INDEX

Unit-1
The .Net Framework:Introduction
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Common Language Runtime (CLR)
1.3 Common Type System (CTS)
1.4 Common Language Specification (CLS)
1.5 Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL)
1.6 Just-In –Time Compilation
1.7 Framework Base Classes.

Unit-2
C -Sharp Language (C#):
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Data Types, Identifiers, Variables, Constants and Literals
2.3. Array and Strings
2.4. Object and Classes
2.5. Inheritance and Polymorphism
2.6. Operator Overloading
2.7. Interfaces, Delegates and Events
2.8. Type conversion.

Unit-3
C# Using Libraries
3.1 Namespace- System
3.2 Input-Output,
3.3 Multi-Threading,
3.4 Networking and sockets,
3.5 Managing Console I/O Operations,
3.6 Windows Forms,
3.7 Error Handling.

Unit-4
Advance Features using C#
4.1 Web Services,
4.2 Window Services,
4.3 Asp.net Web Form Controls,
4.4 ADO.Net.
4.5 Distributed Application in C#,
4.6 Unsafe Mode,
4.7 Graphical Device interface with C#.

2
Unit-5
Assemblies and Attributes

5.1 .Net Assemblies

5.2 Attributes
5.3 Generic.

3
 Unit-1
Introduction to .Net framework
1. 1 Introduction to Dot Net Framework
The .NET is the technology from Microsoft, on which all other Microsoft technologies will be
depending on in future.
It is a major technology change. Just like the computer world moved from DOS to
Windows, now they are moving to .NET. But don't be surprised if you find anyone saying that "I
do not like .NET and I would stick with the good old COM and C++". There are still lot of people
who like to use the bullock-cart instead of the latest Honda car.
.NET technology was introduced by Microsoft, to catch the market from the SUN's Java.
Few years back, Microsoft had only VC++ and VB to compete with Java, but Java was catching
the market very fast. With the world depending more and more on the Internet/Web and java
related tools becoming the best choice for the web applications, Microsoft seemed to be loosing
the battle. Thousands of programmers moved to java from VC++ and VB. To recover the market,
Microsoft announced .NET.
.NET framework comes with a single class library. And thats all programmers need to
learn!! Whether they write the code in C# or VB.NET or J#, it doesn't matter, you just use the
.NET class library. There is no classes specific to any language. There is nothing more you can do
in a language, which you can't do in any other .NET language. You can write code in C# or
VB.NET with the same number of lines of code, same performance and same efficiency, because
everyone uses same .NET class library.

Features of .NET
· It is a platform neutral framework.
· It is a layer between the operating system and the programming language.
· It supports many programming languages, including VB.NET, C# etc.
· .NET provides a common set of class libraries, which can be accessed from any .NET
based programming language. There will not be separate set of classes and libraries for
each language. If you know any one .NET language, you can write code in any .NET
language.
· In future versions of Windows, .NET will be freely distributed as part of operating system
and users will never have to install .NET separately.
Major Components of .NET
The diagram given below describes various components of .NET Framework.

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The .NET framework can only be exploited by languages that are compliant with .NET. Most of
Microsoft languages have been made to fully comply with .NET.
.NET also introduces Web Forms, Web Services and Windows Forms. The reason why they have
been shown separately and not as a part of a particular language is that these
technologies can be used by any .NET compliant language. For example Windows Forms is used
by VC, VB.NET, C# all as a mode of providing GUI.
The next component of .NET is the .NET Framework Base Classes. These are the common class
libraries (much like Java packages) that can be used by any .NET compliant language. These
classes provide the programmers with a high degree of functionality that they can use in their
programs. For example their are classes to handle reading, writing and manipulating XML
documents, enhanced ADOs etc.
The bottom most layer is the CLR - the common runtime language.
Origin of .net Technology
1. OLE Technology
2. COM Technology
3. .net Technology

OLE Technology(Object Linking and Embedding)

– Easy interprocess communication
– Embed documents from one application into another application
– To enable one application to manipulate objects located in another application
– Ex: inter operability between various products such as MS word and MSExcel
COM Technology( Component Object Model)
– Monolithic approach leads to many problem of maintainability and testing
– A program is broken into number of independent components where each one offers a
particular service
– Each component can be developed and tested independently and then integrated into main
system.
– Benefits:
– Reduces the overall complexity of software.
– Enables distributed development across multiple organization or departments.
– Enhances software maintainability
.net Technology
– Third generatiom component model
– IPC in COM is replaced by Intermediate Language(IL or MSIL)
– Interoperability by compiling code into IL.
– Metadata

1.2 Common Language Runtime (CLR)

The CLR is the heart of .NET framework. It is .NET equivalent of Java Virtual Machine (JVM). It
is the runtime that converts a MSIL (Micro Soft Intermediate Language) code into the host
machine language code, which is then executed appropriately.
The CLR provides a number of services that include:
· Loading and execution of codes
· Memory isolation for application
· Verification of type safety
· Compilation of IL into native executable code
· Providing metadata
· Automatic garbage collection
· Enforcement of Security
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 · Interoperability with other systems
· Managing exceptions and errors
· Provide support for debugging and profiling

1.3 Common Type System (CTS)

The language interoperability, and .NET Class Framework, are not possible without all the
language sharing the same data types. What this means is that an “int” should mean the same in
VB, VC++, C# and all other .NET compliant languages. Same idea follows for all the other data
types. This is achieved through introduction of Common Type System (CTS).
CTS, much like Java, defines every data type as a Class. Every .NET compliant language must
stick to this definition. Since CTS defines every data type as a class; this means that only Object-
Oriented (or Object-Based) languages can achieve .NET compliance. Given below is a list of CTS
supported data types:
Data Type Description
System.Byte 1-byte unsigned integer between 0-255
2-bytes signed integer in the following range:
System.Int16
32,678 to 32,767
4-byte signed integer containing a value in the following range:
System.Int32
-2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647

8-byte signed integer containing a value from

System.Int64
-9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807

4-byte floating point. The value limits are:

for negative values:
System.Single -3.402823E38 to - 1.401298E-45
for positive values:
1.401298E-45 TO 30402823E38

8-bytes wide floating point. The value limits are:

for negative values:
System.Double -1.79769313486231E308 to - 4.964065645841247E-324
for positive values:
4.964065645841247E-324 to 1.79769313486232E308

System.Object 4-bytes address reference to an object

System.Char 2-bytes single Unicode Character.
System.String string of up to 2 billion Unicode characters.

System.Decimal 12-bytes signed integer that can have 28 digits on either side of decimal.

System.Boolean 4-Bytes number that contains true(1) or false (0)

1.4 Common Language Specification (CLS)

One of the obvious themes of .NET is unification and interoperability between various
programming languages. In order to achieve this; certain rules must be laid and all the languages

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must follow these rules. In other words we can not have languages running around creating their
own extensions and their own fancy new data types. CLS is the collection of the rules and
constraints that every language (that seeks to achieve .NET compatibility) must follow. Microsoft
has defined three level of CLS compatibility/compliance. The goals and objectives of each
compliance level have been set aside. The three compliance levels with their brief description are
given below:
Compliant producer
The component developed in this type of language can be used by any other language.
Consumer
The language in this category can use classes produced in any other language. In simple words this
means that the language can instantiate classes developed in other language. This is similar to how
COM components can be instantiated by your ASP code.
Extender
Languages in this category can not just use the classes as in CONSUMER category; but can also
extend classes using inheritance.
Languages that come with Microsoft Visual Studio namely Visual C++, Visual Basic and C#; all
satisfy the above three categories. Vendors can select any of the above categories as the targeted
compliance level(s) for their languages.

1.5 Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL)

A .NET programming language (C#, VB.NET, J# etc.) does not compile into executable code;
instead it compiles into an intermediate code called Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL). As
a programmer one need not worry about the syntax of MSIL - since our source code in
automatically converted to MSIL. The MSIL code is then send to the CLR (Common Language
Runtime) that converts the code to machine language which is then run on the host machine.
MSIL is similar to Java Byte code. A Java program is compiled into Java Byte code (the .class file)
by a Java compiler, the class file is then sent to JVM which converts it into the host machine
language.
Managed Code
The role of CLR doesn’t end once we have compiled our code to MSIL and a JIT compiler has
compiled this to native code. Code written using the .NET framework, is managed code when it is
executed. This stage is usually referred to as being at runtime. This means that the CLR looks after
our applications, by managing memory, handling security, allowing cross language debugging and
so on. By contrast, applications that do not run under the control of the CLR are said to be
unmanaged and certain languages such as C++ can be used to write such applications, that for
example, to access low level functions of the operating systems. However in C# we can only write
code that runs in a managed environment.
Unified classes
The term .NET framework refers to the group of technologies that form the development
foundation for the Microsoft .NET platform. The key technologies in this group are the run time
and the class libraries.
The run time is responsible for managing your code and providing services to it while it executes,
playing a role similar to that of the Visual Basic 6.0 run time.
The .NET programming languages including Visual Basic .NET , Microsoft Visual C# and C++
managed extensions and many other programming languages from various vendors utilize .NET
services and features through a common set of unified classes.
The .NET unified classes provide foundation of which you build your applications, regardless of
the language you use. Whether you simply concating a string, or building a windows Services or a
multiple-tier web-based applications, you will be using these unified classes.

7
The unified classes provide a consistent method of accessing the platforms functionality. Once you
learn to use the class library, you‘ll find that all tasks follow the same uniform architecture, you no
longer need to learn and master different API architecture to write your applications.
By building your applications on a unified, integrated framework, you maximize your return on the
time you spend learning this framework, and you end up with more robust applications that are
easy to deploy and maintain.
1.6 Just In Time Compiler
• To make it easy for language writers to port their languages to .NET, Microsoft developed a
language akin to assembly language called Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL). To
compile applications for .NET, compilers take source code as input and produce MSIL as
output.
• MSIL itself is a complete language that you can write applications in. However, as with
assembly language, you would probably never do so except in unusual circumstances. Because
MSIL is its own language, each compiler team makes its own decision about how much of the
MSIL it will support. However, if you're a compiler writer and you want to create a language
that does interoperate with other languages, you should restrict yourself to features specified by
the CLS.

• You write source code in C# and compile it using the C# compiler (csc.exe) into an EXE.
• The C# compiler outputs the MSIL code and a manifest into a read-only part of the EXE
that has a standard PE (Win32-portable executable) header. When the compiler creates
the output, it also imports a function named _ CorExeMain from the .NET runtime.
• When the application is executed, the operating system loads the PE, as well as any
dependent dynamic-link libraries (DLLs), such as the one that exports the _ CorExeMain
function (mscoree.dll), just as it does with any valid PE.
1.7 Framework Base Classes
The .NET Framework has an extensive set of class libraries. This includes classes for:

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 Ø Data Access: High Performance data access classes for connecting to SQL Server or any
other OLEDB provider.

Ø XML Supports: Next generation XML support that goes far beyond the functionality of
MSXML.

Ø Directory Services: Support for accessing Active Directory/LDPA using ADSI.

Ø Regular Expression : Support for above and beyond that found in Perl 5.

Ø Queuing Supports: Provides a clean object-oriented set of classes for working with
MSMQ.

These class libraries use the CLR base class libraries for common functionality.

Base Class Libraries

The Base class library in the .NET Framework is huge. It covers areas such as:
Ø Collection : The System.Collections namespaes provides numerous collection classes.

Ø Thread Support: The System.Threading namespace provides support for creating fast,
efficient, multi-threaded appliction.

Ø Code Generation: The System.CodeDOM namespace provides classes for generating

source files in numerous language. ASP.NET uses these classes when converting
ASP.NET pages into classes, which are subsequently compiled.

Ø IO: The System.IO provides extensive support for working with files and all other stream
types.

Ø Reflection: The System.Reflection namespace provides support for load assemblies,

examining the type with in assemblies, creating instances of types, etc.

Ø Security: The System.Security namespace provides support for services such as

authentication, authorization, permission sets, policies, and cryptography. These base
services are used by application development technologies like ASP.NET to build their
security infrastructure.

The list of support base classes goes on forever in .NET, but if you ever find yourself lost looking
for a specific class, you can use the WinCV tool to locate it. You can run this from the Start bar
Run menu. The file is typically located in the c:\program files\ Microsoft.Net\FrameworkSDK\Bin
directory.

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 Unit-II
C -Sharp Language (C#)

2.1 Introduction
Microsoft Corporation, developed a new computer programming language C# pronounced as ‘C-
Sharp’. C# is a simple, modern, object oriented, and type safe programming language derived from
C and C++. C# is a purely object-oriented language like as Java. It has been designed to support
the key features of .NET framework.
Like Java, C# is a descendant language of C++ which is descendant of C language.

Object Orientation

C++
Component
Orientation

Component
Java Orientation VB

Elegance

C# Productivity

C# modernize C++ by enhancing some of its features and adding a few new features. C# borrows
Java’s features such as grouping of classes, interface and implementation together in one file so the
programmers can easily edit the codes. C# also handles objects using reference, the same way as
Java.
C# uses VB’s approach to form designing, namely, dragging controls from a tool box, dropping
them onto forms, and writing events handlers for them.
Comparing C# to C++ and Java
C# versus Java
C# and Java are both new-generation languages descended from a line including C and C++. Each
includes advanced features, like garbage collection, which remove some of the low level
maintenance tasks from the programmer. In a lot of areas they are syntactically similar.
Both C# and Java compile initially to an intermediate language: C# to Microsoft Intermediate
Language (MSIL), and Java to Java bytecode. In each case the intermediate language can be run -

10
by interpretation or just-in-time compilation - on an appropriate 'virtual machine'. In C#, however,
more support is given for the further compilation of the intermediate language code into native
code.
C# contains more primitive data types than Java, and also allows more extension to the value
types. For example, C# supports 'enumerations', type-safe value types which are limited to a
defined set of constant variables, and 'structs', which are user-defined value types.
Unlike Java, C# has the useful feature that we can overload various operators.
Like Java, C# gives up on multiple class inheritance in favour of a single inheritance model
extended by the multiple inheritance of interfaces. However, polymorphism is handled in a more
complicated fashion, with derived class methods either 'overriding' or 'hiding' super class methods
C# also uses 'delegates' - type-safe method pointers. These are used to implement event-handling.
In Java, multi-dimensional arrays are implemented solely with single-dimensional arrays (where
arrays can be members of other arrays. In addition to jagged arrays, however, C# also implements
genuine rectangular arrays.
C# versus C++
Although it has some elements derived from Visual Basic and Java, C++ is C#'s closest relative.
In an important change from C++, C# code does not require header files. All code is written inline.
As touched on above, the .NET runtime in which C# runs performs memory management, taking
care of tasks like garbage collection. Because of this, the use of pointers in C# is much less
important than in C++. Pointers can be used in C#, where the code is marked as 'unsafe', but they
are only really useful in situations where performance gains are at an absolute premium.
Speaking generally, the 'plumbing' of C# types is different from that of C++ types, with all C#
types being ultimately derived from the 'object' type. There are also specific differences in the way
that certain common types can be used. For instance, C# arrays are bounds checked unlike in C++,
and it is therefore not possible to write past the end of a C# array.
C# statements are quite similar to C++ statements. To note just one example of a difference: the
'switch' statements has been changed so that 'fall-through' behavior is disallowed.
As mentioned above, C# gives up on the idea of multiple class inheritance. Other differences
relating to the use of classes are: there is support for class 'properties' of the kind found in Visual
Basic, and class methods are called using the . operator rather than the :: operator.
Features of C#
1. Simplicity
All the Syntax of java is like C++. There is no preprocessor, and much larger library. C# code does
not require header files. All code is written inline.

2. Consistent behavior
C# introduced an unified type system which eliminates the problem of varying ranges of integer
types. All types are treated as objects and developers can extend the type system simply and easily.

3. Modern programming language

C# supports number of modern features, such as:
· Automatic Garbage Collection
· Error Handling features
· Modern debugging features
· Robust Security features

4. Pure Object- Oriented programming language

In C#, every thing is an object. There are no more global functions, variable and constants. It
supports all three object oriented features:
· Encapsulation

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 · Inheritance
· Polymorphism

5. Type Safety
Type safety promotes robust programming. Some examples of type safety are:
· All objects and arrays are initialized by zero dynamically
· An error message will be produced , on use of any uninitialized variable
· Automatic checking of array out of bound and etc.
6. Feature of Versioning
Making new versions of software module work with the existing applications is known as
versioning. Its achieve by the keywords new and override.

7. Compatible with other language

C# enforces the .NET common language specifications (CLS) and therefore allows inter-operation
with other .NET language.

8. Inter-operability
C# provides support for using COM objects, no matter what language was used to author them. C#
also supports a special feature that enables a program to call out any native API.
A Simple C# Program
Let's begin in the traditional way, by looking at the code of a Hello World program (note that the
tabulation and line numbers are included just for the sake of readability).
1. Using System;
2. public class HelloWorld
3. {
4. public static void Main()
5. {
6. // This is a single line comment
7. /* This is a
8. multiple
9. line comment */
10. Console.WriteLine("Hello World! ");
11. }
12. }
· The first thing to note about C# is that it is case-sensitive. You will therefore get compiler
errors if, for instance, you write 'console' rather than 'Console'.
· The second thing to note is that every statement finishes with a semicolon (;) or else takes a
code block within curly braces.
Explanation of Program
Line 1 : using System;
we are using the System namespace (namespaces are also covered in chapter 7). The point of this
declaration is mostly to save ourselves time typing. Because the 'Console' object used in line 10 of
the code actually belongs to the 'System' namespace, its fully qualified name is 'System.Console'.
However, because in line 1 we declare that the code is using the System namespace, we can then
leave off the 'System.' part of its name within the code.
Line 2: public class HelloWorld
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As C# is an object-oriented language, C# programs must be placed in classes (classes are discussed
in chapter 5 but if you are new to object orientation we suggest that you first read some
introductory material). This line declares the class to be named 'HelloWorld'.
Line 4: public static void Main()
When compiled and run, the program above will automatically run the 'Main' method declared and
begun in this line. Note again C#'s case-sensitivity - the method is 'Main' rather than 'main'.
Line 3,11 and 5,12 :
These lines are uses the ‘{‘ for starting braces and ‘}’ for closing braces of block.
Lines 6-9 : Comments
( ‘//’ uses for single line and ‘/* -- - - */’ uses for multiple line comments)
These lines of the program are ignored by the compiler, being comments entered by the
programmer for his own benefit.
Line 6 shows a single line comment, in which everything on the line after the two forward slashes
is ignored by the compiler.
Lines 7-9 demonstrate a multi-line comment, in which everything between the opening /* and
closing */ is ignored, even when it spans multiple lines.
Line 10:
The statement on this line calls the 'WriteLine' method of the Console class in the System
namespace. It should be obvious how this works in the given example - it just prints out the given
string to the 'Console' (on PC machines this will be a DOS prompt).
Instruction for Saving the Program
In order to run the program, it must first be saved in a file. Unlike in Java, the name of the class
and the name of the file in which it is saved do not need to match up, although it does make things
easier if you use this convention. In addition, you are free to choose any extension for the file, but
it is usual to use the extension '.cs'.
Writing program in Computer
There are two ways of program writing in computer
· Using Text Editor
Using Visual Studio.NET

2.2 Data Types. Identifiers, Variables, Constants and Literals

Identifiers & Variables
Identifiers refer to the names of variables, functions arrays, classes, etc. created by programmer.
They are fundamental requirement of any language. Each language has its own rules for naming
these identifiers.
To name the variables of your program, you must follow strict rules. In fact, everything else in
your program must have a name.
There are some rules you must follow when naming your objects. On this site, here are the rules
we will follow:
· The name must start with a letter or an underscore
· After the first letter or underscore, the name can have letters, digits, and/or underscores
· The name must not have any special characters other than the underscore
· The name cannot have a space
C# is case-sensitive. This means that the names Case, case, and CASE are completely different.
For example, the main function is always written Main.
C# Keywords
C# uses a series of words, called keywords, for its internal use. This means that you must avoid
naming your objects using one of these keywords. They are:

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 abstract const extern int out short typeof
as continue false interface override sizeof uint
base decimal finally internal params stackalloc ulong
bool default fixed is private static unchecked
break delegate float lock protected string unsafe
byte do for long public struct ushort
case double foreach namespace readonly switch using
catch else goto new ref this virtual
char enum if null return throw void
checked event implicit object sbyte true volatile
class explicit in operator sealed try while

Data types
C# is a type-safe language. Variables are declared as being of a particular type, and each variable
is constrained to hold only values of its declared type.
Variables can hold either value types or reference types, or they can be pointers. Here's a quick
recap of the difference between value types and reference types.
- where a variable v contains a value type, it directly contains an object with some value. No other
variable v' can directly contain the object contained by v (although v' might contain an object with
the same value).
- where a variable v contains a reference type, what it directly contains is something which refers
to an object. Another variable v' can contain a reference to the same object referred to by v.
Value Types
C# defines the following value types:
· Primitives int i;
· Enum enum state { off, on }
· Struct struct Point{ int x, y; }
It is possible in C# to define your own value types by declaring enumerations or structs. These
user-defined types are mostly treated in exactly the same way as C#'s predefined value types,
although compilers are optimized for the latter. The following table lists, and gives information
about, the predefined value types. Because in C# all of the apparently fundamental value types are
in fact built up from the (actually fundamental) object type, the list also indicates which System
types in the .Net framework correspond to these pre-defined types.
C# .Net Framework Signed? Bytes Possible Values
Type (System) type Occupied
sbyte System.Sbyte Yes 1 -128 to 127
short System.Int16 Yes 2 -32768 to 32767
int System.Int32 Yes 4 -2147483648 to 2147483647
long System.Int64 Yes 8 -9223372036854775808 to
9223372036854775807
byte System.Byte No 1 0 to 255
ushort System.Uint16 No 2 0 to 65535
uint System.UInt32 No 4 0 to 4294967295

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 ulong System.Uint64 No 8 0 to 18446744073709551615
float System.Single Yes 4 Approximately ±1.5 x 10-45 to ±3.4
x 1038 with 7 significant figures
double System.Double Yes 8 Approximately ±5.0 x 10-324 to ±1.7
x 10308 with 15 or 16 significant
figures
decimal System.Decimal Yes 12 Approximately ±1.0 x 10-28 to ±7.9
x 1028 with 28 or 29 significant
figures
char System.Char N/A 2 Any Unicode character (16 bit)
bool System.Boolean N/A 1/2 true or false
In the following lines of code, two variables are declared and set with integer values.

int x = 10;
int y = x;
y = 20; // after this statement x holds value 10 and y holds value 20

Reference Types
The pre-defined reference types are object and string, where object - is the ultimate base class of
all other types. New reference types can be defined using 'class', 'interface', and 'delegate'
declarations. There fore the reference types are :
Predefined Reference Types
· Object
· String
User Defined Reference Types
· Classes
· Interfaces
· Delegates
· Arrays
Reference types actually hold the value of a memory address occupied by the object they
reference. Consider the following piece of code, in which two variables are given a reference to the
same object (for the sake of the example, this object is taken to contain the numeric property
'myValue').
object x = new object();
x.myValue = 10;
object y = x ;
y.myValue = 20; // after this statement both x.myValue
// and y.myValue equal 20
This code illustrates how changing a property of an object using a particular reference to it is
reflected in all other references to it. Note, however, that although strings are reference types, they
work rather more like value types. When one string is set to the value of another, eg

string s1 = "hello";
string s2 = s1;

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Then s2 does at this point reference the same string object as s1. However, when the value of s1 is
changed, for instance with

s1 = "goodbye";

what happens is that a new string object is created for s1 to point to. Hence, following this piece of
code, s1 equals "goodbye", whereas s2 still equals "hello".
The reason for this behaviour is that string objects are 'immutable'. That is, the properties of these
objects can't themselves change. So in order to change what a string variable references, a new
string object must be created.
Boxing
C# allows you convert any value type to a corresponding reference type, and to convert the
resultant 'boxed' type back again. The following piece of code demonstrates boxing. When the
second line executes, an object is initiated as the value of 'box', and the value held by i is copied
across to this object. It is interesting to note that the runtime type of box is returned as the boxed
value type; the 'is' operator thus returns the type of box below as 'int'.
int i = 123;
object box = i;
if (box is int)
{Console.Write("Box contains an int");} // this line is printed

When boxing occurs, the contents of value type are copied from stack into memory allocated into
the managed heap. The new reference type created contains a copy of the value type, and can be
used by other types that expect an object reference. The value contained in the value type and the
created reference types are not associated in any way (except that they contain the same values). If
we change the original value type, the refernce type is not affected.

