to a single solution
Learning C Sharp
Its a simple matter to flip between them and
view the code from each project by selecting the
appropriate tab
Each project must be built (compiled) before
executing and any of the projects in a solution
can be selected to be executed

Visual Studio .NET

Visual Studio .NET

It is a simple matter to reference a .dll from
a project
We can check all the references that a
project makes by expanding the References
menu item in the solution explorer
Notice for the windows project, lots of
FCL classes are referenced

Visual Studio .NET

Visual Studio .NET

An important feature of VS is its ability to enable

visual programming
Essentially we can create fairly sophisticated GUIs
without writing a line of code
We simply add GUI components to an outer window
(a Form) and set up the properties of the components
to get the required look and feel
VS allows us to easily switch between code and
design views
We will look more into visual programming in our
lab sessions

Visual Studio .NET

C# has a rich C-based syntax much like C++ or

Java
The concepts of variables, program statements,
control flow, operators, exceptions etc are the same
in C# as in C++ and Java
Like Java, everything in C# is inside a class{}
We will only look at those C# language issues
which differ from those we are already familiar with

Basic C# language concepts

Primitive types
Basic C# language

concepts

These are types representing the basic types we

are familiar with integers, floats, characters
etc
In C# they are part of the FCL so they are
treated as Objects (unlike in Java!) but are used
in the same way as normal primitive types
So, for example, we can apply the normal
arithmetic operators to them

C# Primitive

C# Alias

Description

Boolean

bool

Indicates a true or false value. The if, while, and dowhile constructs require expressions of type Boolean.

Byte

byte

Numeric type indicating an unsigned 8-bit value.

Char

char

Character type that holds a 16-bit Unicode character.

Decimal

decimal

High-precession numerical type for financial or scientific

applications.

Double

double

Double precision floating point numerical value.

Single

float

Single precision floating point numerical value.

Int32

int

Numerical type indicating a 32-bit signed value.

Int64

long

Numerical type indicating a 64-bit signed value.

SByte

sbyte

Numerical type indicating an 8-bit signed value.

Int16

short

Numerical type indicating a 16-bit signed value.

UInt32

uint

Numerical type indicating a 32-bit unsigned value.

UInt64

ulong

Numerical type indicating a 64-bit unsigned value.

UInt16

ushort

Numerical type indicating a 16-bit unsigned value.

String

string

Immutable string of character values

Object

object

The base type of all type in any managed code.

Basic C# language concepts

Basic C# language concepts

Reference Types and Value Types

When we declare a variable in a C# program it is
either a reference or a value type
All non-primitive types are reference types
Essentially the variable name is a reference to
the memory occupied by the variable
But primitive types can be either
Even though all primitive types are treated as
objects (unlike in Java)!!

Basic C# language concepts

For example String and Int32 are both primitive types

BUT
String is a reference type
Int32 is a value type

String variable
s is ax=10;
reference (memory address) of some
Int32
String
memory which
storess=Hello;
the string (which defaults to null)
Int32 variable x is the actual value of the integer (which
defaults to zero)

Basic C# language concepts

Arrays
Array declaration and initialization is
similar to other languages
// A one dimensional array of 10 Bytes
Byte[] bytes = new Byte[10];

// A two dimensional array of 4 Int32s

Int32[,] ints = new Int32[5,5];

// A one dimensional array of references to Strings

String[] strings = new String[10];

Basic C# language concepts

The array itself is an object

The array in is automatically derived from the Array
class in the FCL
This enables a number of useful methods of the
Array class to be used
Finding the length of an array
Finding the number of dimensions of an array
Arrays themselves are reference types although their
elements can be value types, or reference types

Control flow statements in C# are the same

Basic
C# and
language
concepts
as for C++
Java
if {} else{}
for {}
do{} while()
etc
However, there is one additional new one in
C#!
foreach

Basic C# language concepts

foreach simplifies the code for iterating through an array

foreach
(type
identifier in arrayName)
There
is no loop
counter
If the loop counter variable is required in the loop,
then a for construct must be used
The type must match the type of elements in the array
The array cannot be updated inside the loop

Basic C# language concepts

using System;
public class ForEachTest
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
int[] array ={ 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14};
int total = 0;
foreach (int n in array)
total += n;
Console.WriteLine("Array total= " + total);
}
}

Basic C# language concepts

Expressions and operators

C# is a strongly typed language
Variables are declared before use
Implicit type conversions that dont lose precision
will be carried out
Unlike C++ (but like Java) C# has a boolean type
Thus the following code generates a compilation
error
Int32 x = 10;
while(x--) DoSomething();

Basic C# language concepts

C# has the standard set of operators we are
familiar with
Also it has operators such as is and typeof for
testing variable type information
C# provides operator overload functions (as
does C++ but not Java) to enable standard
operators to be applied to non-primitive types
This is something we shall look at in a
future lecture

Basic C# language concepts

Operator category

Operators

Arithmetic

Logical (boolean and bitwise)

&

String concatenation

Increment, decrement

++--

Shift

<<

>>

Relational

==

!=

<

+=

-=

*=

&=

|=

^=

<<=

Assignment

Member access

Indexing

[]

Cast

()

Conditional (Ternary)

?:

Delegate concatenation and removal

Object creation

New

Type information

is

Overflow exception control

checked

Indirection and Address

>

&&

<=

||

>=

/=

>>=

sizeof
->

typeof

unchecked

[]

&

%=

true false

Basic C# language concepts

Error handling
This is always done in C# using structured
exception handling
Use of the try{} catch{} mechanism as in Java
and C++
Functions should not return error conditions but
should throw exceptions
This is done universally by methods in FCL
classes

Basic C# language concepts

public static void ExceptionExample()
{
// try-catch
try
{
Int32 index = 10;
while(index-- != 0)
Console.WriteLine(100/index);
}
catch(DivideByZeroException)
{
Console.WriteLine("A divide by zero exception!");
}
Console.WriteLine("Exception caught; code keeps running");

// try-finally
try
{
return;
}
finally
{
Console.WriteLine("Code in finally blocks always runs");
}
}

Summary
We have looked at different types of simple C#
applications
Console applications
Windows applications
Libraries (reusable types)
We have looked at the basics of using Visual
Studio.NET
We have looked at some C# language issues from the
point of view of differences from C++ and Java