The following code explicitly unboxes a reference type into a value type:

object o;
int i = (int) o;

When unboxing occurs, memory is copied from the managed heap to the stack.

2.3 Array and Strings

Arrays
An array is a group or collection of similar values. An array contains a number of variables, which
are accessed through computed indices. The various value contained in an array are also called the
elements of array. All elements of an array have to be of same type, and this type is called the
element type of the array. The element of an array can be of any type including an array type.
An array has a rank that determines the number of indices associated wth each array elements. The
rank of an array is also referred as the dimension of the array. An array may be :
· Single Dimensional
· Multi Dimensional

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An array with a rank of one is called single-dimensional array, and an array with a rank greater
than one is called a multi dimensional array.
Each dimension of array has an associated length, which is an integer number greater than or equal
to zero. For a dimension of length n, indices can range from 0 to n-1. in C#, array types are
categorized under the reference types alongside with classes and interfaces.
Single Dimensional Array
Single-dimensional arrays have a single dimension (ie, are of rank 1). The process of creation of
arrays is basically divided into three steps:
1. Declaration of Array
2. Memory Allocation for Array
3. Initialization of Array
Declaration of Array
To declare an array in C# place a pair of square brackets after the variable type. The syntax is
given below :

type[] arrayname;

For Example:

int[] a;
float[] marks;
double[] x;
int[] m,n;

You must note that we do not enter the size of the arrays in the declaration.
Memory Allocation for Array
After declaring an array, we need to allocate space and defining the size. Declaring arrays merely
says what kind of values the array will hold. It does not create them. Arrays in C# are objects, and
you use the new keyword to create them. When you create an array, yu must tell the compiler how
many components will be stored in it. Here is given the syntax:

arrayname = new type[size];

For Example:

a = new int[5];
marks = new float[6];
x = new double[10];
m = int[100];
n = int [50];

It is also possible to combine the two steps, declaration and memory allocation of array, into one as
shown below:

17
 int[] num = new int [5];

Initialization of Array
This step involves placing data into the array. Arrays are automatically assigned the default values
associated with their type. For example, if we have an array of numerical type, each element is set
to number 0. But explicit values can be assigned as and when desired.
Individual elements of an array are referenced by the array name and a number that represents their
position in the array. He number you use to identify them are called subscripts or indexes into the
array.
Subscripts are consecutive integers beginning with 0. thus the array “num” above has components
num[0], num[1], num[2], num[3], and num[4].
The initialization process is done using the array subscripts as shown:

arrayname[subscript] = value;

For Example:
num[0] = 5;
num[1] = 15;
num[2] = 52;
num[3] = 45;
num[4] = 57;

We can also initialize arrays automatically in the same way as the ordinary variables when they are
declared, as shown below:
type[] arrayname = { list of values };

the list of variables separated by commas and defined on both ends by curly braces. You must note
that no size is given in this syntax. The compiler space for all the elements specified in the list.

For Example:

int[] num = {5,15,52,45,57};

You can combine all the steps, namely declaration, memory allocation and initialization of arrays
like as:
int[] num = new int [5] {5,15,52,45,57};

You can also assign an array object to another. For Example

int[] a = { 10, 20, 30};

int[] b;
b=a;
The above example is valid in C#. Both the array will have same values.

18
Example
using system;
class Number
{
public static void Main()
{
int [] num = {10, 20, 30, 40, 50};
int n = num.Length;
// Length is predefined attribute to access the size of array
Console.Write(“ Elements of array are :”);
for(int i=0; i<n; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine(num[i]);
}

int sum =0;

for(int i=0; i<n; i++)
{
sum = sum + num[i]);
}
Console.WriteLine(“ The sum of elements :”+sum);
}

OUTPUT:
Elements of array are:
10
20
30
40
50
The sum of elements :150

Multi Dimensional Array

C# supports two types of multidimensional arrays:
· Rectangular Array
· Jagged Array
Rectangular Arrays
A rectangular array is a single array with more than one dimension, with the dimensions' sizes
fixed in the array's declaration. The following code creates a 2 by 3 multi-dimensional array:
int[,] squareArray = new int[2,3];

As with single-dimensional arrays, rectangular arrays can be filled at the time they are declared.
For instance, the code
int[,] squareArray = {{1, 2, 3}, {4, 5, 6}};

creates a 2 by 3 array with the given values. It is, of course, important that the given values do fill
out exactly a rectangular array.
The System.Array class includes a number of methods for determining the size and bounds of
arrays. These include the methods GetUpperBound(int i) and GetLowerBound(int i), which

19
return, respectively, the upper and lower subscripts of dimension i of the array (note that i is zero
based, so the first array is actually array 0).
For instance, since the length of the second dimension of squareArray is 3, the expression
squareArray.GetLowerBound(1)
returns 0, and the expression
squareArray.GetUpperBound(1)
returns 2.
System.Array also includes the method GetLength(int i), which returns the number of elements
in the ith dimension (again, zero based).
The following piece of code loops through squareArray and writes out the value of its elements.
for(int i = 0; i < squareArray.GetLength(0); i++)
for (int j = 0; j < squareArray.GetLength(1); j++)
Console.WriteLine(squareArray[i,j]);

A foreach loop can also be used to access each of the elements of an array in turn, but using this
construction one doesn't have the same control over the order in which the elements are accessed.
Jagged Arrays
Using jagged arrays, one can create multidimensional arrays with irregular dimensions. This
flexibility derives from the fact that multidimensional arrays are implemented as arrays of arrays.
The following piece of code demonstrates how one might declare an array made up of a group of 4
and a group of 6 elements:
int[][] jag = new int[2][];
jag[0] = new int [4];
jag[1] = new int [6];
The code reveals that each of jag[0] and jag[1] holds a reference to a single-dimensional int array.
To illustrate how one accesses the integer elements: the term jag[0][1] provides access to the
second element of the first group.
To initialise a jagged array whilst assigning values to its elements, one can use code like the
following:
int[ ][ ] jag = new int[ ][ ] {new int[ ] {1, 2, 3, 4}, new int[ ] {5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}};

Be careful using methods like GetLowerBound, GetUpperBound, GetLength, etc. with jagged
arrays. Since jagged arrays are constructed out of single-dimensional arrays, they shouldn't be
treated as having multiple dimensions in the same way that rectangular arrays do.
To loop through all the elements of a jagged array one can use code like the following:

for (int i = 0; i < jag.GetLength(0); i++)

for (int j = 0; j < jag[i].GetLength(0); j++)
Console.WriteLine(jag[i][j]);

or
for (int i = 0; i < jag.Length; i++)
for (int j = 0; j < jag[i].Length; j++)
Console.WriteLine(jag[i][j]);

20
Strings
A string is an empty space, a character, a word, or a group of words that you want the compiler to
consider "as is", that is, not to pay too much attention to what the string is made of, unless you
explicitly ask it to. This means that, in the strict sense, you can put in a string anything you want.
Primarily, the value of a string starts with a double quote and ends with a double-quote. An
example of a string is "Welcome to the World of C# Programming!". You can include such a
string in the Console.Write() method to display it on the console. Here is an example:
Example
using System;
class BookClub
{
static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine("Welcome to the World of C# Programming!");
}
}
OUTPUT:
Welcome to the World of C# Programming!

Types of String
There are two types of string in C#:

1) Immutable strings
2) Mutable strings

The immutable strings are can’t be modify and mutable strings are modifiable.C# also supports a
feature of regular expression that can be used for complex strings manipulations and pattern
matching.
Strings

Immutable Strings Regular Mutable Strings

Expression

String class StringBuilder

classs
Handling of Strings
We can create immutable strings using string or String objects in a number of ways. There are
some techniques to handling the immutable strings:
Assigning String

string s1;
s1 = “Welcome”;
or
string s1 = “Welcome”;

21
Copying String
string s2 = s1;
or
string s2 = string.Copy(s1);
Concatenating Strings
string s3 = s1 + s2;
or
string s3 = string.Concat(s1,s2);
Reading from Console
string s1 = Console.ReadLine();
Converting Number to String
int num = 100;
string s1= num.ToString();
Inserting String
string s1 = Wel;
string s2 = s1.insert(3,”come”);
// s2 = Welcome
string s3 = s1.insert(3,”don”);
// s3 = Weldon;
Comparing Strings
int n = string. Compare(s1,s2);
This statement will perform case-sensitive comparison and returns integer values for different
conditions. Such as:
· If s1 is equal to s2 it will return zero.
· If s1 is greater than s2 it will return positive integer (1).
· If s1 is less than s2 it will return negative integer(-1).
Or you can use following statement:
bool a = s2.Equals(s1);
bool b = string.Equal(s1,s2);
Above statements will return a Boolean value true (if equal) or false(if not equal).

Or you can also use the “==” operator for comparing the strings. Like as:

if ( s1 == s2)
Console.Write(“ both are equal”);
In this statement, it will return a Boolean value true (if equal) or false(if not equal).

Mutable String
Mutable strings are those strings, which can be modify dynamically. This type of strings are
created using StringBuilder class. For Example:

StringBuilder s1 = new StringBuilder(“Welcome”);

StringBuilder s2 = new StringBuilder( );

22
The string str1 is created with an initial size of seven characters and str2 is created as an empty
string. They can grow dynamically as more character added to them. Mutual string are referred as
a dynamic strings.
The StringBuilder class supports many methods that are useful for manipulating dynamic strings.
Some of the most common methods are listed below:
Method Operation
Append( ) Append a string
AppendFormat( ) Append string using specific format
EnsureCapacity( ) Ensure sufficient size
Insert( ) Insert a string at a specified position
Remove( ) Remove specified character
Replace( ) Removes previous string with new one

StringBuilder also provides some attributes to access some properties of strings, such as:
Attributes Puspose
Capacity To retrieve or set the number of characters
the object can hold
Length To retrieve or set the length
MaxCapacity To retrieve maximum capacity of the object
[] To get or set a character at a specified
position

Example
using System.Text; //For using StringBuilder
using System;

class StrMethod
{
public static void Main( )
{
StringBuilder s = new StringBuilder(“C”);
Console.WriteLine(“ Stored String is :”+ s);
Console.WriteLine(“Length of string is :”+s.Length);

s.Append(“Sharp ”);
// appending the string s

Console.WriteLine(“ After Append String is :”+ s);

Console.WriteLine(“Length of string is :”+s.Length);

s.Insert(7,”Language”);
// inserting the string at last in s

Console.WriteLine(“After Insertion String is:”+ s);

Console.WriteLine(“Length of string is :”+s.Length);

int n = s.Length;

s[n] = “!”;

23
 Console.WriteLine(“ At Last String is :”+ s);
}
}
OUTPUT:

Stored String is : C
Length of String is : 1

After Append string is : CSharp

After Insertion String is : CSharp Language
At Last String is : CSharp Language!

2.4 Object and Classes

As we noted previously, one can create new reference types by defining classes. Classes provide
'templates' from which these direct instances are generated. Where we appeal to the relation
between a class and its corresponding reference type instances we shall say that a class specifies
the type (also that the class specifies the constitutive elements of the type).
Any type is made up of elements, which we term type members. There are two main kinds of type
members that a class can specify. Firstly, a class can specify other types - both value and reference.
This idea, that types can contain other types, is known within the literature on object orientation as
'containment', or else 'aggregation'. Where a type contains another reference type, we shall call it
the containing type of the latter.
The second, main kind of type members that a class can specify are methods, functions designed
for reading and manipulating the value and reference types an instance contains.

Objects in C# are created from types, just like a variable. This type of an object is known as class.
we can use class definition to instantiate objects, which means to create a real named instance of a
class.
Declaration of Classes
Class is an user-defined data type. To create a class, you start with the class keyword followed by
a name and its body delimited by curly brackets. . The following is an example of a very simple
class declaration
class classname
{
// class-body
}

24
The class-body contains the member data and member function of the class. C++ programmer
must note that there is no semicolon after the closing brace of the class.
Members of Class
Class is a mechanism to implement the encapsulation, it bind the data and a function in a single
unit. Therefore data and functions are the members of class, which is known as member data and
member function.
There is an example of full class :

class Circle
{
double radius;
public void get_radius(double r)
{
radius = r;
}
public double area()
{
return ( 3.14 * r *r);
}
}

Member Access Modifiers

Access modifiers provide the accessibility control for the members of classes to outside the class.
They also provide the concept of data hiding. There are five member access modifiers provided by
the C# Language.

Modifier Accessibility
private Members only accessible with in class
public Members may accessible anywhere outside class
protected Members only accessible with in class and
derived class
internal Members accessible only within assembly
protected internal Members accessible in assembly, derived class
or containing program

By default all member of class have private accessibility. If we want a member to have any other
accessibility, then we must specify a suitable access modifier to it individually.
For Example:

class Demo
{
public int a;
internal int x;
protected double d;
float m; // private by default
}

25
We cannot declare more than one member data or member function under an accessibility
modifier.

Read Only Member

When creating a member variable of a class, one of the decisions you make consists of deciding
how the field would get its value(s). Sometimes you will allow the clients of the class to change
the values of the field. In some other cases, you may want the field to only hold or present the
value without being able to change it. This can still allow the clients to access the field and its
value but on a read-only basis.
To create a field whose value can only be read, precede its data type, during declaration, with the
readonly keyword. Here is an example:

public readonly double PI;

After declaring the variable, you should initialize it. You have two main alternatives. You can
initialize the field when declaring it. Here is an example:
Example
using System;
namespace Geometry
{
class Circle
{
public double Radius;

public Circle(double rad)

{
Radius = rad;
}

public readonly double PI = 3.14159;

}
class Exercise
{
static int Main()
{
Circle circ = new Circle(24.72);

Console.WriteLine("Circle Characteristics");
Console.WriteLine("Radius: {0}", circ.Radius);
Console.WriteLine("PI: {0}\n", circ.PI);

return 0;
}
}
}

OUTPUT:
Circle Characteristics
Radius: 24.72
PI: 3.14159

26
Object Creation
In C# objects are created using the new keyword. Actually it new is an operator, creates an object
of the specified class and returns a reference to that object. Here is an example :

public class Exercise

{
public void Welcome()
{
Console.WriteLine("This is Exercise class");
}
}

public class Class1

{
static void Main()
{
Exercise exo = new Exercise();
}
}

Constructor and Destructor

When you declare a variable of a class, a special method must be called to initialize the members
of that class. This method is automatically provided for every class and it is called a constructor.
Default Constructor
Whenever you create a new class, a constructor is automatically provided to it. This particular
constructor is called the default constructor. You have the option of creating it or not. Although a
constructor is created for your class, you can customize its behavior or change it tremendously.
A constructor holds the same name as its class and doesn't return any value, not even void. Here is
an example:
Like every method, a constructor can be equipped with a body. In this body, you can access any of
the member variables (or method(s)) of the same class. When introducing classes other than the
main class, we saw that, to use such a class, you can declare its variable and allocate memory using
the new operator. You can notice that we always included the parentheses when declaring such a
variable. Here is an example:
public class Class1
{
static void Main()
{
Exercise exo = new Exercise();
}
}
In this case, the parentheses indicate that we are calling the default constructor to instantiate the
class.
Consider the following Example:
Example
using System;

27
public class Exercise
{
public void Welcome()
{
Console.WriteLine("The wonderful world of C# programming");
}

public Exercise()
{
Console.WriteLine("The Exercise class is now available");
}
}

public class Class1

{
static void Main()
{
Exercise exo = new Exercise();
}
}
OUTPUT:
The Exercise class is now available

This shows that, when a class has been instantiated, its constructor is the first method to be called.
For this reason, you can use a constructor to initialize a class, that is, to assign default values to its
member variables. When a constructor is used to initialize a variable declared for a class. That
constructor is referred to as an instance constructor.

Parameterized Constructor
In the previous section, we saw that there is always a default constructor for a new class that you
create; you just the option of explicitly creating one or not. The default constructor as we saw it
doesn't take arguments: this is not a rule, it is simply assumed. Instead of a default constructor, you
may want to create a constructor that takes an argument. Here is an example:
using System;
public class Quadrilateral
{ public Quadrilateral(double side)
{…….
}
}
public class Class1
{
static void Main()
{

Quadrilateral Square = new Quadrilateral(6.55);

}
}

28
Static Constructor
Like the above described instance constructors, a static constructor is used to initialize a class. The
main difference is that a static constructor works internally, in the class. Therefore, it is not used to
initialize a variable of the class and you can never declare a variable of a class using a static
constructor.
To make a constructor static, when creating it, type the static keyword to its left. Here is an
example:

using System;

public class Quadrilateral

{
static Quadrilateral()
{

}
}

public class Class1

{
static void Main()
{

/* Use the default constructor to initialize an

instance of the class */

Quadrilateral Square = new Quadrilateral();

}
}

In the above class, a static constructor is created for the class but the default constructor is still
available and it is used to instantiate the class.

Constructor Overloading
A constructor is the primary method of a class. It allows the programmer to initialize a variable of
a class when the class is instantiated. A constructor that plays this role of initializing an instance of
a class is also called an instance constructor. Most of the time, you don't even need to create a
constructor, since one is automatically provided to any class you create. Sometimes too, as we
have seen in some classes, you need to create your own class as you judge it necessary. And
sometimes, a single constructor may not be sufficient. For example, when creating a class, you
may decide, or find out, that there must be more than one way for a user to initialize a variable.
Like any other method, a constructor can be overloaded. In other words, you can create a class and
give it more than one constructor. The same rules used on overloading regular methods also apply
to constructors: the different constructors must have different number of arguments or a different
number of arguments.

Example
using System;
public class Applicant
{
public string FullName;
public string Address;
public string City;
public string State;

29
 public string ZIPCode;
public string Sex;
public string DateOfBirth;
public int Weight;
public string Height;
public int Race;

// The default constructor, used to initialize an

// Applicant instance without much information
public Applicant()
{
this.FullName = "Unknown";
this.Sex = "Ungenerated";
}

// A constructor that is passed only one argument

public Applicant(string n)
{
this.FullName = n;
}

// A constructor with more than one argument

// This type is suitable to completely initialize a variable
public Applicant(string n, string s, string dob)
{
this.FullName = n;
this.Sex = s;
this.DateOfBirth = dob;
}
}

public class Exercise

{
static Applicant RegisterPersonalInformation()
{
string name;
char sex;
string gender = null;
string dob;

Console.WriteLine(" ** Motor Vehicle Administration **");

Console.WriteLine("Applicant's Registration");
Console.Write("Full Name: ");
name = Console.ReadLine();

do
{
Console.Write("Sex(F=Female/M=Male): ");
sex = char.Parse(Console.ReadLine());

if( (sex != 'f') && (sex != 'F') && (sex != 'm')

&& (sex != 'M') )
Console.WriteLine("Please enter a valid character");

}while( (sex != 'f') && (sex != 'F') &&

(sex != 'm') && (sex != 'M') );

if( (sex == 'f') || sex == 'F' )

gender = "Female";

30
 else if( (sex == 'm') || (sex == 'M') )
gender = "Male";

Console.Write("Date of Birth(mm/dd/yyyy): ");

dob = Console.ReadLine();

Applicant person = new Applicant(name, gender, dob);

return person;
}

static void Show(Applicant person)

{
Console.WriteLine("\n ** Motor Vehicle Administration **");
Console.WriteLine(" --- Applicant's Personal Information ---");
Console.WriteLine("Full Name: {0}", person.FullName);
Console.WriteLine("Sex: {0}", person.Sex);
Console.WriteLine("Date of Birth: {0}\n", person.DateOfBirth);
}

public static int Main()

{
Applicant App = new Applicant();

App = RegisterPersonalInformation();
Show(App);

return 0;
}
}

OUTPUT:

** Motor Vehicle Administration **

Applicant's Registration
Full Name: Dominique Monay
Sex(F=Female/M=Male): d
Please enter a valid character
Sex(F=Female/M=Male): M
Date of Birth(mm/dd/yyyy): 06/10/1972

** Motor Vehicle Administration **

--- Applicant's Personal Information ---
Full Name: Dominique Monay
Sex: Male
Date of Birth: 06/10/1972

Destructor
While a constructor is a method used to initialize an instance of a class, a destructor is used to
destruct an instance of class when that variable is not used anymore. Like the constructor, the
destructor has the same name as the class. To indicate that the method is a destructor, its name is
preceded with a tilde.
Example
using System;

class SampleClass

31
{
// Constructor
public SampleClass()
{
Console.WriteLine("SampleClass - Constructor");
}

~SampleClass()
{
Console.WriteLine("Destructor of SampleClass");
}
}

public class NewProject

{

static void Main()

{
SampleClass Sample = new SampleClass();

Console.WriteLine(“Welcome”);
}
}
OUTPUT:
SampleClass - Constructor
Welcome
Destructor of SampleClass

Like a (default) constructor, a destructor is automatically created for your class but you can also
create it if you want. A class can have only one constructor. If you don't create it, the compiler
would create it for your class. If you create it, the compiler would not create another. A destructor
cannot have an access level. A destructor is called when the memory that a class was used is no
longer needed. This is done automatically by the compiler. For this reason, you will hardly need to
create a constructor, since its job is automatically taken care of behind the scenes by the compiler.

2.5 Inheritance and Polymorphism

Inheritance means taking an existing class and adding functionality by deriving a new class from
it.
The class you start with is called the base class, and the new class you create is called the derived
class.
When you derive a class from another class, the new class gets all the functionality of the base
class plus whatever new features you add. You can add data members and functions to the new
class, but you cannot remove anything from what the base class offers.

In C# inheritance may be implemented in different combinations as illustrated in figure 6.1and

they include :
1) Single Inheritance
2) Multilevel Inheritance
3) Multiple Inheritance
4) Hierarchical Inheritance
Class A
Class A

Class A Class A 32 Class A Class A

 Single inheritance Hierarchical inheritance

Class A Class A Class A

Class A

Class A Class A

Multilevel inheritance Multiple inheritance

Figure
The Multiple inheritance does not directly implemented by C#. But we can implement the concept
of multiple inheritance using interface.
Derived class definition
A derived class can be defined with specifying its relationship with the base class. The syntax and
general form of derived class is:
class derived-class-name : base-class-name
{
members of class
};

Class Modifiers
When implementing inheritance, it is important to understand how establish accessibility level for
our classes and their members. Class modifier is used to decide which parts of the system can
create class objects.
Basically there are four different - optional - class modifiers. These are :
· public
· internal
· protected
· private
These are used to specify the access levels of the types defined by the classes. The following
different access levels can be specified with above four modifiers:
· protected internal
· new
· abstract
· sealed

33
 public
The 'public' keyword identifies a type as fully accessible to all other types. This is the implicit
accessibility of enumeration members and interface members.
internal
If a class is declared as 'internal', the type it defines is accessible only to types within the same
assembly (a self-contained 'unit of packaging' containing code, metadata etc.). This is the default
access level of non-nested classes.
protected
If a class is declared as 'protected', its type is accessible by a containing type and any type that
inherits from this containing type. This modifier should only be used for internal classes (ie.
classes declared within other classes).
private
Where a class is declared as 'private', access to the type it defines is limited to a containing type
only. This modifier should only be used for internal classes (ie. classes declared within other
classes).
protected internal
The permissions allowed by this access level are those allowed by the 'protected' level plus those
allowed by the 'internal' level. The access level is thus more liberal than its parts taken
individually. This modifier should only be used for internal classes (ie. classes declared within
other classes).
new
The 'new' keyword can be used for 'nested' classes. A nested class is one that is defined in the body
of another class; it is in most ways identical to a class defined in the normal way, but its access
level cannot be more liberal than that of the class in which it is defined. A nested class should be
declared using the 'new' keyword just in case it has the same name as (and thus overrides) an
inherited type.
abstract
A class declared as 'abstract' cannot itself be instanced - it is designed only to be a base class for
inheritance.
sealed
A class declared as 'sealed' cannot be inherited from other classes.
Abstract Classes
In C#, you can create a class whose role is only meant to provide fundamental characteristics for
other classes. This type of class cannot be used to declare a variable of the object. Such a class is
referred to as abstract. Therefore, an abstract class can be created only to serve as a parent class for
others. To create an abstract class, type the abstract keyword to the left of its name. Here is an
example:
abstract class Ball
{
protected int TypeOfSport;
protected string Dimensions;
}

The important features of abstract class are:

· The abstract class may contain the one or more abstract methods
· The abstract class cannot be instantiate in the other classes
· If your are inheriting the abstract class in other class, you should implement all the abstract
methods in the derived class.

34
Example

using System;
abstract class First
{
protected string s = “ ”;
public abstract void SayHello();
}

class Second : First

{
public override void SayHello()
{
s = “Hello World”;
Console.WriteLine(“{0}”,s);
}
}

class mainclass
{
public static void Main()
{
Second S = new Second();

S.SayHello();
}
}
OUTPUT:
Hello World

In class First we define abstract method called SayHello(). But there is no implementation. The
class Second derived from the class First and inherits the abstract class, where we overriding the
SayHello() method. Overriding is discussed in the section of polymorphism in more detail.

Sealed Class
Any of the classes we have used so far in our lessons can be inherited from. If you create a certain
class and don't want anybody to derive another class from it, you can mark it as sealed. In other
words, a sealed class is one that cannot serve as base for another class.
To mark a class as sealed, type the sealed keyword to its left. Here is an example:
public sealed class Ball
{
public int TypeOfSport;
public string Dimensions;
}

Polymorphism
Polymorphism is a feature to use one name in many forms. There Polymorphism can be achieved
in following ways in c#:
· Method Overloading

35
 · Method Overriding
· Method Hiding
Method overloading ,discussed in chapter 5, means one method name with different arguments.
Method overriding and hiding makes use of the following three method-head keywords
· new
· virtual,
· override
The main difference between hiding and overriding relates to the choice of which method to call
where the declared class of a variable is different to the run-time class of the object it references.
This point is explained further below.
Method Overriding
Suppose that we define a Square class which inherits from a Rectangle class (a square being a
special case of a rectangle). Each of these classes also specifies a 'getArea' instance method,
returning the area of the given instance.
For the Square class to 'override' the Rectangle class' getArea method, the Rectangle class' method
must have first declared that it is happy to be overridden. One way in which it can do this is with
the 'virtual' keyword. So, for instance, the Rectangle class' getArea method might be specified
like this:
public virtual double getArea()
return length * width;
}
To override this method the Square class would then specify the overriding method with the
'override' keyword. For example:
public override double getArea()
{
return length * length;
}

Note that for one method to override another, the overridden method must not be static, and it must
be declared as either 'virtual', 'abstract' or 'override'. Furthermore, the access modifiers for each
method must be the same.
The major implication of the specifications above is that if we construct a new Square instance and
then call its 'getArea' method, the method actually called will be the Square instance's getArea
method. So, for instance, if we run the following code:
Square sq = new Square(5);
double area = sq.getArea();
then the getArea method called on the second line will be the method defined in the Square class.
There is, however, a more subtle point. To show this, suppose that we declare two variables in the
following way:
Square sq = new Square(4);
Rectangle r = sq;
Here variable r refers to sq as a Rectangle instance (possible because the Square class derives from
the Rectangle class). We can now raise the question: if we run the following code

double area = r.getArea();

then which getArea method is actually called - the Square class method or the Rectangle class
method?

36
The answer in this case is that the Square class method would still be called. Because the Square
class' getArea method 'overrides' the corresponding method in the Rectangle class, calls to this
method on a Square instance always 'slide through' to the overriding method.
Method Hiding
Where one method 'hides' another, the hidden method does not need to be declared with any
special keyword. Instead, the hiding method just declares itself as 'new'. So, where the Square
class hides the Rectangle class' getArea method, the two methods might just be written thus:
public double getArea() // in Rectangle
{
return length * width;
}

public new double getArea() // in Square

{
return length * length;
}

Note that a method can 'hide' another one without the access modifiers of these methods being the
same. So, for instance, the Square's getArea method could be declared as private, viz:
private new double getArea()
{
return length * length;
}

This leads us to an important point. A 'new' method only hides a super-class method with a scope
defined by its access modifier. Specifically, where the access level of the hiding method is
'private', as in the method just described, this method only hides the super-class method for the
particular class in which it is defined.
To make this point more concrete, suppose that we introduced a further class, SpecialSquare,
which inherits from Square. Suppose further that SpecialSquare does not overwrite the getArea
method. In this case, because Square's getArea method is defined as private, SpecialSquare inherits
its getArea method directly from the Rectangle class (where the getArea method is public).
The final point to note about method hiding is that method calls do not always 'slide through' in the
way that they do with virtual methods. So, if we declare two variables thus:
Square sq = new Square(4);

Rectangle r = sq;

then run the code

double area = r.getArea();
the getArea method run will be that defined in the Rectangle class, not the Square class.

37
Properties
This Chapter teaches C# Properties. Our objectives are as follows:
· Understand What Properties Are For.
· Implement a Property.
· Create a Read-Only Property.
· Create a Write-Only Property.
· Create an auto-implemented property.
Overview of Properties
Properties provide the opportunity to protect a field in a class by reading and writing to it through
the property. In other languages, this is often accomplished by programs implementing specialized
getter and setter methods. C# properties enable this type of protection while also letting you access
the property just like it was a field.
Another benefit of properties over fields is that you can change their internal implementation over
time. With a public field, the underlying data type must always be the same because calling code
depends on the field being the same. However, with a property, you can change the
implementation. For example, if a customer has an ID that is originally stored as an int, you might
have a requirements change that made you perform a validation to ensure that calling code could
never set the ID to a negative value. If it was a field, you would never be able to do this, but a
property allows you to make such a change without breaking code. Now, lets see how to use
properties.
Creating Read-Only Properties
Properties can be made read-only. This is accomplished by having only a get accessor in the
property implementation.
Creating a Write-Only Property
You can assign values to, but not read from, a write-only property. A write-only property only has
a set accessor.
Indexers
Indexers are real easy. They allow your class to be used just like an array. On the inside of a class,
you manage a collection of values any way you want. These objects could be a finite set of class
members, another array, or some complex data structure. Regardless of the internal
implementation of the class, its data can be obtained consistently through the use of indexers.
Here's an example.
An Example
using System;

/// <summary>
/// A simple indexer example.
/// </summary>
class IntIndexer
{
private string[] myData;

public IntIndexer(int size)

{
myData = new string[size];

for (int i=0; i < size; i++)

{

38
 myData[i] = "empty";
}
}
public string this[int pos]
{
get
{
return myData[pos];
}
set
{
myData[pos] = value;
}
}

static void Main(string[] args)

{
int size = 10;

IntIndexer myInd = new IntIndexer(size);

myInd[9] = "Some Value";

myInd[3] = "Another Value";
myInd[5] = "Any Value";

Console.WriteLine("\nIndexer Output\n");

for (int i=0; i < size; i++)

{
Console.WriteLine("myInd[{0}]: {1}", i, myInd[i]);
}
}
}

Overloaded Indexers that accept different types

Additionally, Indexers can be overloaded. In listing 11-2, we modify the previous program to
accept overloaded Indexers that accept different types.
Listing 11-2. Overloaded Indexers: OvrIndexer.cs
using System;

/// <summary>
/// Implements overloaded indexers.
/// </summary>
class OvrIndexer
{
private string[] myData;
private int arrSize;

public OvrIndexer(int size)

{

39
 arrSize = size;
myData = new string[size];

for (int i=0; i < size; i++)

{
myData[i] = "empty";
}
}

public string this[int pos]

{
get
{
return myData[pos];
}
set
{
myData[pos] = value;
}
}

public string this[string data]

{
get
{
int count = 0;

for (int i=0; i < arrSize; i++)

{
if (myData[i] == data)
{
count++;
}
}
return count.ToString();
}
set
{
for (int i=0; i < arrSize; i++)
{
if (myData[i] == data)
{
myData[i] = value;
}
}
}
}

static void Main(string[] args)

{

40
 int size = 10;
OvrIndexer myInd = new OvrIndexer(size);

myInd[9] = "Some Value";

myInd[3] = "Another Value";
myInd[5] = "Any Value";

myInd["empty"] = "no value";

Console.WriteLine("\nIndexer Output\n");

for (int i=0; i < size; i++)

{
Console.WriteLine("myInd[{0}]: {1}", i, myInd[i]);
}

Console.WriteLine("\nNumber of \"no value\" entries: {0}", myInd["no value"]);

}
}
An indexer with multiple parameters
An Indexer signature is specified by the number and type of parameters in an Indexers parameter
list. The class will be smart enough to figure out which Indexer to invoke, based on the number
and type of arguments in the Indexer call. An indexer with multiple parameters would be
implemented something like this:
public object this[int param1, ..., int paramN]
{
get {
// process and return some class data }
set {
// process and assign some class data }
}
ref ,out and params
The out method parameter keyword on a method parameter causes a method to refer to the same
variable that was passed into the method. Any changes made to the parameter in the method will
be reflected in that variable when control passes back to the calling method.
Declaring an out method is useful when you want a method to return multiple values. A method
that uses an out parameter can still return a value. A method can have more than one out
parameter.
To use an out parameter, the argument must explicitly be passed to the method as an out
argument. The value of an out argument will not be passed to the out parameter.
A variable passed as an out argument need not be initialized. However, the out parameter must be
assigned a value before the method returns.
A property is not a variable and cannot be passed as an out parameter.
An overload will occur if declarations of two methods differ only in their use of out. However, it is
not possible to define an overload that only differs by ref and out. For example, the following
overload declarations are valid:
class MyClass
{
public void MyMethod(int i) {i = 10;}
public void MyMethod(out int i) {i = 10;}

41
}
while the following overload declarations are invalid:
class MyClass
{
public void MyMethod(out int i) {i = 10;}
public void MyMethod(ref int i) {i = 10;}
}
Example:
// cs_out.cs
using System;
public class MyClass
{
public static int TestOut(out char i)
{
i = 'b';
return -1;
}

public static void Main()

{
char i; // variable need not be initialized
Console.WriteLine(TestOut(out i));
Console.WriteLine(i);
}
}
Output:
-1
B

ref Keyword:
The ref method parameter keyword on a method parameter causes a method to refer to the same
variable that was passed into the method. Any changes made to the parameter in the method will
be reflected in that variable when control passes back to the calling method.
using System;
public class MyClass
{
public static void TestRef(ref char i)
{
// The value of i will be changed in the calling method
i = 'b';
}

public static void TestNoRef(char i)

{
// The value of i will be unchanged in the calling method
i = 'c';
}

public static void Main()

{

42
 char i = 'a'; // variable must be initialized
TestRef(ref i); // the arg must be passed as ref
Console.WriteLine(i);
TestNoRef(i);
Console.WriteLine(i);
}
}
OUTPUT:
b
b
Parameter Arrays(Params)
• A parameter declared with a params modifier is a parameter array. If a formal parameter list
includes a parameter array, it must be the last parameter in the list and it must be of a single-
dimensional array type.
• For example, the types string[] and string[][] can be used as the type of a parameter array, but
the type string[,] cannot.
• It is not possible to combine the params modifier with the modifiers ref and out.
• A parameter array permits arguments to be specified in one of two ways in a method
invocation:
– The argument given for a parameter array can be a single expression of a type that is
implicitly convertible to the parameter array type.
– Alternatively, the invocation can specify zero or more arguments for the parameter
array, where each argument is an expression of a type that is implicitly convertible to
the element type of the parameter array. In this case, the invocation creates an instance
of the parameter array type with a length corresponding to the number of arguments,
initializes the elements of the array instance with the given argument values, and uses
the newly created array instance as the actual argument.
using System;
class Test {
static void F(params int[] args) {
Console.Write("Array contains {0} elements:", args.Length);
foreach (int i in args)
Console.Write(" {0}", i);
Console.WriteLine();
}
static void Main() {
int[] arr = {1, 2, 3};
F(arr);
F(10, 20, 30, 40);
F();
}}

2.6 Operator Overloading

Overloading
Another important and exciting feature object-oriented programming is Operator overloading. C#
supports the concept of operator overloading. Operator overloading is a concept in which operator

43
can defined to work with the user-defined data types such as structs and classes in the same way as
the pre-defined data types.

Example
using System;
public class Item
{
public int i;
public Item( int j)
{
i = j;
}

public static Item operator + ( Item x , Item y)

{
System.Console.WriteLine(“operator +” + x.i +“ ”+ y.i);
Item z = new Item(x.i+y.i);
return z;
}
}

public class Test

{
public static void Main() {
Item a = new Item(10);
Item b = new Item(5);
Item c;
c=a+b;
System.Console.WriteLine(c.i);
}
}

Output:
operator + 10 5
15

There are many operators that cannot be overloaded. Which are listed below:
· Conditional Operator & &, ||
· Compound Assignment +=, -=, *=, /=, %=
· Other Operators [], (), = , ?:, ->, new, sizeof,
types of, is, as

2.7 Interfaces, Delegates and Events.

Interface
Imagine you start creating a class and, while implementing or testing it, you find out that this
particular class can be instead as a general base that other classes can be derived from. An

44
interface is a special class whose purpose is to serve as a template that actual classes can be based
on.
An interface is primarily created like a class: it has a name, a body and can have members. To
create an interface, instead of the class keyword, you use the interface keyword. By convention,
the name of an interface starts with I. Here is an example:

interface ICourtDimensions
{
}
An interface is mostly used to lay a foundation for other classes. For this reason, it is the prime
candidate for class derivation. To derive from an interface, use the same technique we have applied
in inheritance so far. Here is an example of a class named SportBall that derives from an interface
named ISportType:

public class SportBall : ISportType

{
int players;
string sport;
}
Just as you can derive a class from an interface, you can create an interface that itself is based on
another interface. Here is an example:
public interface ISportType : IBall
{
}
The C# language doesn't allow multiple inheritance which is the ability to create a class based on
more than one class. Multiple inheritance is allowed only if the bases are interfaces. To create
multiple inheritance, separate the names of interface with a comma. Here is an example:
public interface ISportType : IBall, ICourtDimensions
{
}
You can also involve a class as parent in a multiple inheritance scenario but there must be only one
class. Here is an example in which a class called Sports derives from one class and various
interfaces:
public interface Sports: Player, IBall, ICourtDimensions
{
}

Example
// implementation of multiple interface
using System;

interface Add
{
int sum();
}
interface Multiply
{
int mul();
}

45
class calculate : Add, Multiply
{
int a,b;
public calculate( int x, int y)
{
a = x;
b = y;
}
public int sum()
{
return ( a + b );
}
public int mul()
{
return ( a * b );
}
}
class MyInterface
{
public static void Main()
{

calculate cal = new calculate(5,10);

Add A = (Add) cal; // casting

Console.WriteLine(“Sum : ” + A.sum());

Multiply M = (Multiply) cal;

Console.WriteLine(“Multiplication :” + M.mul());
}
}

OUTPUT:

Sum : 15
Multiplication : 50

Delegates
The C and C++ languages are having the concept of function pointer. This was even more useful
when programming for the Microsoft Windows operating systems because the Win32 library relies on
the concept of callback functions. Callback functions are used in Microsoft Windows programming to
process messages. For this reason and because of their functionality, callback functions were
carried out in the .NET Framework but they were defined with the name of delegate.
A delegate is a special type of user-defined variable that is declared globally, like a class. In fact, a
delegate is created like an interface but as a method. Based on this, a delegate provides a template
for a method, like an interface provides a template for a class. Like an interface, a delegate is not
defined. Its role is to show what a useful method would look like. To support this concept, a
delegate can provide all the necessary information that would be used on a method. This includes a
return type, no argument or one or more arguments.

46
Delegate Declaration and Instantiation
Delegates can be specified on their own in a namespace, or else can be specified within another
class. In each case, the declaration specifies a new class, which inherits from
System.MulticastDelegate.
Each delegate is limited to referencing methods of a particular kind only. The type is indicated by
the delegate declaration - the input parameters and return type given in the delegate declaration
must be shared by the methods its delegate instances reference. To illustrate this: a delegate
specified as below can be used to refer only to methods which have a single String input and no
return value:
public delegate void Print (String s);
Suppose, for instance, that a class contains the following method:
public void realMethod (String myString)
{
// method code
}
Another method in this class could then instantiate the 'Print' delegate in the following way, so that
it holds a reference to 'realMethod':
Print delegateVariable = new Print(realMethod);
We can note two important points about this example. Firstly, the unqualified method passed to the
delegate constructor is implicitly recognised as a method of the instance passing it. That is, the
code is equivalent to:
Print delegateVariable = new Print(this.realMethod);
We can, however, in the same way pass to the delegate constructor the methods of other class
instances, or even static class methods. In the case of the former, the instance must exist at the time
the method reference is passed. In the case of the latter (exemplified below), the class need never
be instantiated.
Print delegateVariable = new Print(ExampleClass.exampleMethod);

Example
using System;
delegate int operation(int x, int y)
{
delegate int Operation(int x, int y);
class MathOpr
{
public static int Add(int a, int b)
{
return(a + b);
}
public static int Sub(int a, int b)
{
return( a – b);
}
public static int Mul(int a, int b)
{
return( a * b);

47
 }
}
class Test
{
Operation opr1 = new Operation (Mathopr.Add);
Operation opr2 = new Operation (Mathopr.Sub);
Operation opr3 = new Operation (Mathopr.Mul);

//invoking of delegates
int ans1 = opr1(200, 100);
int ans2 = opr2(200, 100);
int ans3 = opr3(20,10);

Console.WriteLine(“\n Addition :”+ ans1);

Console.WriteLine(“\n Subtraction :”+ ans2);
Console.WriteLine(“\n multiplication :”+ ans3);
}
}
OUTPUT:
Adiition : 300
Subtraction :100
Multiplication : 200

Multicast Delegates
The second thing to note about the example is that all delegates can be constructed in this fashion,
to create a delegate instance which refers to a single method. However, as we noted before, some
delegates - termed 'multicast delegates' - can simultaneously reference multiple methods. These
delegates must - like our Print delegate - specify a 'void' return type.
One manipulates the references of multicast delegates by using addition and subtraction . The
following code gives some examples:
Print s = null;
s = s + new Print (realMethod);
s += new Print (otherRealMethod);
The - and -= operators are used in the same way to remove method references from a delegate.
The following code gives an example of the use of multicast delegates.
Example
using System;
delegate void MultiDel();
class MD
{ static public void Hello()
{
Console.WriteLine(“Hello”);
}
static public void Show()
{
Console.WriteLine(“ Hi”);
}
}

48
class Test
{
public static void Main()
{
//delegate instances
MultiDel M1 = new MultiDel(MD.Display);
MultiDel M2 = new MultiDel(MD.Show);

//combine the delegates

MultiDel M3 = M1 + M2;
MultiDel M4 = M2 + M1;

//extracting the delegates

MultiDel M5 = M3 – M2;
MultiDel M6 = M4 – M1;

//invoking delegates
M3();
M4();
M5();
M6();
}
}

OUTPUT:
Hello
Hi

Hi
Hello

Hello

Hi

Events
In object-oriented languages, objects expose encapsulated functions called methods. Methods are
encapsulated functions which run when they are invoked.
Sometimes, however, we think of the process of method invocation more grandly. In such a case,
the method invocation is termed an 'event', and the running of the method is the 'handling' of the
event. An archetypal example of an event is a user's selection of a button on a graphical user
interface; this action may trigger a number of methods to 'handle' it.
What distinguishes events from other method invocations is not, however, that they must be
generated externally. Any internal change in the state of a program can be used as an event.
Rather, what distinguishes events is that they are backed by a particular 'subscription-notification'
model. An arbitrary class must be able to 'subscribe to' (or declare its interest in) a particular event,
and then receive a 'notification' (ie. have one of its methods run) whenever the event occurs.
Delegates (in particular multicast delegates) are essential in realizing this subscription-notification
model. The following example describes how Class 2 subscribes to an event issued by Class 1.
1. Class 1 is an issuer of E-events. It maintains a public multicast delegate D.

49
2. Class 2 wants to respond to E-events with its event-handling method M. It therefore adds onto D
a reference to M.
3. When Class 1 wants to issue an E-event, it calls D. This invokes all of the methods which have
subscribed to the event, including M.
The 'event' keyword is used to declare a particular multicast delegate (in fact, it is usual in the
literature to just identify the event with this delegate). The code below shows a class EventIssuer,
which maintains an event field myEvent. We could instead have declared the event to be a
property instead of a field . To raise the myEvent event, the method onMyEvent is called (note that
we are checking in this method to see if myEvent is null - trying to trigger a null event gives a run-
time error).
public class EventIssuer
{
public delegate void EventDelegate(object from, EventArgs args);
public event EventDelegate myEvent;
protected virtual void onMyEvent(EventArgs args)
{
if (myEvent!=null)
myEvent(this, args);
}
A class which wanted to handle the events issued by an EventIssuer ei with its method
handleEvents would then subscribe to these events with the code:
ei.myEvent += new EventIssuer.EventDelegate(handleEvents);

Tips For Events

The code above demonstrates some points about event-handling which are not enforced by the
language architecture, but are used throughout the .Net framework as good practice.
1. When you want to raise an event in code, you don't tend to trigger the class's event object
directly. Rather, you call a 'protected, virtual' method to trigger it (cf. the onMyEvent method
above).
2. By convention, when events are raised they pass two objects to their subscribers. The first is a
reference to the class raising the event; the second is an instance of the System.EventArgs class
which contains any arbitrary data about the event.
3. If an event is not interested in passing data to subscribers, then its defining delegate will still
reference an EventArgs object (but a null value will be passed by the event). If an event should
pass data to its subscribers, however, then it is standard to use a specific class which derives from
the EventArgs class to hold this data.
4. When you write a class which inherits from an event-raising base class, you can 'intercept' an
event by overriding the method used to raise it. The following code illustrates such an intercept -
classes which subscribe to the event will never receive notifications about it.

protected override void onMyEvent(EventArgs args)

{
Console.WriteLine("hello"); }
If you want subscribers to continue to receive notifications despite such an 'intercepting' method,
however, then you can call the base class method as in the following:

protected override void onMyEvent(EventArgs args)

{ Console.WriteLine("hello");
base.onMyEvent(args); }

50
2.8 Type conversion
There are two types of conversions:
1. Implicit Conversion
2. Explicit Conversion

Implicit Conversion : In implicit conversion the compiler will make conversion for us without
asking.
char -> int -> float is an example of data compatibility. Complier checks for type compatibility at
compilation.
Explicit Conversion: In explicit conversion we specifically ask the compiler to convert the value
into another data type.CLR checks for data compatibility at runtime.Explicit conversion is carried
out using casts. When we cast one type to another, we deliberately force the compiler to make the
transformation.Casting of big data type into small may lead to loosing of data.

Microsoft .NET provides three ways of type conversion:

1. Parsing(int.Parse()
2. Convert Class(Convert.ToInt32())
3. Explicit Cast Operator ()

Parsing
Parsing is used to convert string type data to primitive value type. For this we use parse methods
with value types.

Convert Class: One primitive type to another primitive type.

This class contains different static methods like ToInt32(), ToInt16(), ToString(), ToDateTime()
etc used in type conversion.

Boxing and unboxing

Boxing and unboxing is an important concept in C# type system. With Boxing and unboxing one
can link between value-types and reference-types by allowing any value of a value-type to be
converted to and from type object.

Boxing
• Boxing is a mechanism in which value type is converted into reference type.
• It is implicit conversion process in which object type (super type) is used.
• In this process type and value both are stored in object type

51
Unboxing
• Unboxing is a mechanism in which reference type is converted into value.
• It is explicit conversion process.
Example
int i, j;
object obj;
string s;
i = 32;
obj = i; // boxed copy!
i = 19;
j = (int) obj; // unboxed!
s = j.ToString(); // boxed!
s = 99.ToString(); // boxed!
Difference Between Int32.Parse(), Convert.ToInt32(), and Int32.TryParse(),(int)
Int32.Parse (string s) method converts the string representation of a number to its 32-bit signed
integer equivalent.
– When s is a null reference, it will throw ArgumentNullException.
– If s is other than integer value, it will throw FormatException.
– When s represents a number less than MinValue or greater than MaxValue, it will
throw OverflowException.
• (int) will only convert types that can be represented as an integer (ie double, long, float,
etc) although some data loss may occur.
• string s1 = "1234";
• string s2 = "1234.65";
• string s3 = null;
• string s4 =123456789123456789123456789123456789123456789";
• int result;
• bool success;
• result = Int32.Parse(s1); //-- 1234
• result = Int32.Parse(s2); //-- FormatException
• result = Int32.Parse(s3); //-- ArgumentNullException
• result = Int32.Parse(s4); //-- OverflowException
Convert.ToInt32(string):This method converts the specified string representation of 32-bit
signed integer equivalent. This calls in turn Int32.Parse () method.
– When s is a null reference, it will return 0 rather than
throw ArgumentNullException.
– If s is other than integer value, it will throwFormatException.
– When s represents a number less than MinValue or greater than MaxValue, it will
throw OverflowException. For example:
• result = Convert.ToInt32(s1); //-- 1234
• result = Convert.ToInt32(s2); //-- FormatException
• result = Convert.ToInt32(s3); //-- 0
• result = Convert.ToInt32(s4); //-- OverflowException
Int32.TryParse(string, out int): This method converts the specified string representation of 32-
bit signed integer equivalent to out variable, and returns true if it is parsed
successfully, false otherwise.

52
 – When s is a null reference, it will return 0 rather than
throwArgumentNullException.
– If s is other than an integer value, the out variable will have 0 rather
thanFormatException.
– When s represents a number less than MinValue or greater than MaxValue,
the outvariable will have 0 rather than OverflowException.
– success = Int32.TryParse(s1, out result); //-- success => true; result => 1234
• success = Int32.TryParse(s2, out result); //-- success => false; result => 0
• success = Int32.TryParse(s3, out result); //-- success => false; result => 0
• success = Int32.TryParse(s4, out result); //-- success => false; result => 0
• Convert.ToInt32 is better than Int32.Parse since it returns 0 rather than an exception. But
again, according to the requirement, this can be used. TryParse will be the best since it
always handles exceptions by itself.

53
 Unit-III
C# Using Libraries
3.1 Namespace- System
System Namespace in fundamental namespace for c# application. It contain all the fundamental
classes and base classes which are required in simple C# application. These classes and sub classes
defines reference data type, method and interfaces. Some classes provide some other feature like
data type conversion, mathematical function.
Some functionality provided by System namespace
· Commonly-used value
· Mathematics
· Remote and local program invocation
· Application environment management
· Reference data types
· Events and event handlers
· Interfaces Attributes Processing exceptions
· Data type conversion
· Method parameter manipulation
Some Classes provide by System namespace
· AccessViolationException
· Array
· ArgumentNullException
· AttributeUsageAttribute
· Buffer
· Console
· Convert
· Delegate
· Exception
· InvalidCastException
Some interfaces provided by System namespace
· Public interface ICloneable
· Public interface IComparable
· Public interface IComparable<T>
· Public interface IConvertible
· Public interface ICustomFormatter
· Public interface IDisposable
· Public interface IEquatable<T>
· Public interface IFormatProvider
MATH EXAMPLE
using System;
class Pythagorean {
static void Main() {
double s1;
double s2;
double hypot;
string str;
Console.WriteLine("Enter length of first side: ");
str = Console.ReadLine();
s1 = Double.Parse(str);
Console.WriteLine("Enter length of second side: ");

54
 str = Console.ReadLine();
s2 = Double.Parse(str);
hypot = Math.Sqrt(s1*s1 + s2*s2);
Console.WriteLine("Hypotenuse is " + hypot);
}
}
Sorting and Searching,Reverse,Copy Arrays
Using Sort( ), you can sort an entire array, a range within an array, or a pair of arrays that contain
corresponding key/value pairs. Once an array has been sorted, you can efficiently search it using
BinarySearch( ).

using System;
class SortDemo {
static void Main() {
int[] nums = { 5, 4, 6, 3, 14, 9, 8, 17, 1, 24, -1, 0 };
Console.Write("Original order: ");
foreach(int i in nums)
Console.Write(i + " "); Console.WriteLine();
Array.Sort(nums);
Console.Write("Sorted order: ");
foreach(int i in nums)
Console.Write(i + " "); Console.WriteLine();
int idx = Array.BinarySearch(nums, 14);
Console.WriteLine("Index of 14 is " + idx); } }

The IComparable and IComparable<T> Interfaces

• Many classes will need to implement either the IComparable or IComparable<T> interface
because they enable one object to be compared to another (for the purpose of ordering) by
various methods defined by the .NET Framework
• IComparable is especially easy to implement because it consists of just this one
method:
• int CompareTo(object obj)
• This method compares the invoking object against the value in obj. It returns greater than
zero if the invoking object is greater than obj, zero if the two objects are equal, and less
than zero if the invoking object is less than obj.

StringBuilder in C#
Once created a string cannot be changed. A StringBuilder can be changed as many times as
necessary. It yields astonishing performance improvements. It eliminates millions of string copies.
Many C# programs append or replace strings in loops. There the StringBuilder type becomes a
necessary optimization. It uses the new keyword for StringBuilder. Use the new keyword to make
your StringBuilder. This is different from regular strings. StringBuilder has many overloaded
constructors. continuing on it calls the instance Append method. This method adds the contents of
its arguments to the buffer in the StringBuilder. Every argument to StringBuilder will
automatically have its ToString method called. It calls AppendLine, which does the exact same
thing as Append, except with a new line on the end. Next, Append and Append Line call
themselves. This shows terse syntax with StringBuilder. Finally ToString returns the buffer. You
will almost always want ToString. It will return the contents as a string.

55
Example
using System;
using System.Text;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
// Append to StringBuilder.
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
builder.Append(i).Append(" ");
}
Console.WriteLine(builder);
}
}

3.2 Input-Output
C# programs perform I/O through streams. A stream is an abstraction that either produces or
consumes information. A stream is linked to a physical device by the I/O system. All streams
behave in the same manner, even if the actual physical devices they are linked to differ. Thus, the
I/O classes and methods can be applied to many types of devices. For example, the same methods
that you use to write to the console can also be used to write to a disk file.

Byte Streams and Character Streams

At the lowest level, all C# I/O operates on bytes. This makes sense because many devices are byte
oriented when it comes to I/O operations. Frequently, though, we humans prefer to communicate
using characters. Recall that in C#, char is a 16-bit type, and byte is an 8-bit type. If you are using
the ASCII character set, then it is easy to convert between char and byte; just ignore the high-
order byte of the char value. But this won’t work for the rest of the Unicode characters, which
need both bytes (and possibly more). Thus, byte streams are not perfectly suited to handling
character-based I/O. To solve this problem, the .NET Framework defines several classes that
convert a byte stream into a character stream, handling the translation of byte-to-char and char-to-
byte for you automatically.
The Predefined Streams
Three predefined streams, which are exposed by the properties called Console.In, Console.Out,
and Console.Error, are available to all programs that use the System namespace. Console.Out
refers to the standard output stream. By default, this is the console. When you call
Console.WriteLine( ), for example, it automatically sends information to Console.Out.
Console.In refers to standard input, which is, by default, the keyboard. Console.Error refers to
the standard error stream, which is also the console by default. However, these streams can be
redirected to any compatible I/O device. The standard streams are character streams. Thus, these
streams read and write characters.

System.IO Namespace
– BinaryReader Class: Reads primitive data types as binary values in a specific encoding.
– BinaryWriter Class : Writes primitive types in binary to a stream and supports writing
strings in a specific encoding.
– BufferedStream Class : Adds a buffering layer to read and write operations on another
stream. This class cannot be inherited.

56
 – Directory Class: Exposes static methods for creating, moving, and enumerating through
directories and subdirectories. This class cannot be inherited.
– DirectoryInfo Class: Exposes instance methods for creating, moving, and enumerating
through directories and subdirectories. This class cannot be inherited.
– File Class:Provides static methods for the creation, copying, deletion, moving, and opening
of files, and aids in the creation of FileStream objects.
– FileInfo :Provides properties and instance methods for the creation, copying, deletion,
moving, and opening of files, and aids in the creation of FileStream objects. This class
cannot be inherited.
– FileStream: Exposes a Stream around a file, supporting both synchronous and
asynchronous read and write operations.
– IOException Class
– Path Class
– Stream Class: Provides a generic view of a sequence of bytes.
– StreamReader: Implements a TextReader that reads characters from a byte stream in a
particular encoding.
– StreamWriter : Implements a TextWriter for writing characters to a stream in a particular
encoding.
– StringReader :Implements a TextReader that reads from a string.
– StringWriter: Implements a TextWriter for writing information to a string. The
information is stored in an underlying StringBuilder.
– TextReader: Represents a reader that can read a sequential series of characters.
– TextWriter:Represents a writer that can write a sequential series of characters. This class
is abstract.
–
Creating and writing text on a File
namespace IOTest{
class Program {
static void Main(string[] args) {
StreamWriter sw;
sw= File.CreateText("d:/workspace/Hello.txt");
sw.WriteLine("Hello Mca Students This is your basic IO");
//sw.Flush();
//sw.Close();
Console.WriteLine("Please show the file in d drive ");
} }}

class TextFileWriter {
static void Main(string[] args) {
TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter("date.txt");
tw.WriteLine(DateTime.Now);
tw.Close();
} }
class TextFileReader {
static void Main(string[] args) {
Textreader tr = new StreamReader("date.txt");
Console.WriteLine(tr.ReadLine());
tr.Close();
}
}

57
Listing A Directory
class DirTest1{
static void Main(){
System.Console.WriteLine("sub directries in this directory ");
string[] dirs = Directory.GetDirectories("C:\\");
int count = dirs.Length;
for (int i=0; i<count; i++)
System.Console.WriteLine(dirs[i]);
System.Console.WriteLine("Files in this dierectory are");
string[] files = Directory.GetFiles("C:\\");
int count1 = files.Length;
for (int i=0; i<count1; i++)
System.Console.WriteLine(files[i]);
}}

Formatted Strings in C#
The parameter placeholder {0}, {1} etc in Console.Write is handled by the string formatting. The
placeholder has to have the index of the parameter but can also include formatting information.
This is used in Console.WriteLine and also string.format hence its inclusion here.
Layout of the PlaceHolder
The three parts are
index, alignment : format

So {0:X} (x means Hexadecimal) or {0,10} meaning output in a width of 10. The alignment value
specifies teh width and left or right alignment by using - (left aligned) or + (right aligned)
numbers. 10 Means right aligned in a width of 10, -6 means left aligned in a width of 6. Alignment
is ignored if the output exceeds the width.
This provides a large number of formatting examples.
List of Numeric Formats
· C or C - For Currency. Uses the cultures currency symbol.
· D or D - Integer types. Add a number for 0 padding eg D5.
· E or e - Scientific notation.
· F or f - Fixed Point.
· G or g - Compact fixed-point/scientific notation.
· N or n - Number. This can be enhanced by a NumberFormatInfo object.
· P or p - Percentage.
· R or r - Round-trip. Keeps exact digits when converted to string and back.
· X or x - Hexadecimal. x - uses abcdef, X use ABCDEF.
Dates can also be specified either using Standard Format strings
· O or o - YYYY-MM-dd:mm:ss:ffffffffzz
· R or r - RFC1123 eg ddd, dd MMM yyyy HH:ss GMT
· s - sortable . yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss
· u - Universal Sort Date - yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ssZ
or Format specifiers.

Example
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Globalization;

58
namespace ex6
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Numeric Formatting Examples
// integer
int i = 5678;
string s = string.Format("{0,10:D}", i); // Into a string right aligned 10 width
Console.WriteLine("{0,10:D}", i); // or output direct
Console.WriteLine("{0,10:D7}", i); // or output direct with leading 0

// double and currency in various formats

double d=47.5;
double bigd = 19876543.6754;
Console.WriteLine("{0,15:C2}", d); // In Uk = £47.50 right aligned in 15 width

Console.WriteLine("{0,15:N10}", bigd); // Number

Console.WriteLine("{0,15:E3}", d); // Scientific 4.750E+001
Console.WriteLine("{0,15:F5}", d); // Fixed Point 47.50000
Console.WriteLine("{0,15:G4}", d); // Compact 47.5
Console.WriteLine("{0,10:P2}", d/100.0); // %
Console.WriteLine("{0,15:R}", bigd); // Roundtrip - not a digit lost

// Hex-a-diddly-decimal
Console.WriteLine("{0,10:x8}", i); // lowercase 0000162e
Console.WriteLine("{0,10:X8}", i); // uppercase 0000162E

// Date formats
DateTime dt = DateTime.Now;
// Standards
Console.WriteLine("{0:O}", dt); // O or o yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss'.'fffffffzz
Console.WriteLine("{0:R}", dt); // R or r ddd, dd MMM yyyy HH':'mm':'ss 'GMT'
Console.WriteLine("{0:s}", dt); // s yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss
Console.WriteLine("{0:u}", dt); // u yyyy'-'MM'-'dd HH':'mm':'ss'Z'

// Using date/time specifiers

Console.WriteLine("{0:t}", dt); // short time
Console.WriteLine("{0:T}", dt); // long time
Console.WriteLine("{0:d}", dt); // short date
Console.WriteLine("{0:D}", dt); // long date
Console.WriteLine("{0:f}", dt); // long date / short time
Console.WriteLine("{0:F}", dt); // long date / long time
Console.WriteLine("{0:g}", dt); // short date / short time
Console.WriteLine("{0:G}", dt); // short date / long time
Console.WriteLine("{0:o}", dt); // Round Trip

// roll your own...

59
Console.WriteLine("{0:dd/mm/yyyy HH:MM:ss}", dt);//custom - what most people use (UK)!
Console.WriteLine("{0:mm/dd/yyyy HH:MM:ss}", dt);//custom - what most people use (US)!
Console.WriteLine("{0:yyyy/mm/dd HH:MM:ss}", dt);//custom - (Japan) Good for sorting!

Console.WriteLine("{0:dd MMM yyyy HH:MM:ss}", dt); // custom - month (UK)

Console.WriteLine("{0:MMM dd yyyy HH:MM:ss}", dt); // custom - month (US)
Console.WriteLine("{0:yyyy MMM dd HH:MM:ss}", dt); // custom - (Japan)
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}

3.3 Multi-Threading
Thread :
· A thread is defined as the execution path of a program. Each thread defines a unique flow of
control. If your application involves complicated and time consuming operations then it is
often helpful to set different execution paths or threads, with each thread performing a
particular job.
· Threads are lightweight processes. One common example of use of thread is implementation
of concurrent programming by modern operating systems. Use of threads saves wastage of
CPU cycle and increase efficiency of an application.

Thread Life Cycle

The life cycle of a thread starts when an object of the System.Threading.Thread class is created
and ends when the thread is terminated or completes execution.
Following are the various states in the life cycle of a thread:
· The Unstarted State: it is the situation when the instance of the thread is created but the
Start method has not been called.
· The Ready State: it is the situation when the thread is ready to run and waiting CPU cycle.
· The Not Runnable State: a thread is not runnable, when:
o Sleep method has been called
o Wait method has been called
o Blocked by I/O operations
· The Dead State: it is the situation when the thread has completed execution or has been
aborted.
The Main Thread
In C#, the System.Threading.Thread class is used for working with threads. It allows creating
and accessing individual threads in a multithreaded application. The first thread to be executed in a
process is called the main thread.
When a C# program starts execution, the main thread is automatically created. The threads created
using the Thread class are called the child threads of the main thread. You can access a thread
using the CurrentThread property of the Thread class.
The following program demonstrates main thread execution:
using System;
using System.Threading;

namespace MultithreadingApplication
{
class MainThreadProgram
{

60
 static void Main(string[] args)
{
Thread th = Thread.CurrentThread;
th.Name = "MainThread";
Console.WriteLine("This is {0}", th.Name);
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
OUTPUT:
This is MainThread

Creating Threads:Threads are created by creating the object of Thread. The extended Thread
class then calls the Start()method to begin the child thread execution. The following program
demonstrates the concept:

using System;
using System.Threading;

namespace MultithreadingApplication
{
class ThreadCreationProgram
{
public static void CallToChildThread()
{
Console.WriteLine("Child thread starts");
}

static void Main(string[] args)

{
ThreadStart childref = new ThreadStart(CallToChildThread);
Console.WriteLine("In Main: Creating the Child thread");
Thread childThread = new Thread(childref);
childThread.Start();
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
OUTPUT:
In Main: Creating the Child thread
Child thread starts

Managing Threads
The Thread class provides various methods for managing threads.
The following example demonstrates the use of the sleep() method for making a thread pause for a
specific period of time.
using System;
using System.Threading;

namespace MultithreadingApplication

61
{
class ThreadCreationProgram
{
public static void CallToChildThread()
{
Console.WriteLine("Child thread starts");
// the thread is paused for 5000 milliseconds
int sleepfor = 5000;
Console.WriteLine("Child Thread Paused for {0} seconds",
sleepfor / 1000);
Thread.Sleep(sleepfor);
Console.WriteLine("Child thread resumes");
}

static void Main(string[] args)

{
ThreadStart childref = new ThreadStart(CallToChildThread);
Console.WriteLine("In Main: Creating the Child thread");
Thread childThread = new Thread(childref);
childThread.Start();
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
OUTPUT:
In Main: Creating the Child thread
Child thread starts
Child Thread Paused for 5 seconds
Child thread resumes
Destroying Threads

The Abort() method is used for destroying threads. The runtime aborts the thread by throwing
a ThreadAbortException. This exception cannot be caught, the control is sent to the finally block,
if any.

The following program illustrates this:

using System;
using System.Threading;

namespace MultithreadingApplication
{
class ThreadCreationProgram
{
public static void CallToChildThread()
{
try
{

Console.WriteLine("Child thread starts");

62
 // do some work, like counting to 10
for (int counter = 0; counter <= 10; counter++)
{
Thread.Sleep(500);
Console.WriteLine(counter);
}
Console.WriteLine("Child Thread Completed");

}
catch (ThreadAbortException e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Thread Abort Exception");
}
finally
{
Console.WriteLine("Couldn't catch the Thread Exception");
}

static void Main(string[] args)

{
ThreadStart childref = new ThreadStart(CallToChildThread);
Console.WriteLine("In Main: Creating the Child thread");
Thread childThread = new Thread(childref);
childThread.Start();
//stop the main thread for some time
Thread.Sleep(2000);
//now abort the child
Console.WriteLine("In Main: Aborting the Child thread");
childThread.Abort();
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:
In Main: Creating the Child thread
Child thread starts
0
1
2
In Main: Aborting the Child thread
Thread Abort Exception
Couldn't catch the Thread Exception

ThreadPriority and ThreadState:

A thread’s Priority property determines how much execution time it gets relative to other active
threads in the operating system, on the following scale:

63
This becomes relevant only when multiple threads are simultaneously active.Think carefully
before elevating a thread’s priority — it can lead to problems such as resource starvation for other
threads.Elevating a thread’s priority doesn’t make it capable of performing real-time work,
because it’s still throttled by the application’s process priority. To perform real-time work, you
must also elevate the process priority using the Process class in System.Diagnostics (we didn’t tell
you how to do this):
public enum ThreadPriority {
Highest,
AboveNormal,
Normal,
BelowNormal,
Lowest,
}

Thread States: You can query a thread's execution status via its ThreadState property. This
returns a flags enum of type ThreadState, which combines three “layers” of data in a bitwise
fashion. Most values, however, are redundant, unused, or deprecated. The following diagram
shows one “layer”

public enum ThreadState {

Background,
Unstarted,
Running,
WaitSleepJoin,
SuspendRequested,
Suspended,
AbortRequested,
Stopped
}

The following code strips a ThreadState to one of the four most useful values: Unstarted, Running,
WaitSleepJoin, and Stopped:
public static ThreadState SimpleThreadState (ThreadState ts)
{
return ts & (ThreadState.Unstarted |
ThreadState.WaitSleepJoin |
ThreadState.Stopped);
}

64
The ThreadState property is useful for diagnostic purposes, but unsuitable for synchronization,
because a thread’s state may change in between testing ThreadState and acting on that information.

Foreground and Background Threads

A foreground thread runs indefinitely, whereas a background thread stops as soon as the last
foreground thread has stopped. You can use the IsBackground property to determine or change the
background status of a thread.

Multithreading with Forms and Controls

While multithreading is best suited to running procedures and class methods, you can also use it
with forms and controls. If you do so, be aware of the following points:
· Whenever possible, execute the methods of a control only on the thread with which it was
created. If you must call a method of a control from another thread, you must use Invoke to
call the method.
· Do not use the SyncLock (Visual Basic) or lock (C#) statement to lock threads that
manipulate controls or forms. Because the methods of controls and forms sometimes call
back to a calling procedure, you can end up inadvertently creating a deadlock—a situation
in which two threads wait for each other to release the lock, causing the application to halt.
Synchronizing threads
Synchronization constructs can be divided into four categories:
1. Simple blocking methods: These wait for another thread to finish or for a period of time to
elapse. Sleep, Join, and Task.Wait are simple blocking methods.
2.Locking constructs: These limit the number of threads that can perform some activity or execute
a section of code at a time. Exclusive locking constructs are most common—these allow just one
thread in at a time, and allow competing threads to access common data without interfering with
each other. The standard exclusive locking constructs are lock (Monitor.Enter/Monitor.Exit),
Mutex, and SpinLock. The nonexclusive locking constructs are Semaphore, SemaphoreSlim, and
the reader/writer locks.
3. Signaling constructs: These allow a thread to pause until receiving a notification from another,
avoiding the need for inefficient polling. There are two commonly used signaling devices: event
wait handles and Monitor’s Wait/Pulse methods. Framework 4.0 introduces the CountdownEvent
and Barrier classes.
4. Nonblocking synchronization constructs: These protect access to a common field by calling
upon processor primitives. The CLR and C# provide the following nonblocking constructs:
Thread.MemoryBarrier, Thread.VolatileRead, Thread.VolatileWrite, the volatile keyword, and the
Interlocked class.

The lock
The lock (C#) and SyncLock (Visual Basic) statements can be used to ensure that a block of code
runs to completion without interruption by other threads. This is accomplished by obtaining a
mutual-exclusion lock for a given object for the duration of the code block.
A lock or SyncLock statement is given an object as an argument, and is followed by a code block
that is to be executed by only one thread at a time. For example:
public class TestThreading
{
private System.Object lockThis = new System.Object();

public void Process()

{

65
 lock (lockThis)
{
// Access thread-sensitive resources.
}
}

}
The argument provided to the lock keyword must be an object based on a reference type, and is
used to define the scope of the lock.

Monitors
Like the lock and SyncLock keywords, monitors prevent blocks of code from simultaneous
execution by multiple threads. The Enter method allows one and only one thread to proceed into
the following statements; all other threads are blocked until the executing thread calls Exit. This is
just like using thelock keyword. For example:
lock (x)
{
DoSomething();
}
This is equivalent to:
System.Object obj = (System.Object)x;
System.Threading.Monitor.Enter(obj);
try
{
DoSomething();
}
finally
{
System.Threading.Monitor.Exit(obj);
}
Using the lock (C#) keyword is generally preferred over using the Monitorclass directly, both
because lock is more concise, and because lock insures that the underlying monitor is released,
even if the protected code throws an exception. This is accomplished with the finally keyword,
which executes its associated code block regardless of whether an exception is thrown.

Synchronization Events and Wait Handles

Using a lock or monitor is useful for preventing the simultaneous execution of thread-sensitive
blocks of code, but these constructs do not allow one thread to communicate an event to another.
This requiressynchronization events, which are objects that have one of two states, signaled and
un-signaled, that can be used to activate and suspend threads. Threads can be suspended by being
made to wait on a synchronization event that is unsignaled, and can be activated by changing the
event state to signaled. If a thread attempts to wait on an event that is already signaled, then the
thread continues to execute without delay.
There are two kinds of synchronization events: AutoResetEvent, and ManualResetEvent. They
differ only in that AutoResetEvent changes from signaled to unsignaled automatically any time it
activates a thread. Conversely, a ManualResetEvent allows any number of threads to be activated
by its signaled state, and will only revert to an unsignaled state when its Reset method is called.
Threads can be made to wait on events by calling one of the wait methods, such as WaitOne,
WaitAny, orWaitAll. WaitHandle.WaitOne() causes the thread to wait until a single event becomes
signaled,WaitHandle.WaitAny() blocks a thread until one or more indicated events become

66
signaled, andWaitHandle.WaitAll() blocks the thread until all of the indicated events become
signaled. An event becomes signaled when its Set method is called.
In the following example, a thread is created and started by the Main function. The new thread
waits on an event using the WaitOne method. The thread is suspended until the event becomes
signaled by the primary thread that is executing the Main function. Once the event becomes
signaled, the auxiliary thread returns. In this case, because the event is only used for one thread
activation, either the AutoResetEventor ManualResetEvent classes could be used.using System;
using System.Threading;

class ThreadingExample
{
static AutoResetEvent autoEvent;

static void DoWork()

{
Console.WriteLine(" worker thread started, now waiting on event...");
autoEvent.WaitOne();
Console.WriteLine(" worker thread reactivated, now exiting...");
}

static void Main()

{
autoEvent = new AutoResetEvent(false);

Console.WriteLine("main thread starting worker thread...");

Thread t = new Thread(DoWork);
t.Start();

Console.WriteLine("main thread sleeping for 1 second...");

Thread.Sleep(1000);

Console.WriteLine("main thread signaling worker thread...");

autoEvent.Set();
}
}
Mutex Object
A mutex is similar to a monitor; it prevents the simultaneous execution of a block of code by more
than one thread at a time. In fact, the name "mutex" is a shortened form of the term "mutually
exclusive." Unlike monitors, however, a mutex can be used to synchronize threads across
processes. A mutex is represented by the Mutex class.
When used for inter-process synchronization, a mutex is called a named mutex because it is to be
used in another application, and therefore it cannot be shared by means of a global or static
variable. It must be given a name so that both applications can access the same mutex object.
Although a mutex can be used for intra-process thread synchronization, using Monitor is generally
preferred, because monitors were designed specifically for the .NET Framework and therefore
make better use of resources. In contrast, the Mutex class is a wrapper to a Win32 construct. While
it is more powerful than a monitor, a mutex requires interop transitions that are more
computationally expensive than those required by the Monitor class

67
Interlocked Class
You can use the methods of the Interlocked class to prevent problems that can occur when multiple
threads attempt to simultaneously update or compare the same value. The methods of this class let
you safely increment, decrement, exchange, and compare values from any thread.
ReaderWriter Locks
In some cases, you may want to lock a resource only when data is being written and permit
multiple clients to simultaneously read data when data is not being updated. The
ReaderWriterLock class enforces exclusive access to a resource while a thread is modifying the
resource, but it allows non-exclusive access when reading the resource. ReaderWriter locks are a
useful alternative to exclusive locks, which cause other threads to wait, even when those threads do
not need to update data.
Deadlocks
Thread synchronization is invaluable in multithreaded applications, but there is always the danger
of creating a deadlock, where multiple threads are waiting for each other and the application comes
to a halt. A deadlock is analogous to a situation in which cars are stopped at a four-way stop and
each person is waiting for the other to go. Avoiding deadlocks is important; the key is careful
planning. You can often predict deadlock situations by diagramming multithreaded applications
before you start coding.

3.4 Networking and sockets

The .NET framework provides two namespaces, System.Net and System.Net.Sockets for network
programming. The classes and methods of these namespaces help us to write programs, which can
communicate across the network. The communication can be either connection oriented or
connectionless. They can also be either stream oriented or data-gram based. The most widely used
protocol TCP is used for stream-based communication and UDP is used for data-grams based
applications.
The System.Net.Sockets.Socket is an important class from the System.Net.Sockets namespace. A
Socket instance has a local and a remote end-point associated with it. The local end-point contains
the connection information for the current socket instance.
There are some other helper classes like IPEndPoint, IPADdress, SocketException etc, which
we can use for Network programming. The .NET framework supports both synchronous and
asynchronous communication between the client and server. There are different methods
supporting for these two types of communication. A synchronous method is operating in blocking
mode, in which the method waits until the operation is complete before it returns. But an
asynchronous method is operating in non-blocking mode, where it returns immediately, possibly
before the operation has completed.
Dns Class
The System.net namespace provides this class, which can be used to creates and send queries to
obtain information about the host server from the Internet Domain Name Service (DNS).
Remember that in order to access DNS, the machine executing the query must be connected to a
network. If the query is executed on a machine, that does not have access to a domain name server,
a System.Net.SocketException is thrown. All the members of this class are static in nature. The
important methods of this class are given below.

public static IPHostEntry GetHostByAddress(string address);

Where address should be in a dotted-quad format like "202.87.40.193". This method returns an
IPHostEntry instance containing the host information. If DNS server is not available, the method
returns a SocketException.

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 public static string GetHostName();
This method returns the DNS host name of the local machine.
In my machine Dns.GetHostName() returns Arora which is the DNS name of my machine.
public static IPHostEntry Resolve(string hostname);

This method resolves a DNS host name or IP address to a IPHostEntry instance. The host name
should be in a dotted-quad format like 127.0.01 or www.microsoft.com.
IPHostEntry Class
This is a container class for Internet host address information. This class makes no thread safety
guarantees. The following are the important members of this class.
· AddressList property: Gives an IPAddress array containing IP addresses that resolve to the
host name.
· Aliases property: Gives a string array containing DNS name that resolves to the IP
addresses in AddressList property.
The following program shows the application of the above two classes.
using System;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;

class MyClient
{
public static void Main()
{

IPHostEntry IPHost = Dns.Resolve("www.hotmail.com");

Console.WriteLine(IPHost.HostName);

string []aliases = IPHost.Aliases;

Console.WriteLine(aliases.Length);
IPAddress[] addr = IPHost.AddressList;
Console.WriteLine(addr.Length);

for(int i= 0; i < addr.Length ; i++)

{
Console.WriteLine(addr[i]);
}
}
}
IPEndPoint Class
This class is a concrete derived class of the abstract class EndPoint. The IPEndPoint class
represents a network end point as an IP address and a port number. There is couple of useful
constructors in this class:
IPEndPoint(long addresses, int port);
IPEndPoint (IPAddress addr, int port);
IPHostEntry IPHost = Dns.Resolve("www.c-sharpcorner.com");
Console.WriteLine(IPHost.HostName);
string []aliases = IPHost.Aliases;
IPAddress[] addr = IPHost.AddressList;
Console.WriteLine(addr[0]);

69
 EndPoint ep = new IPEndPoint(addr[0],80);

Socket Programming: Synchronous Clients

The steps for creating a simple synchronous client are as follows.
1. Create a Socket instance.
2. Connect the above socket instance to an end-point.
3. Send or Receive information.
4. Shutdown the socket
5. Close the socket
The Socket class provides a constructor for creating a Socket instance.
public Socket (AddressFamily af, ProtocolType pt, SocketType st)

Where AddressFamily, ProtocolType and SocketTYpe are the enumeration types declared inside
the Socket class.
The AddressFamily member specifies the addressing scheme that a socket instance must use to
resolve an address. For example AddressFamily.InterNetwork indicates that an IP version 4
addresses is expected when a socket connects to an end point.
The SocketType parameter specifies the socket type of the current instance. For example
SocketType.Stream indicates a connection-oriented stream and SocketType.Dgram indicates a
connectionless stream.
The ProtocolType parameter specifies the ptotocol to be used for the communication. For example
ProtocolType.Tcp indicates that the protocol used is TCP and ProtocolType.Udp indicates that the
protocol using is UDP.

public Connect (EndPoint ep);

The Connect() method is used by the local end-point to connect to the remote end-point. This
method is used only in the client side. Once the connection has been established the Send() and
Receive() methods can be used for sending and receiving the data across the network.
The Connected property defined inside the class Socket can be used for checking the connection.
We can use the Connected property of the Socket class to know whether the current Socket
instance is connected or not. A property value of true indicates that the current Socket instance is
connected.
IPHostEntry IPHost = Dns.Resolve("www.yahoo.com");
Console.WriteLine(IPHost.HostName);
string []aliases = IPHost.Aliases;
IPAddress[] addr = IPHost.AddressList;
Console.WriteLine(addr[0]);
EndPoint ep = new IPEndPoint(addr[0],80);

Socket sock = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork,SocketType.Stream,ProtocolType.Tcp);

sock.Connect(ep);
if(sock.Connected)
Console.WriteLine("OK");
The Send() method of the socket class can be used to send data to a connected remote socket.

public int Send (byte[] buffer, int size, SocketFlags flags);

Where byte[] parameter storing the data to send to the socket, size parameter containing the
number of bytes to send across the network. The SocketFlags parameter can be a bitwise

70
combination of any one of the following values defined in the System.Net.Sockets.SocketFlags
enumerator.
SocketFlags.None
SocketFlags.DontRoute
SocketFlags.OutOfBnd
The method Send() returns a System.Int32 containing the number of bytes send.Remember that
there are other overloaded versions of Send() method as follows.
public int Send (byte[] buffer, SocketFlags flags);
public int Send (byte[] buffer);
public int Send (byte[] buffer,int offset, int size, SocketFlags flags);
The Receive() method can be used to receive data from a socket.
public int Receive(byte[] buffer, int size, SocketFlags flags);

Where byte[] parameter storing the data to send to the socket, size parameter containing the
number of bytes to send across the network. The SocketFlags parameter can be a bitwise
combination of any one of the following values defined in the System.Net.Sockets.SocketFlags
enumerator explained above.
The overloaded versions of Receive() methods are shown below.
public int Receive (byte[] buffer, SocketFlags flags);
public int Receive (byte[] buffer);
public int Receive (byte[] buffer,int offset, int size, SocketFlags flags);

When the communication across the sockets is over, the connection between the sockets can be
terminated by invoking the method ShutDown()
public void ShutDown(SocketShutdown how);

Where ‘how’ is one of the values defined in the SocketSHutdown enumeration. The value
SoketShutdown.Send means that the socket on the other end of the connection is notified that the
current instance would not send any more data. The value SoketShutdown.Receive means that the
socket on the other end of the connection is notified that the current instance will not receive any
more data and the value SoketShutdown.Both means that both the action are not possible.
Remember that the ShutDown() method must be called before the Close(0 method to ensure that
all pending data is sent or received.
A socket can be closed by invoking the method Close().
public void Close();
This method closes the current instance and releases all managed and un-managed resources
allocated by the current instance. This method internally calls the Dispose() method with an
argument of ‘true’ value, which frees both managed and un-managed resources used by the current
instance.
protected virtual void Dispose(bool);
The above method closes the current instance and releases the un-managed resources allocated by
the current instance and exceptionally release the managed resources also. An argument value of
‘true’ releases both managed and un-managed resources and a value of ‘false’ releases only un-
managed resources.
The following program can send an HTTP request to a web server and can read the response from
the web server.

71
Example
using System;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Text;
class MyClient{
public static void Main(){
IPHostEntry IPHost = Dns.Resolve("www.google.com");
Console.WriteLine(IPHost.HostName);

string []aliases = IPHost.Aliases;

IPAddress[] addr = IPHost.AddressList;
Console.WriteLine(addr[0]);

EndPoint ep = new IPEndPoint(addr[0],80);

Socket sock = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork,SocketType.Stream,ProtocolType.Tcp);
sock.Connect(ep);
if(sock.Connected)
Console.WriteLine("OK");
Encoding ASCII = Encoding.ASCII;
string Get = "GET / HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: " + "www. google.com" + "\r\nConnection: Close\r\n\r\n";
Byte[] ByteGet = ASCII.GetBytes(Get);
Byte[] RecvBytes = new Byte[256];
sock.Send(ByteGet, ByteGet.Length, 0);
Int32 bytes = sock.Receive(RecvBytes, RecvBytes.Length, 0);

Console.WriteLine(bytes);
String strRetPage = null;
strRetPage = strRetPage + ASCII.GetString(RecvBytes, 0, bytes);
while (bytes > 0) {
bytes = sock.Receive(RecvBytes, RecvBytes.Length, 0);
strRetPage = strRetPage + ASCII.GetString(RecvBytes, 0, bytes);
Console.WriteLine(strRetPage );
}
sock.ShutDown(SocketShutdown.Both);
sock.Close();
}}

3.5 Managing Console I/O Operations

Console Input
In previous Chapters, we saw that the Console class allows using the Write() and the WriteLine()
functions to display things on the screen. While the Console.Write() method is used to display
something on the screen, the Console class provides the Read() method to get a value from the
user. To use it, the name of a variable can be assigned to it. The syntax used is:

VariableName = Console.Read();
This simply means that, when the user types something and presses Enter, what the user had typed
would be given (the word is assigned) to the variable specified on the left side of the assignment
operator.
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Read() doesn't always have to assign its value to a variable. For example, it can be used on its own
line, which simply means that the user is expected to type something but the value typed by the
user would not be used for any significant purpose. For example some versions of C# (even
including Microsoft's C# and Borland C#Builder) would display the DOS window briefly and
disappear. You can use the Read() function to wait for the user to press any key in order to close
the DOS window.
Besides Read(), the Console class also provides the ReadLine() method. Like the WriteLine()
member function, after performing its assignment, the ReadLine() method sends the caret to the
next line. Otherwise, it plays the same role as the Read() function.

string FirstName;
Console.Write("Enter First Name: ");
FirstName = Console.ReadLine();
In C#, everything the user types is a string and the compiler would hardly analyze it without your
explicit asking it to do so. Therefore, if you want to get a number from the user, first request a
string. After getting the string, you must convert it to a number. To perform this conversion, each
data type of the .NET Framework provides a mechanism called Parse. To use Parse(), type the
data type, followed by a period, followed by Parse, and followed by parentheses. In the
parentheses of Parse, type the string that you requested from the user. Here is an example:

using System;
namespace GeorgetownCleaningServices
{
class OrderProcessing
{
static void Main()
{
int Number;
string strNumber;
strNumber = Console.ReadLine();
Number = int.Parse(strNumber);
}
}
}

Console Output
Instead of using two Write() or a combination of Write() and WriteLine() to display data, you
can convert a value to a string and display it directly. To do this, you can provide two strings to the
Write() or WriteLine() and separate them with a comma:
1. The first part of the string provided to Write() or WriteLine() is the complete string that
would display to the user. This first string itself can be made of different sections:
a. One section is a string in any way you want it to display
b. Another section is a number included between an opening curly bracket "{" and a
closing curly bracket "}". This combination of "{" and "}" is referred to as a
placeholder
c. You can put the placeholder anywhere inside of the string. The first placeholder must
have number 0. The second must have number 1, etc. With this technique, you can
create the string anyway you like and use the placeholders anywhere inside of the string

73
 The second part of the string provided to Write() or WriteLine() is the value that you want to
display. It can be one value if you used only one placeholder with 0 in the first string. If you
used different placeholders, you can then provide a different value for each one of them in this
second part, separating the values with a comma

Example
using System;
class Exercise{
static void Main() {
String FullName = "Anselme Bogos";
int Age = 15;
double HSalary = 22.74;

Console.WriteLine("Full Name: {0}", FullName);

Console.WriteLine("Age: {0}", Age);
Console.WriteLine("Distance: {0}", HSalary);

Console.WriteLine();
}}
OUTPUT:
Full Name: Anselme Bogos
Age: 15
Distance: 22.74
As mentioned already, the numeric value typed in the curly brackets of the first part is an ordered
number. If you want to display more than one value, provide each incremental value in its curly
brackets. The syntax used is:
Write("To Display {0} {1} {2} {n}", First, Second, Third, nth);
You can use the sections between a closing curly bracket and an opening curly bracket to create a
meaningful sentence.
The System namespace provides a specific letter that you can use in the Write() or WriteLine()'s
placeholder for each category of data to display. To format a value, in the placeholder of the
variable or value, after the number, type a colon and one of the appropriate letter from the
following table. If you are using ToString(), then, in the parentheses of ToString(), you can
include a specific letter or combination inside of double-quotes. The letters and their meanings are:
Character Used For
c C Currency values
d D Decimal numbers
e E Scientific numeric display such as 1.45e5
f F Fixed decimal numbers
g G General and most common type of numbers
n N Natural numbers
r R Roundtrip formatting
x X Hexadecimal formatting
p P Percentages
Example
using System;
class Exercise
{
static void Main()
{
74
 double Distance = 248.38782;
int Age = 15;
int NewColor = 3478;
double HSal = 22.74, HrsWork = 35.5018473;
double WeeklySal = HSal * HrsWork;

Console.WriteLine("Distance: {0}", Distance.ToString("E"));

Console.WriteLine("Age: {0}", Age.ToString());
Console.WriteLine("Color: {0}", NewColor.ToString("X"));
Console.WriteLine("Weekly Salary: {0} for {1} hours", WeekSal.ToString("c"),
HrsWork.ToString("F"));
Console.WriteLine();
}
}
OUTPUT:
Distance: 2.483878E+002
Age: 15
Color: D96
Weekly Salary: $807.31 for 35.50 hours

To specify the amount of space used to display a string, you can use its placeholder in Write() or
WriteLine(). To do this, in the placeholder, type the 0 or the incrementing number of the placer
and its formatting character if necessary and if any. Then, type a comma followed by the number
of characters equivalent to the desired width. Here are examples:
using System;
class Exercise{
static void Main() {
String FullName = "Anselme Bogos";
int Age = 15;
double Marks = 22.74;
Console.WriteLine("Full Name: {0,20}", FullName);
Console.WriteLine("Age:{0,14}", Age.ToString());
Console.WriteLine("Marks:{0:C,8}", Marks.ToString());
Console.WriteLine();
}
}
OUTPUT:
Full Name: Anselme Bogos
Age: 15
Marks: 22.74
The sign you provide for the width is very important. If it is positive, the line of text is aligned to
the right. This should be your preferred alignment for numeric values. If the number is negative,
then the text is aligned to the left.

3.6 Windows Forms

The Windows Forms is a collection of classes and types that encapsulate and extend the Win32
API in an organized object model. In other words, the components used to create Windows GUI
applications are provided as .NET classes and types that form part of an orderly hierarchy.

75
 This hierarchy is defined by inheritance: Simple reusable classes such as Component are provided,
and then used as a base from which more sophisticated classes are derived. We can draw a useful
overview by representing the inheritance hierarchy in a treelike diagram. Figure 8.1 summarizes at
a high level the classes that include Windows Forms and GDI+.

Figure : A Summary of Window Forms and GDI+ Classes

Object

Components

Control

Container Windows Windows GDI+ Classes

Hosting Child Forms Forms · Graphics
Control Control Component · Pen
· Forms · Lable · Timer · Brush
· Panels · Button · Main Menu · Bitmap
· TabPage · Text Box · Image List · …..
· GroupBox · Check Box · …..
· UserControl · List Box
· …….
· …..

System.Window.Forms System.Drawing

Sub Classes Custom Controls

Forms
& Drawn with GDI+
User Controls

76
The arrows represent inheritance: Control assumes all the functionality of Component, which
assumes all the functionality of Object. Following Table provides a quick and practical summary
of the four essential classes on which the Windows Forms types are based.

Class Role Why We Need It

Object Acts as a base class for all types in For a tidy unified type system, and to provide
the .NET Framework. core functionality available to all types (such as
ToString).
Component Provides the basics of So Visual Studio’s Designer can host a wide
containership, facilitates hosting variety of controls and components in a generic
in a visual designer, and defines a way, to provide a base from which you can
protocol for resource disposal. write nonvisual components, and to allow the
cleanup of Windows handles and file handles in
a timely and reliable manner.
Control Provides the core functionality for As a common superclass for all controls, such
a visual control that responds to as textboxes, labels, and buttons, allowing them
mouse and keyboard messages, to be treated in a consistent manner, as well as
accepts focus, and can participate providing a base from which you can derive
in drag-and-drop operations. your own custom controls.
Form Defines a class representing a To provide a base class with standard
window to which you can add windowing and containership functionality that
controls. you can subclass to create forms in your
application.
Table : Core Classes
Creating a Windows Forms application is largely just a matter of instantiating and extending the
Windows Forms and GDI+ classes. In a nutshell, you typically complete the following steps:
1. Create a new project defining the structure of a Windows Forms application.
2. Define one or more Forms (classes derived from the Form class) for the windows in
your application.
3. Use the Designer to add controls to your forms (such as textboxes and checkboxes), and
then configure the controls by setting their properties and attaching event handlers.
4. Add other Designer-managed components, such as menus or image lists.
5. Add code to your form classes to provide functionality.
6. Write custom controls to meet special requirements, using GDI+ classes to handle low-
level graphics.
Creating Windows Forms Application
The first step to building a Windows Forms application is creating a project. A Windows Forms
project is just like any other type of project in that it consists of a grouping of source code files, a
list of references to required .NET code libraries, and an appropriate configuration of compilation
and debugging options. When you use Visual Studio to create a project from a template, it sets all
of this up for you, providing a “skeleton” appropriate to the template you’ve selected. In the case
of Windows Forms, this consists of the following:
· A project of Output Type Windows Application. You can view or change this in the
Project | Properties dialog box.

77
 · References to the .NET assemblies required for typical Windows Forms applications
(covering most of the types in the Windows Forms namespace). You can see a list of the
project references in the Solution Explorer.
· A blank form, called Form1 (a C# class with the structure required for a visually editable
form).
· A Main method in Form1 that instantiates and displays the form.
Let’s start the walkthrough by creating a new Windows Forms project. From the main menu,
choose File | New | Project, click Visual C# Projects, and choose the Windows Application
template (see Figure 8.2). Change the project name to SimpleApp and click OK.

Figure 8.2 Creating a New Windows Forms Project

Adding Controls
Once we’ve created the project, Visual Studio opens the main form (Form1) in the Designer—the
visual editor for our C# form class. Basically, a form created in Visual Studio is just a C# file,
defining a class based on System.Windows.Forms.Form, containing code to add and configure the
controls created visually. Visual Studio is a “two-way tool” meaning that we can work with the
same code either visually (using the Designer) or programmatically (in the Code Editor).

Let’s use the Designer to add a few controls to Form1. We can add controls and components from
the toolbox window and then configure them using the Properties window.
1. From the toolbox, add a Label control to the form. By default, Visual Studio will name
the control Label1.
2. From the Properties Window (F4) change label1’s Text property to Favorite CD, and
change its AutoSize property to True .This tells the control to size itself according to
the metrics of the font and width of the text.
3. Now add a TextBox from the toolbox onto the form, and position it below the label.
Enlarge it horizontally and clear its Text property.
4. Add another label to the form, setting its Text property to Favorite Style, and AutoSize
property to True.

78
 5. Add a ComboBox and position it below the Favorite Style label. Clear its Text
property.
6. Select the combo’s Items property, and then click the ellipses on the right to open the
String Collection Editor. Type in a few styles of music—each on a separate line
7. Click OK, and then press F5 to save, compile, and run the application.
Adding an Event Handler
Let’s add some functionality to the form.
1. Add a Button and ListBox to the form.
2. Select the button, and change its Text property to Update. Then click the lightning
icon in the Properties window to switch to the Events View.

Think of these events as “hooks” into which we can attach our own methods. You can
either double-click on an event to create a new event-handling method, or use the drop-
down list to connect into an existing compatible method.
3. Double-click on the Click event. Visual Studio will write a skeleton event-handling method,
wiring it to the event. It will then place you in the Code Editor, inside the empty method
definition:
private void button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{

The .NET convention for event handling requires two parameters: a sender parameter of type
object, and an event arguments parameter of type EventArgs—or a descendant of EventArgs.
The sender parameter tells us which control fired the event (this is useful when many controls
have been wired to the same event-handling method). The second parameter is designed to
supply special data about the event. In the case of Click, we have a standard EventArgs object,
and this contains no useful information—it’s just there to meet the protocol required to support
more sophisticated events (such as KeyPress or MouseDown).

The actual name for this method (button1_Click) is just a convenient identifier generated by
Visual Studio; Windows Forms doesn’t impose any particular naming convention.
4. Add the following code to the event handler:
private void button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
listBox1.Items.Clear();
listBox1.Items.Add ("Fav CD: " + textBox1.Text);
listBox1.Items.Add ("Fav Style: " + comboBox1.Text);
}
Here we’re manipulating our list box through its Items property. Items returns a collection
object, having methods to add and remove items from its list. Note how we access each
control through its name—this is possible because the Designer creates class fields
matching the names of each control. You can see these declarations at the top of the class
definition.
5. Press F5 to compile and run the program
Adding Controls at Runtime
Sometimes it’s necessary to add controls without the help of the Designer. For instance, you might
want some controls to appear on a form only when a particular button is clicked.
In reading how to programmatically add controls, it’s very helpful to examine a visually created
form in the Code Editor. If you expand the Designer Generated Code region, you’ll see a method

79
called InitializeComponent containing all the code that creates and configures each of the form’s
visual components.
Here are the four steps to programmatically adding a control or component:
1. Add a class field declaration for the new control.
2. Instantiate the control.
3. Configure the control by setting its properties and adding event handlers, if required.
4. Add the control to the form’s Controls collection (or alternatively, to the Controls collection of
a container control, such as a GroupBox).

Example: Create a new form, add a button, and then have a textbox appear when the user clicks the
button:
1. Create a new Windows Forms project called SimpleApp2 and add a Button control from the
toolbox onto the new form.
2. Press F7 to open the Code Editor, and locate button1’s declaration. Below this, add a similar
declaration for our new textbox, as follows (you can exclude the System.Windows.Forms prefix
if your form has the appropriate using statement):
private System.Windows.Forms.Button button1;
private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox myTextBox;
You need to understand that this declaration doesn’t actually create a textbox. All it does is
instruct the compiler, once our form is instantiated, to create a field that can reference (point
to) a textbox object—one that does not yet exist. This declaration exists so as to provide a
convenient way to refer to the control throughout the lifetime of the form. In the cases where
we don’t need to explicitly reference the control after its been created, we can do away with
this declaration.
3. Return to the Designer, and double-click on the button. This is a quick way to attach an event
handler to the button’s default event (Click).
4. Add the following code to the button’s event handler:
private void button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
// Create the actual textbox and assign its reference to myTextBox
this.myTextBox = new TextBox();

// Position the control

myTextBox.Location = new Point (30, 20);

// Put the control on the form.

this.Controls.Add (myTextBox);
}
5. Press F5 to test the application

Attaching an Event Handler at Runtime

Let’s suppose we want to set up our newly created textbox so that when it’s right-clicked, a
message box appears. We need to add an event handler to the textbox at runtime, and there are two
steps to this:
· Writing the event-handling method.
· Attaching the method to the control’s event.
· In our case, we’ll need to attach to the textbox’s MouseDown event (because there’s no
specific right-click event). First, we need to write the event-handling method, with

80
 parameters of the correct type for a MouseDown event. You can determine an event’s
signature in two ways:
· Look for the event in the Microsoft documentation, and then click on its delegate (in our case,
MouseEventHandler).
· Using the Designer, add a dummy control of the type we’re attaching to, create an appropriate
event handler, and then delete the dummy control. The event-handling method will still be
there—with the correct signature. All we need to do is rename it.

1.
void myTextBox_MouseDown (object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Buttons == MouseButtons.Right)
// Show is a static method of System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox
MessageBox.Show ("Right Click!");
}

2. Next, we attach this method to myTextBox’s MouseDown event. Return to the button1_Click
method and add the following line of code:

myTextBox.MouseDown += new MouseEventHandler (myTextBox_MouseDown)

On the left-hand side, myTextBox.MouseDown is the event to which we’re attaching, using the
+= operator. On the right-hand side, we’re creating a new MouseEventHandler delegate instance:
in other words, an object containing a pointer to a method (myTextBox_MouseDown) conforming
to MouseEventHandler’s signature.
3. Test the application.

3.7 Error Handling

There are no exceptions in C and in C++ one can get away from using them with error handling
functions such as exit() and terminate(). In C# these functions are absent and we introduce
exceptions which take their place. The exception handling in C#, and Java is quite similar.
When a program has a bug we can intercept it in the flow of execution by inserting an error
handling statement. To catch a particular type of exception in a piece of code, you have to first
wrap it in a 'try' block and then specify a 'catch' block matching that type of exception. When an
exception occurs in code within the 'try' block, the code execution moves to the end of the try box
and looks for an appropriate exception handler. For instance, the following piece of code
demonstrates catching an exception specifically generated by division by zero:
try{
int zero = 0;
res = (num / zero);
}
catch (System.DivideByZeroException e){
Console.WriteLine("Error: an attempt to divide by zero");
}
You can specify multiple catch blocks (following each other), to catch different types of exception.
A complication results, however, from the fact that exceptions form an object hierarchy, so a
particular exception might match more than one catch box. What you have to do here is put catch
boxes for the more specific exceptions before those for the more general exceptions. At most one

81
catch box will be triggered by an exception, and this will be the first (and thus more specific) catch
box reached.
.
Example
//first exception handling program
using System;
class OutOfRange: Exception
{
}

class Demo {
int n;
public int []array;

public Demo ( int n) {

this.array = new int[n];
this.n = n;
}

public void show_element (int i) {

try {
if (i == 0) throw ( new OutOfRange()); }
catch (Exception e) {
Console.WriteLine("Exception : {0}", e); }
Console.WriteLine (array [i]);
}
}
class Test {
public static void Main() {
Demo test = new Demo (3);
test.array [1] = 2;
test.array [2] = 3;
test.show_element (0);
}
}

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 Exception When Occured
System.ArithmeticExcepti A base class for exceptions that occur during arithmetic operations,
on such as System.DivideByZeroException and
System.OverflowException.
System.ArrayTypeMismat Thrown when a store into an array fails because the actual type of
chException the stored element is incompatible with the actual type of the array.
System.DivideByZeroExc Thrown when an attempt to divide an integral value by zero occurs.
eption
System.IndexOutOfRange Thrown when an attempt to index an array via an index that is less
Exception than zero or outside the bounds of the array.
System.InvalidCastExcept Thrown when an explicit conversion from a base type or interface
ion to a derived type fails at run time.
System.NullReferenceExc Thrown when a null reference is used in a way that causes the
eption referenced object to be required.
System.OutOfMemoryExc Thrown when an attempt to allocate memory (via new) fails.
eption
System.OverflowExceptio Thrown when an arithmetic operation in a checked context
n overflows.
System.StackOverflowEx Thrown when the execution stack is exhausted by having too many
ception pending method calls; typically indicative of very deep or
unbounded recursion.
System.TypeInitialization Thrown when a static constructor throws an exception, and no
Exception catch clauses exists to catch it.

83
 Unit-4:
Advance Features using C#
4.1 Web Services
Web service is simply an application that exposes a Web-accessible API. That means you can
invoke this application programmatically over the Web. Using SOAP Protocol XML+HTTP
=SOAP (Simple Object Access protocol)
Web services allow applications to share data. Web services can be called across platforms and
operating systems regardless of programming language. .NET is Microsoft's platform for XML
Web services.
Web Service Application
Like Pay per view T.V. Channel we can make Software as pay per use, using Web service. For
example, let say Infovision Inc developed Expensive Software for 3D Virtual Modeling. Lot of
company does not want acquire the licensee because it is expensive and they need to pay for
Support etc… instead of this if Infovision makes this software as a WebService, most of the
company will use as pay per use.
Another example Credit card validation we can expose as a webservice. (Good example for
webService)
Using VisualStudio.NET we can easily create WebServices. ASP.NET WebService this project
type will be used to create WebService.

The client of a Web service can be a rich Windows application created using Windows Forms,
WPF, Silverlight, or an ASP.NET application using Web Forms. A Windows PC, a UNIX system,
or a mobile device can be used to consume (use) the Web service. With the .NET Framework,
Web services can be consumed in every application type.
There are several web service available with .Net Framework, such as:
1) Validation Controls such as:
1. E-mail address validator,
2. Regular expression validator,
3. Range Validator, etc.
2) Login Controls such as:
1. Create user
2. Delete user
3. Manage users, etc.
Some Web services are also available on internet , which are free and offer application-
components like:
· Currency Conversion,
· Weather Reports,
· Language Translation,
· Search Engines,
· Document Convertor, etc.
Some are paid and can be use by authorised sites, such as:
· Credit and Debit card payment
· Net Banking, etc.

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Web Services Architecture
WEB SERVER
IE Browser
Web Service

Windows Apps
SOAP
Request Web Service
Handler
Java Platform

Web Service
Other Platform

Web Service Architecture

Creating Web Service
To create and expose ASP.NET Web Servies by authoring and saving text files with the file
extension “asmx” within the virtual path of an ASP.NET Web Application.
To understand the concept of Web Services we have given an example of Web Service, which
provides the current time of day on its machine.
Declaring WebMethod methods
A WebMethod represents a method for web. WebMethod has six properties they are :
1) Description
2) MessageName
3) EnableSession
4) CacheDuration
5) TransactionOption
6) BufferResponse

[WebMethod]
Public string SayHello ()
{
return "Hello Neeraj
Tripathi";
}

Description
Both the [WebService], and [WebMethod] attributes have a Description Property. With this
property we can associate documentation with our web Service and WebMethod.
For example you can use Description Attribute to describe the Webmethod.

85
 [WebMethod (Description="This method will add three integer")]
Public int Add (int a, int b, int c)
{
return a+b+c;
}

MessageName
This is property useful, when we want to overload the WebMethod.
For Example
[WebMethod]
Public int Add (int a, int b, int c)
{
return a+b+c;
}
[WebMwthod (MessageName=”Add”)]
public int Add(int a)
{
int s = 0 ;
for(int i = 1; i <= a; i++)
s = s + i;
return s;
}

EnableSession
This Property used for to enable the session in WebServices.
(Remember WebServiecs uses HTTP protocol this is stateless) .if we want to maintain the state
between client and server we need to use this property. Default Enablesession is false
[WebMethod (EnableSession=true)]
Public string SayHiToMS ()
{
return " Hello to .NET ";
}

CacheDuration
When we cache the previously accessed result. Next time the same user or different user asks we
can serve from cache. Here result cached 60 milliseconds. if we invoke this method with in 60
milliseconds it will print same time . This will increase the Web Service performance.
[WebMethod (CacheDuration = 60)]
Public string ShowTime()
{
return
DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString();
}

TransactionOption
TransactionOption Can be one of five modes:
· Disabled
· NotSupported

86
 · Supported
· Required
· RequiresNew
Even though there are five modes, web methods can only participate as the root object in a
transaction. This means both Required and RequiresNew result in a new transaction being created
for the web method. The Disabled, NotSupported, and Supported settings result in no transaction
being used for the web method. The TransactionOption property of a web method is set to
Disabled by default.

BufferResponse
This property is boolean control. WebMethod whether or not to buffer the method's response.

4.2 Window Service

Windows Services is previously called as NT Service. The Idea of creating a windows service
application is two fold one is to create a long running application and the other is service
applications are the application that run directly in the windows session itself (This can be verified
by accessing the current or home directory of the service application which default to
.winnt\system32). One more advantage of the Windows Service Application, which makes it more
useful, compared to other application is that, Service application can be made to run in the security
context of a specific user account.

There are basically two types of Services that can be created in .NET Framework. Services that are
only service in a process are assigned the type Win32OwnProcess. Services that share a process
with another service are assigned the type Win32ShareProcess.The type of the service can be
queried. There are other types of services which are occasionally used they are mostly for
hardware, Kernel, File System.

Lifecycle of the Service Application.

In a typical application the Main method is the entry pointand for what ever instantiation has to
happen will happen here matters. In Caseof Service, the Main method remains to the entry module
by the actual functionality of the service application start only in the Main method by triggering a
overridden method called OnStart() which actually starts the Service. Prior to OnStart() method
another significant variance is compared to the other application is service should be installed onto
the system on which it will run. This process executes the installers for the service project and
loads the service into the Services Control Manager for that computer. The Services Control
Manager is the central utility provided by Windows to administer services following which the
main and Onstart() is followed to fall inline.

A Service application can be in any one of the states listed they are viz., Running, Paused or
Stopped. The Services also has the capability to queue the commands and also remain in those
states. Such states can be queried, some of the significant states are like ContinuePending, which
means continue command is in queue and yet to get executed. Similarly StartPending,
StopPending, PausePending.

Window SERVICE application development can be divided to two phases. One is the development
of Service functionality and the last phases is about the development. The 3 Main classes involved
in Service development are:

87
 · System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase
· System.ServiceProcess.ServiceProcessInstaller
· ServiceController

System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase , is the class in which we override the methods for

implementation, Table 9.1 shows some methods which are provide for override.

Method Override to
OnStart Indicate what actions should be taken when your service starts running.
You must write code in this procedure for your service to perform useful
work.
OnPause Indicate what should happen when your service is paused.
OnStop Indicate what should happen when your service stops running.
OnContinue Indicate what should happen when your service resumes normal
functioning after being paused.
OnShutDown Indicate what should happen just prior to your system shutting down, if
your service is running at that time.
OnCustomCommand Indicate what should happen when your service receives a custom
command. For more information on custom commands.
OnPowerEvent Indicate how the service should respond when a power management event
is received, such as a low battery or suspended operation.
Run The main entry point for the service, u sally in the Main method

Developing Window Service

To develop and run a Window Service application on .NET frame, you have to follow the
following steps.

Step 1: Create Skeleton of the Service

Step 2: Add functionality to your service

Step 3: Install and Run the Service

Step 4: Start and Stop the Service

Create Skeleton of the Service

To create a new Window Service, pick Windows Service option from your Visual C#
Projects, give your service a name, and click OK, see figure 9.2.

88
 Figure 9.2 Create New Window Service

The result looks like figure 9.3. The Wizard adds WinService1.cs class to your project.

89
 Figure 9.3 WinService1.cs

Set your ServiceName to your own name so it would be easier to recognize your service during
testing see figure 9.4, OR you can set this property programmatically using this line
this.ServiceName = "mcWinService"; (This is the name you will be looking for later ).

Figure 9.4 Setting the name of Service

The default code of WinService1.cs added by the Wizard looks like here

90
namespace mcWebService
{
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Core;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Data;
using System.Web.Services;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.ServiceProcess;

public class WinService1 : System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase

{
// <summary>
// Required designer variable.
// </summary>
private System.ComponentModel.Container components;

public WinService1()
{
// This call is required by the WinForms Component Designer.
InitializeComponent();
// TODO: Add any initialization after the InitComponent call
}

// The main entry point for the process

static void Main()
{
System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase[] ServicesToRun;

// More than one user Service may run within the same process. To add
// another service to this process, change the following line to
// create a second service object. For example,
//
// ServicesToRun = New System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase[] {new WinService1(),
new MySecondUserService()};
//
ServicesToRun = new System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase[] { new WinService1() };
System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase.Run(ServicesToRun);
}

// <summary>
// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
// the contents of this method with the code editor.
// </summary>

private void InitializeComponent()

{
components = new System.ComponentModel.Container();
this.ServiceName = "WinService1";
}

// <summary>
// Set things in motion so your service can do its work.
// </summary>

91
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
// TODO: Add code here to start your service.
}

// <summary>
// Stop this service.
// </summary>

protected override void OnStop()

{
// TODO: Add code here to perform any tear-down necessary to stop your service.
}
}
}

92
Add functionality to your service

As you saw WebService1.cs, there are two overridden functions OnStart and OnStop.
The OnStart function executes when you start your service and the OnStop function gets
execute when you stop a service. I write some text to a text file when you start and stop
the service.

protected override void OnStart(string[] args)

{
FileStream fs = new FileStream(@"c:\temp\mcWindowsService.txt" ,
FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.Write);
StreamWriter m_streamWriter = new StreamWriter(fs);
m_streamWriter.BaseStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.End);
m_streamWriter.WriteLine(" mcWindowsService: Service Started \n");
m_streamWriter.Flush();
m_streamWriter.Close();

// <summary>
// Stop this service.
// </summary>
protected override void OnStop()
{
FileStream fs = new FileStream(@"c:\temp\mcWindowsService.txt" ,
FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.Write);
StreamWriter m_streamWriter = new StreamWriter(fs);
m_streamWriter.BaseStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.End);
m_streamWriter.WriteLine(" mcWindowsService: Service Stopped \n");
m_streamWriter.Flush();
m_streamWriter.Close();
}

Install and Run the Service

Build of this application makes one exe, mcWinService.exe. You need to call installutil to
register this service from command line.

installutil C:\mcWebService\bin\Debug\mcWebService.exe

You can use /u option to uninstall the service.

93
installutil /u
C:\mcWebService\bin\Debug\mcWebService.exe

Now Run the application.

Start and Stop the Service

For start and stop the service you need to go to the Computer Management. You can use
Manage menu item by right clicking on My Computer, see figure 9.5.

Figure 9.5 Computer Management

Under Services and Applications, you will see the service mcWinService. Start and Stop
menu item starts and stops the service, see figure 9.6.

94
 Figure 9.6 Start the Service

4.3ASP.NET and Web controls

ASP.NET is a compiled, .NET-based environment; you can author applications in any .NET
compatible language, including Visual Basic .NET, C#, and JScript .NET. Additionally, the entire
.NET Framework is available to any ASP.NET application. Developers can easily access the
benefits of
these technologies, which include the managed common language runtime environment, type
safety, inheritance, and so on.
FEATURES OF ASP.NET
ASP.NET has better language support, a large set of new controls, XML-based components, and
better user authentication. ASP.NET provides increased performance by running compiled code.
ASP.NET code is not fully backward compatible with ASP. Instead of that ASP.NET having
following major features:
• Better language support
• Programmable controls
• Event-driven programming
• XML-based components
• User authentication, with accounts and roles
• Higher scalability
• Increased performance - Compiled code
• Easier configuration and deployment
• Not fully ASP compatible

95
Language Support
ASP.NET uses ADO.NET.
ASP.NET supports full Visual Basic, not VBScript.
ASP.NET supports C# (C sharp) and C++.
ASP.NET supports JScript.
ASP.NET Controls
ASP.NET contains a large set of HTML controls. Almost all HTML elements on a page can be
defined as ASP.NET control objects that can be controlled by scripts.
ASP.NET also contains a new set of object-oriented input controls, like programmable list-boxes
and validation controls.
A new data grid control supports sorting, data paging, and everything you can expect from a
dataset control.
ASP.NET EXECUTION MODEL
When the client requests a Web page for the first time, the following set of events take place:
1. The client browser issues a GET HTTP request to the server.
2. The ASP.NET parser interprets the source code.
3. If the code was not already compiled into a dynamic-link library (DLL), ASP.NET invokes the
compiler.
4. Runtime loads and executes the Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) code.

When the user requests the same Web page for the second time, the following set of events take
place:
1. The client browser issues a GET HTTP request to the server.
2. Runtime loads and immediately executes the MSIL code that was already compiled
during the user's first access attempt.
ASP.NET PAGE LIFE CYCLE
The lifetime of an ASP.NET page is filled with events. A .NET technical interview might begin
with this question. A series of processing steps takes place during this page life cycle.
Following tasks are performed:
• Initialization
• Instantiation of controls
• Restoration and Maintainance of State
• Running Event Handlers
• Rendering of data to the browser
The life cycle may be broken down into Stages and Events. The stages reflect the broad spectrum
of tasks performed. The following stages take place:

96
1. Page Request: This is the first stage, before the page life cycle starts. Whenever a page is
requested, ASP.NET detects whether the page is to be requested, parsed and compiled or whether
the page can be cached from the system.
2. Start: In this stage, properties such as Request and Response are set. Its also determined at this
stage whether the request is a new request or old, and thus it sets the IsPostBack property in the
Start stage of the page life cycle.
3. Page Initialization: Each control of the page is assigned a unique identification ID. If there are
themes, they are applied. Note that during the Page Initialization stage, neither postback data is
loaded, nor any viewstate data is retrieved.
4. Load: If current request is a postback, then control values are retrieved from their viewstate.
5. Validation: The validate method of the validation controls is invoked. This sets the IsValid
property of the validation control.
6. PostBack Event Handling: Event handlers are invoked, in case the request is a postback.
7. Rendering: Viewstate for the page is saved. Then render method for each control is called. A
textwriter writes the output of the rendering stage to the output stream of the page's Response
property.
8. Unload: This is the last stage in the page life cycle stages. It is invoked when the page is
completely rendered. Page properties like Respone and Request are unloaded.
Note that each stage has its own events within it. These events may be used by developers to
handle their code. Listed below are page events that are used more frequently.
• PreInit: Checks the IsPostBack property. To create or recreate dynamic controls. To set master
pages dynamically. Gets and Sets profile propety values.
• Init: Raised after all controls are initialized, and skin properties are set.
• InitComplete: This event may be used, when we need to be sure that all initialization tasks are
complete.
• PreLoad: If processing on a control or a page is required before the Load event.
• Load: invokes the OnLoad event on the page. The same is done for each child control on the
page. May set properties of controls, create database connections.
• Control Events: These are the control specific events, such as button clicks, listbox item selects
etc.
• LoadComplete: To execute tasks that require that the complete page has been loaded.
• PreRender: Some methods are called before the PreRenderEvent takes place, like
EnsureChildControls, data bound controls that have a dataSourceId set also call the DataBind
method. Each control of the page has a PreRender event. Developers may use the prerender event
to make final changes to the controls before it is rendered to the page.
• SaveStateComplete: ViewState is saved before this event occurs. However, if any changes to
the viewstate of a control is made, then this is the event to be used. It cannot be used to make
changes to other properties of a control.
• Render: This is a stage, not an event. The page object invokes this stage on each control of the
page. This actually means that the ASP.NET server control's HTML markup is sent to the browser.
• Unload: This event occurs for each control. It takes care of cleanup activities like wiping the
database connectivities.
WEB FORM
Web Forms are the heart and soul of ASP.NET. Web Forms are the User Interface (UI) elements
that give your Web applications their look and feel. Web Forms are similar to Windows Forms in
that they provide properties, methods, and events for the controls that are placed onto them.
However, these UI elements render themselves in the appropriate markup language required by the
request, e.g., HTML. If you use Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET, you will also get the familiar
drag-and drop interface used to create your UI for your Web application. Web Forms are made up

97
of two components: the visual portion (the ASPX file), and the code behind the form, which
resides in a separate class file.

The Purpose of Web Forms

Web Forms and ASP.NET were created to overcome some of the limitations of ASP. These new
strengths include:
• Separation of HTML interface from application logic
• A rich set of server-side controls that can detect the browser and send out appropriate markup
language such as HTML
• Less code to write due to the data binding capabilities of the new server-side .NET controls
• Event-based programming model that is familiar to Microsoft Visual Basic programmers
• Compiled code and support for multiple languages, as opposed to ASP which was interpreted as
Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting (VBScript) or Microsoft Jscript.
•Allows third parties to create controls that provide additional functionality

The categories of controls available are as follows:

• Standard: Common controls that make up 90 percent of all pages.
• Data: Controls used to connect to data sources (databases or XML files).
• Validation: Controls that can be added to a page to validate user input (for example, to ensure
that certain text boxes contain data or that data has been entered in the correct format).
• Navigation: Controls used to provide a simple and quick solution to making a site navigable (for
example, dynamic menus and breadcrumbs of hyperlinks).
• Login: A set of controls that make it simple to move from a completely open site to one that has
personalized areas.
• WebParts: Controls that make it possible to create Sharepoint-style sites with dragand-
droppable sections, known as Web Parts, which enable the user to rearrange their view of a site.
• HTML: Simple HTML elements.
12.2. STANDARD CONTROLS
Standard Controls are basic controls which are used for designing user interface for webpages.
User can input data through various controls on a user interface at the client browser and can
display output through these controls received from the server.
Here are some of the most commonly used controls which are grouped under the standard tab
Toolbox:
• TextBox control: Used for entering text on a page, commonly seen on order forms on shopping
sites, or for logging in to a site.

98
• Button control: From submitting an order to changing preferences on a web site, clicking a
button on a page normally causes information to be sent to the server, which reacts to that
information and displays a result.
• Label control: Used for displaying simple text in a specified position on a page. The Label
control is an easy way to change the text on part of a page in response to user interaction.
• Hyperlink control: Used for providing hyperlink functionality on a page that enables navigation
to other parts of a site, or to other resources on the Internet.
• Image control: Used for displaying images on a page. The server can change the image that is
displayed in the control programmatically in response to user input.
• DropDown List control: Used for offering the user a list of options to choose from; collapses
when not in use to save space.
• Listbox control: Used for offering a fixed-size list of items to choose from.
• CheckBox and Radio Button controls: Used for selecting options with either a yes/no or “this
one out of many” style, respectively.
VALIDATION CONTROLS
These controls make page validation much easier and reduce the amount of code that the developer
must write to perform page validation. The ASP.NET team reviewed numerous Web sites to
determine the most common types of validation that were taking place on the Web. Most
developers were reinventing the wheel to perform validation, so the ASP.NET team decided that
Web developers needed a set of validation controls to add to their toolbox. From the start, these
controls were designed to detect the version of the browser when used in client-side validation and
then render the correct version of HTML for that client browser. These research efforts lead to the
development of the six controls covered in this chapter. The examples in this chapter will take a
look at each control and explain the most commonly used properties for each control. However,
keep in mind that all of the controls share basic properties, such as font, fore color, back color, and
so on, so this chapter won’t discuss those properties in detail. Everything in the .NET Framework
is a class, and the validation controls are no exception.
All validation controls in the .NET Framework are derived from the BaseValidator class. This
class serves as the base abstract class for the validation controls and provides the core
implementation for all validation controls that derive from this class. Validation controls always
perform validation checking on the server. Validation controls also have complete client-side
implementation that allows browsers that support DHTML to perform validation on the client.
Client-side validation enhances the validation scheme by checking user input as the user enters
data. This allows errors to be detected on the client before the form is submitted, preventing the
round trip necessary for server-side validation. In addition, more than one validator may be used
on a page to validate different aspects.
1. RequiredFieldValidator Control
Use the RequiredFieldValidator control when a value is required for an input element on
the Web page. This control checks whether the value of the associated input control is
different from its initial value.
2. CompareValidator Control
Use the CompareValidator control to make sure that a value matches a specified value.
This control compares the value of an input control to another input control or a constant
value using a variety of operators and types. You can also use this control to make sure that
your input value is of a specific type: integer, string, and so on.
3. RangeValidator Control
Use the RangeValidator control to determine whether a value falls within the specified
range. It checks whether the value of the associated input control is within some minimum
and maximum, which can be a constant value or the value of another control.
4. RegularExpressionValidator Control

99
 Use the RegularExpressionValidator control to check a value against a regular expression.
It checks whether the value of the associated input control matches the pattern of a regular
expression.
5. CustomValidator Control
Use the CustomValidator control to perform user-defined custom validation. This control
allows custom code to perform validation on the client and/or server.
6. ValidationSummary Control
Use the ValidationSummary control to capture all the validation errors from the other
controls and display them on the page as a list, a bulleted list, or in single paragraph format.
The errors can be displayed inline and/or in a pop-up message box.
4.4 ADO.NET
ADO.NET is the new database technology used in .NET platform. ADO.NET is the next step in
the evolution of Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). It does not share the same programming
model, but shares much of the ADO functionality. The ADO.NET as a marketing term that covers
the classes in the System.Data namespace. ADO.NET is a set of classes that expose the data access
services of the .NET Framework. ADO.NET is a natural evolution of ADO and is built around N-
Tier
application development. ADO.NET has been created with XML at its core.
CONNECTED VS DISCONNECTED
For much of the history of computers, the only environment available was the connected
environment. With the advent of the Internet, disconnected work scenarios have become
commonplace, and with the increasing use of handheld devices, disconnected scenarios are
becoming nearly universal. Laptop, notebook, and other portable computers allow you to use
applications when you are disconnected from servers or databases. In many situations, people do
not work entirely in a connected or disconnected environment, but rather in an environment that
combines the two approaches.
Connected
A connected environment is one in which a user or an application is constantly connected to a data
source. A connected scenario offers the following advantages:
• A secure environment is easier to maintain.
• Concurrency is easier to control.
• Data is more likely to be current than in other scenarios.
A connected scenario has the following disadvantages:
• It must have a constant network connection.
• Scalability
Disconnected
A disconnected environment is one in which a user or an application is not constantly connected to
a source of data. Mobile users who work with laptop computers are the primary users in
disconnected environments. Users can take a subset of data with them on a disconnected computer,
and then merge changes back into the central data store.
A disconnected environment provides the following advantages:
• You can work at any time that is convenient for you, and can connect to a data source at any time
to process requests.
• Other users can use the connection.
• A disconnected environment improves the scalability and performance of applications.
A disconnected environment has the following disadvantages:
• Data is not always up to date.
• Change conflicts can occur and must be resolved.
ADVANTAGES OF ADO.NET
ADO.NET provides the following advantages over other data access models and components:

100
Interoperability. ADO.NET uses XML as the format for transmitting data from a data source to a
local in-memory copy of the data.
Maintainability. When an increasing number of users work with an application, the increased use
can strain resources. By using n-tier applications, you can spread application logic across
additional tiers. ADO.NET architecture uses local in-memory caches to hold copies of data,
making it easy for additional tiers to trade information.
Programmability. The ADO.NET programming model uses strongly typed data. Strongly typed
data makes code more concise and easier to write because Microsoft Visual Studio .NET provides
statement completion.
Performance. ADO.NET helps you to avoid costly data type conversions because of its use of
strongly typed data.
Scalability. The ADO.NET programming model encourages programmers to conserve system
resources for applications that run over the Web. Because data is held locally in in memory caches,
there is no need to retain database locks or maintain active database connections for extended
periods.
.NET DATA PROVIDER
A .NET data provider is used for connecting to a database, executing commands, and retrieving
results. Those results are either processed directly, or placed in an ADO.NET DataSet in order to
be exposed to the user in an ad-hoc manner, combined with data from multiple sources, or remoted
between tiers. The .NET data provider is designed to be lightweight, creating a minimal layer
between the data source and your code, increasing performance without sacrificing functionality.
The ADO.NET object model includes the following data provider classes:
1. SQL Server .NET Data Provider
2. OLE DB .NET Data Provider
3. Oracle .NET Data Provider
4. ODBC .NET Data Provider
5. Other Native .NET Data Provider
1. SQL Server Data Provider: To use the SQL Server .NET Data Provider, you need to include
the System.Data.SqlClient namespace in your applications. Using this provider is more efficient
than using the OLE DB .NET Data Provider because it does not pass through an OLE DB or Open
Database Connectivity (ODBC) layer. It provides optimized access to SQL Server 2000 and SQL
Server 7.0 databases.
2. OLE DB Data Provider: To use the OLE DB .NET Data Provider, you need to include the
System.Data.OleDb namespace in your applications. .NET Provides access to SQL Server
versions 6.5 and earlier. It also provides access to other databases, such as Oracle, Sybase,
DB2/400, and Microsoft Access.
3. Oracle .NET Data Provider: To use the Oracle Database, a native Oracle .NET data driver is
the best choice. To use the Oracle .NET Data Provider, you need to include the
System.Data.OracleClient namespace in your applications. Oracle itself also provides a .NET
data provider, referenced as Oracle.DataAccess.Client. This is a separate download that you have
to get from Oracle. Whether you use a .NET data provider from the database vendor or just use the
one provided with the .NET framework is your choice.
4. ODBC .NET Data Provider: If you have a data source for which no native or OLE DB
provider is available, the ODBC .NET data provider is good alternative because most database
provide an ODBC interface. It is referenced with this using directive: System.Data.Odbc
5. Other Native .NET Data Provider: If there is a native .NET data provider available
specifically for your database, then you may want to use that .NET data provider instead. Many
other database vendors and third-party companies provide native
.NET data providers; the choice between using the native providers and using something generic
like the ODBC provider will depend on your circumstances. If you value portability over

101
performance, then go generic. If you want to get the best performance or make the best use of a
particular database’s features, go native.

Program to Display the content of Database

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.OleDb;
class test
{
public static void Main()
{
OleDbConnection conn = new OleDbConnection(@”Provider = Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;
Data Source=c:\lalit\data.mdb”);
OleDbDataAdapter adp= new OleDbDataAdapter(“Select * from emp”,conn);
DataTable tbl =new DataTable();
adp.Fill(tbl);
foreach(DataRow row in tbl.Rows)
Console.WriteLine(“{0,10}{1,10}{2,10}”,row[0],row[1],row[2]);
}
}

4.5 Distributed Applications

Distributed applications are those applications which uses distributed components. Distributed
components can be accessed across the network, even thogh it may be different types of
application (Web, standalone, PDA’s etc.). You can increase the scalability of your application by
making component distributed. Commonly, we have three steps to construct a simple distributed
application using C#:

1. Create remoting objects, which will either inherit MarshalByRefObject or be serialized.

2. Make a host (server) who will provide remoting server using channel for remoting client to call
for.
3. Make clients who will call the remote objects on server, which will establish a connection
channel to the appointed port on server and then using the Well- Known objects.

102
Remote Object
A remote object is implemented in a class that derives from System.MarshalByRefObject. A client
doesn’t call the methods directly; instead a proxy object is used to invoke methods on the remote
object. Every public method that we define in the remote object class is available to be called from
clients. All the objects passed by value must be serializable.
To create MyRemoteObject.dll Take .NET IDE New Project->YourName.Samples (for example,
RemotingSamples.cs). (By Default.,Class1.cs will come. Change that file name
MyRemoteObject.cs.)
using System;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp;
namespace RemotingSamples
{
public class RemoteObject : MarshalByRefObject
{
///////////////////////////////////////////////////constructor
public RemoteObject()
{
Console.writeline(“Remote object activated”);
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////return message reply
public String ReplyMessage(String msg)
{
Console.WriteLine(“Client : “+msg);
//print given message on console
return “Server : Yeah! I’m here”;
}
}
}

The remote object must be compiled as follows to generate remoteobject.dll which is used to
generate server and client executable.

csc /t:library /debug /r:System.Runtime.Remoting.dll RemotingSamples.cs

Server
The remote object needs a server process where it will be instantiated. This server has to create a
channel and put it into listening mode so that clients can connect to this channel. For creating
server, Take .NET IDE-> New Project named “server”. This is console application is the server
application used to register remote object to be access by client application. First, of all choose
channel to use and register it, supported channels are HTTP, TCP and SMTP. We have used here
TCP. Then register the remote object specifying its type.

using System;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp;
namespace RemotingSamples
103
{
public class Server
{
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
///constructor
public Server()
{
}
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
///main method
public static int Main(string [] args)
{
//select channel to communicate
TcpChannel chan = new TcpChannel(8085);
ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(chan); //register channel
//register remote object
RemotingConfiguration.RegisterWellKnownServiceType(
Type.GetType(“RemotingSamples.RemoteObject,object”),
“RemotingServer”, WellKnownObjectMode.SingleCall);
//inform console
Console.WriteLine(“Server Activated”);
return 0;
}
}
}
The server must be compiled as follows to produce server.exe.
csc /debug /r:remoteobject.dll /r:System.Runtime.Remoting.dll server.cs

Client
This is the client application and it will call remote object method. First, of all client must select
the channel on which the remote object is available, activate the remote object and then call
proxy’s object method return by remote object activation.
using System;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp;
using RemotingSamples;
namespace RemotingSamples
{
public class Client
{
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
///constructor
public Client()
{
}
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
///main method
public static int Main(string [] args)
{

104
//select channel to communicate with server
TcpChannel chan = new TcpChannel();
ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(chan);
RemoteObject remObject = (RemoteObject)
Activator.GetObject(typeof(RemotingSamples.RemoteObject),
“tcp://localhost:8085/RemotingServer”);
if (remObject==null)
Console.WriteLine(“cannot locate server”);
else
remObject.ReplyMessage(“You there?”);
return 0;
}
}
}
The client must be compiled as follows in order to produce client.exe
csc/debug/r:remoteobject.dll /r:System.Runtime.Remoting.dll client.cs

Advantage and Disadvantage of Remoting

Lease-Based Lifetime
Distributed garbage collection of objects is managed by a system called ‘leased based lifetime’.
Each object has a lease time, and when that time expires the object is disconnected from the .NET
runtime remoting infrastructure. Net remoting takes a lease-base lifetime of the object that is
scalable.
Call Context
Additional information can be passed with every method call that is not part of the argument with
the help of SOAP Header.
Distributed Identities
If we pass a reference to a remote object, we will access the same object using this reference.
Advantage Over Web Services
1. It works using purely Common Type System.
2. It supports high speed binary over top/ip communication.
Advantage Over COM/DCOM
1. It does no have extra interface language (IDL)
2. It works using purely managed code
3. It’s using Common Type System. No Safearrays etc
Disadvantages
1. It is not an open standard like web services.
2. It is not as widespread and established ad DCOM.
3. Less support for transactions, load balancing compared with DCOM.
4.6 Unsafe Mode
When you want to compile program using command line switch you type the program name after
the compiler name; for example if your program name is prog1.cs then you will compile this:
csc prog1.cs
This works fine for safe code while you are programming. Microsft added one more switch to
command line compiler of C# for writing unsafe code. Now if you want to write unsafe code then
you have to specify the /unsafe command line switch with command line compiler otherwise the
compiler gives an error. if you want to write unsafe code in your program then you compile your
programas follows:

105
 csc /unsafe prog1.cs
Here prog1.cs is the name of the program. If you compile your program which has unsafe code
without using the /unsafe switch then compiler gives error.

To set this compiler option in the Visual Studio development environment following steps are
required :
· Open the project's Properties page.
· Click the Build property page.
· Select the Allow Unsafe Code check box.

4.7 GDI APPLICATIONS

Using Graphical Device Interface (GDI) objects in earlier versions of Visual Studio was a pain. In
Visual Studio .NET, Microsoft has taken care of most of the GDI problems and have made it easy
to use. GDI+ is the next evolution of GDI in .NET Visual Studio. GDI+ resides in
System.Drawing.dll assembly. All GDI+ classes are reside in the System.Drawing, System.Text,
System.Printing, System.Internal, System.Imaging, System.Drawing2D and System.Design
namespaces.
The first class we must discuss is the Graphics class. After the Graphics class, we will discuss
other useful GDI+ classes and structures such as Pen, Brush, and Rectangle.
The Graphics Class
The Graphics class encapsulates GDI+ drawing surfaces. Before drawing any object ( for example
circle, or rectangle ) we have to create a surface using Graphics class. Generally we use Paint event
of a Form to get the reference of the graphics. Another way is to override OnPaint method.
Here is how you get a reference of the Graphics object:

private void form1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)

{
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
}
OR
protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
{
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
}

Once you have the Graphics reference, you can call any of this class’s members to draw various
objects. Here are some of Graphics class’s methods:

106
After creating a Graphics object, you can use it draw lines, fill shapes, draw text and so on. The
major objects are:

Example of Drawing an Arc

DrawArc function draws an arc. This function takes four arguments. First is the Pen. You create a
pen by using the Pen class. The Pen constructor takes at least one argument, the color or the brush
of the pen. Second argument width of the pen or brush is optional.

Pen pn = new Pen(Color.Blue); or Pen pn = new Pen(Color.Blue, 100);

107
The second argument is a rectangle. You can create a rectangle by using Rectangle structure. The
Rectangle constructor takes four int type arguments and they are left and right corners of the
rectangle.

Rectangle rect = new Rectangle(50, 50, 200, 100);

protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs pe)
{
Graphics g = pe.Graphics ;
Pen pn = new Pen( Color.Blue );
Rectangle rect = new Rectangle(50, 50, 200, 100);
g.DrawArc( pn, rect, 12, 84 );
} The output looks like figure

108
 UNIT-5
Assemblies and Attributes
5.1 Assemblies
What is an assembly?
· An Assembly is a logical unit of code
· Assembly physically exist as DLLs or EXEs
· One assembly can contain one or more files
· The constituent files can include any file types like image files, text files etc. along with
DLLs or EXEs
· When you compile your source code by default the exe/dll generated is actually an
assembly
· Unless your code is bundled as assembly it can not be used in any other application
· When you talk about version of a component you are actually talking about version of the
assembly to which the component belongs.
· Every assembly file contains information about itself. This information is called as
Assembly Manifest.
What is assembly manifest?
· Assembly manifest is a data structure which stores information about an assembly
· This information is stored within the assembly file(DLL/EXE) itself
· The information includes version information, list of constituent files etc.
What is private and shared assembly?
The assembly which is used only by a single application is called as private assembly. Suppose
you created a DLL which encapsulates your business logic. This DLL will be used by your client
application only and not by any other application. In order to run the application properly your
DLL must reside in the same folder in which the client application is installed. Thus the assembly
is private to your application.
Suppose that you are creating a general purpose DLL which provides functionality which will be
used by variety of applications. Now, instead of each client application having its own copy of
DLL you can place the DLL in 'global assembly cache'. Such assemblies are called as shared
assemblies.
What is Global Assembly Cache?
Global assembly cache is nothing but a special disk folder where all the shared assemblies will be
kept. It is located under <drive>:\WinNT\Assembly folder.
How assemblies avoid DLL Hell?
As stated earlier most of the assemblies are private. Hence each client application refers assemblies
from its own installation folder. So, even though there are multiple versions of same assembly they
will not conflict with each other. Consider following example :
· You created assembly Assembly1
· You also created a client application which uses Assembly1 say Client1
· You installed the client in C:\MyApp1 and also placed Assembly1 in this folder
· After some days you changed Assembly1
· You now created another application Client2 which uses this changed Assembly1
· You installed Client2 in C:\MyApp2 and also placed changed Assembly1 in this folder
· Since both the clients are referring to their own versions of Assembly1 everything goes on
smoothly

109
Now consider the case when you develop assembly that is shared one. In this case it is important to
know how assemblies are versioned. All assemblies has a version number in the form:
major.minor.build.revision
If you change the original assembly the changed version will be considered compatible with
existing one if the major and minor versions of both the assemblies match.
When the client application requests assembly the requested version number is matched against
available versions and the version matching major and minor version numbers and having most
latest build and revision number are supplied.
How do I create shared assemblies?
Following steps are involved in creating shared assemblies :
3) Create your DLL/EXE source code
4) Generate unique assembly name using SN utility
5) Sign your DLL/EXE with the private key by modifying AssemblyInfo file
6) Compile your DLL/EXE
7) Place the resultant DLL/EXE in global assembly cache using GAC utility
How do I create unique assembly name?
Microsoft now uses a public-private key pair to uniquely identify an assembly. These keys are
generated using a utility called SN.exe (SN stands for shared name). The most common syntax of
is :
sn -k mykeyfile.snk
Where k represents that we want to generate a key and the file name followed is the file in which
the keys will be stored.
How do I sign my DLL/EXE?
Before placing the assembly into shared cache you need to sign it using the keys we just generated.
You mention the signing information in a special file called AssemblyInfo. Open the file from
VS.NET solution explorer and change it to include following lines :
[assembly:AssemblyKeyFile("file_path")]
Now recompile the project and the assembly will be signed for you.
Note : You can also supply the key file information during command line compilation via /a.keyfile
switch.
How do I place the assembly in shared cache?
Microsoft has provided a utility called AL.exe to actually place your assembly in shared cache.
GACUtil /i my_dll.dll
Now your dll will be placed at proper location by the utility.
Hands On...
Now, that we have understood the basics of assemblies let us apply our knowledge by developing a
simple shared assembly.
In this example we will create a C#.NET component called SampleGAC ( GAC stands for Global
Assembly Cache). We will also create a key file named sample.snk. We will sign our component
with this key file and place it in Global Assembly Cache.
· Step 1 : Creating our sample component
Here is the code for the component. It just includes one method which returns a string.
using System;
namespace BAJComponents
{
public class Sample
{
public string GetData()
{
return "hello world";

110
 }
}
}
· Step 2 : Generate a key file
To generate the key file issue following command at command prompt.
sn -k sample.snk
This will generate the key file in the same folder
· Step 3 : Sign your component with the key
using System;
[assembly:AssemblyKeyFile(“C:\Sample.snk”)]
namespace BAJComponents
{
public class Sample
{
public string GetData()
{
return "hello world";
}
}
}
· Step 4 : Compile your file again
csc /out:sampleGAC.dll /target:library sampleGAC.cs
· Step 4 : Host the signed assembly in Global Assembly Cache
We will use GAC utility to place the assembly in Global Assembly Cache.
GACUtil /i sampleGAC.dll
After hosting the assembly just go to WINNT\Assembly folder and you will find your assembly
listed there. Note how the assembly folder is treated differently that normal folders.
· Step 5 : Test that our assembly works
Now, we will create a sample client application which uses our shared assembly. Just create a
sample code as listed below :
using System;
using BAJComponents;
public class SampleTest
{
public static void Main()
{
Sample x = new sample()
string s =x.GetData()
Console.WriteLine(s)
}
}

Compile above code using :

csc sampletest.cs /t:exe /r:<assembly_dll_path_here>
Now, copy the resulting EXE in any other folder and run it. It will display "Hello World"
indicating that it is using our shared assembly.

111
5.2 GENERICS
Generics are a new feature in the .Net framework 2.0+ which make it possible to design classes
and methods that do not specify data types until the class or method is declared and instantiated by
client code.
Generics are supplied by the System.Collection.Generics namesapce.
Nullable Types
System.Nullable<int> a;
“a” can have an int value as well as “null” value. Means:
a = null; // valid statement.
You can test nullable types like as:
if( a == null)
{
}
OR
if( a.HasValue)
{
}
The short hand of System.Nullable<int> is simply int? . So you can use like as:
int? a; instead of System.Nullable<int> a;
Some problem with code:
int? op1 = 5;
int result = op1 * 2;
will not compile.
To get result use following code:
int? op1 = 5;
int result = (int) op1 * 2;
or
int result = op1.Value * 2;
-----------------------------------
int? op1 = null;
int? op2 = 5;
int? result = op1 * op2;
result = null
By using a generic type parameter you can write a single class that other client code can use
without incurring the cost or risk of casts or boxing operations.
The ?? Operator (null coalescing operator)
it is a binary operator that enables you to supply an alternative value to use for expresions that
might evaluate null
op1 ?? op2;
equivalent
op1 == null ? op2 : op1 ;

int? op1 = null;

int result = op1 * 2 ?? 5;
result = 10

GENERIC METHOD
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

112
class Generics
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// create arrays of various types
int[] intArray = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 };
double[] doubleArray = { 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 };
char[] charArray = { 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E' };

DisplayArray(intArray);
DisplayArray(doubleArray);
DisplayArray(charArray);

Console.ReadLine();
}

// generic method displays array of any type

static void DisplayArray<E>(E[] array)
{
Console.WriteLine("Display array of type " + array.GetType() + ":");
foreach (E element in array)
Console.Write(element + " ");
}
}

GENERIC CLASS
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

class Generics
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
MyGeneric<int> mygenericint = new MyGeneric<int>();
mygenericint.GenericField = 13;
mygenericint.GenericMethod(42);

MyGeneric<string> mygenericstring = new MyGeneric<string>();

mygenericstring.GenericField = "xxx";
mygenericstring.GenericMethod("xxx");

// These lines will cause a compile error

MyGeneric<int> mygenericint2 = new MyGeneric<int>();
mygenericint2.GenericField = "xxx";
mygenericint2.GenericMethod("xxx");
}
}

public class MyGeneric<T>

{

113
 public T GenericField;
public void GenericMethod(T t)
{
Console.WriteLine("GenericMethod parameter type: " + t.GetType());
}
}

5.3 Attributes
Introduction
Usinng an attribute is a way to add special meaning to our method and cause it to act in a certain
way. Before this was available, developers didn't have a way to define their own attributes. DotNet
paved the way for developers and opened new horizons to conquer. Attributes are like adding
behaviours to methods, classes, properties structures, events, modules, and so forth. It means we
can enforce certain constraints on those methods, classes, properties and vice-versa to behave in
the way specify to them.
One more added feature is that, before DotNet, if we made a class or DLL and a newer version
came along, the older version that should be removed or should not be used still exists. This causes
a problem called DLL Hell. DotNet solved this problem by the concept of versioning. This means
that the same DLL with the same name, containing some new methods with older methods can co-
exist with a different version number.
Let us start to learn to use attributes in C# code:
Case 1
I had a method in my old DLL. Now, I have updated my DLL and added two new methods and
one new method that is the upgraded version of previous DLL.

What should happen is that my previous programs that use this DLL should work properly. Or, if I
intend to use the old method in the new program, it should tell me that the old method is obsolete
and I should use the new method.
Before DotNet, this wasn't possible. DotNet has removed this hurdle from the path of developers.
Let us see how can we do this stuff:
Using System;
Namespace MyExample
{
Class MyAttribute
{
[Obsolete()]
public static void SaySomething(string str)
{
Console.WriteLine(str);
}
public static void Talk(string str)
{
Console.WriteLine(str);
}

static void Main()

{
SaySomething("Hello to Sufyan");

114
 Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
Here, when we call SaySomething("Hello to Sufyan"), it will execute the code but in the output
window a warning message will be displayed, showing us that the SaySomething method is
obsolete.
Still, it doesn't ask us to use the new talk method SaySomething instead. To display a customized
message, we will customize the obsolete attribute like this:
[Obsolete("SaySomething() method is now Obsolete.
Please use Talk()")]
By using this approach, we can add additional meaning to our attribute.
Note: We can have multiple attribute statements before a method or class. In such
cases, if one of the statements is true, it will allow access to that particular method.
There are many attributes that come with DotNet.
· Conditional
· DllImport
· Obsolete
· Serializable
Conditional attribute
By using the Conditional attribute, we are following a scenario that if a particular condition is true,
the user will have access to that specific method. Suppose you wanted your specific method to run
only if Internet Explorer is found on the system. Applying this type of security on a method was
not easy in the past. Now, it is possible by applying conditional attributes.
Case 2
Suppose you want a method to run if program is in Debug mode. We will write the conditional
statement as follows:
[Conditional(.DEBUG.)]
public static void Help(String str)
{
Console.WriteLine(str);
}
If one calls this method in Main(), it will run only if the program is in Debug mode. If you turn it
off in the release mode, it will not run.
DLL Import
Before DotNet, if one wanted to access the core Windows API, he could add a reference and use
the library provided by Windows SDK. In DotNet, if we want to access those core features of
DotNet, we use DllImport. Component DLLs aren't accessed this way. They are accessed by
making a reference to them. Normal DLLs are accessed by using the DllImport attribute.
Case 3
using System;
System.Runtime.InteropServices;
class Beeper
{
[DllImport(.kernel32.dll.)]
Public static extern bool Beep(int frequency,int duration);
static void Main()
{
Beep(1000,111);
}

115
}
So far, we have learned how to use attributes in DotNet. Still, we haven't learn how to create our
own custom attributes with specified behaviour that we assign.
Steps in Creating a Custom Attribute
1. Define the attribute's usage.
2. Extend our class with AttributeClass.
3. Define the behaviours to the class.
Attribute behaviours can be of these types:
· All—Any application element
· Assembly—Attribute can be applied to an assembly
· Class—Attribute can be applied to a class
· Constructor—Attribute can be applied to a constructor
· Delegate—Attribute can be applied to a delegate
· Enum—Attribute can be applied to an enumeration
· Event—Attribute can be applied to an event
· Field—Attribute can be applied to a field
· Interface—Attribute can be applied to an interface
· Method—Attribute can be applied to a method
· Module—Attribute can be applied to a module
· Parameter—Attribute can be applied to a parameter
· Property—Attribute can be applied to a property
· ReturnValue—Attribute can be applied to a return value
· Struct—Attribute can be applied to a structure
The second step is to extend the class with the Attribute class. Basically, our attribute is a class that
defines the behaviours of our attribute. For example:
...
public class MySpecialAttribute:Attribute
{...
A point to be noted here is that the name of Attribute we are going to make is MySpecial. We
didn't suffix the word Attribute after MySpecial. DotNet automatically suffixed it.
Let us create a sample custom attribute that will execute the method if the regKey provided to the
Attribute parameter is correct:
using System;
namespace RegKeyAttributeTestor
{
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method|AttributeTargets.Struct,
AllowMultiple=false,Inherited=false]
public class MyAttribute:Attribute
{
private string regKey="a12nf";
public MyAttribute(string regKey)
{
if(this.regKey==regKey)
{
Console.WriteLine("Permitted to use this App");
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Not registered to use this App");

116
 }
}
} //End Attribute class code
class useAttrib
{
[MyAttribute("hello")]
public static string SayHello(string str)
{
return str;
}
static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine(SayHello("Hello to Sufyan"));
Console.ReadLine();
}
}

}
AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method|AttributeTargets.Struct,
AllowMultiple=false, Inherited=false)]
Here, multiple Attribute targets are declared by using "|" between different targets. Allows
multiple=false means multiple attributes can be used with this attribute. Inherited=false shows that
if some class extends a class that uses this attribute and calls a method that is bound to this
attribute, that class has no access to this attribute unless this property is set to true.
Reading Metadata from Assemblies
We first write our custom attribute:
using System;

namespace Sufyan
{
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method,AllowMultiple=false,
Inherited=false)]
public class RegKeyAttribute : Attribute
{
private string regKey;

public RegKeyAttribute(string VRegKey)

{
this.regKey = VRegKey;
if (this.regKey==.hello.)
{
Console.WriteLine("Aha! You're Registered");
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Oho! You're not Registered");
}
}
}
}

117
Now, we shall write our code to reference it through Assembly;.
Steps
First, compile the first example as a Class library; it will generate a .dll file. We will place this .dll
file in the bin folder of our second example we are going to make now.
using System;
using System.Reflection;
using Sufyan;

namespace AdvancedDotNet1
{
class Classic
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Assembly suf = Assembly.Load("RegKey");
Type KIA=suf.GetType();
[]KO=Attribute.GetCustomAttributes(KIA);
Object Regist =KO[0];
Console.WriteLine("Registeration Code is :"+
Regist.ToString() );
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
System.Reflection is used to retrieve info from the assembly metadata.
To use this in another class, verify that a specific method will execute if that particular developer is
registered with me and I have issued him the license key to use.
class useAttrib
{
[RegKeyAttribute ("hello")]
public static string SayHello(string str)
{
return str;
}
static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine(SayHello("Hello to Sufyan"));
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
Have a close look at this code. I have provided the Hello string as a parameter to the attribute.
When we run this application, if we pass a string other then "hello", it will say that you are not
registered. We can further modify it according to our need.

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