Programming in C#

Course Overview

This training course teaches developers the programming skills that are required to create applications using the C# language. During their five days in the classroom, students review the basics of C# program structure, language syntax, and implementation details, and then consolidate their knowledge throughout the week as they build an application that incorporates several features of .NET. The course aims to follow the spirit of the Microsoft Official Curriculum course 20483, while bringing it completely up-to-date with the latest features of C#, .NET 6.0 and Visual Studio 2022.

Target Audience

This course is intended for experienced developers who already have programming experience in C, C++, JavaScript, Objective-C, Microsoft Visual Basic, or Java, and understand the concepts of object-oriented programming. This course is not designed for students who are new to programming; it is targeted at professional developers with at least one month of experience programming in an object-oriented environment. Those new to programming should consider course 55337AC - Introduction to Programming. The 55337AC course uses C# as the language to facilitate an introduction to programming generally, whereas this course focuses on the C# language itself, making it an excellent follow-on course. If you want to learn to take full advantage of the C# language, then this is the course for you.

Course Objectives

• Explain how to use Visual Studio to create and run an application.
• Describe the features and syntax of the C# programming language.
• Define the monitoring needs of large-scale applications
• Create and call methods, capture and manage exceptions.
• Understand the .NET development platform and libraries.
• Understand the .NET framework classes.
• Create well-structured and easily-maintainable C# code.
• Define and implement interfaces.
• Create a class hierarchy using inheritance.
• Understand object-oriented programming concepts.
• Implement the fundamental architecture and core components of a desktop application.
• Acquire a working knowledge of how to build a graphical UI using XAML.
• Use file I/O and streams, and serialize/deserialize data in various formats.
• Understand web communications and protocols.
• Create an entity data model for database access.
• Use Language-Integrated Query (LINQ).
• Use asynchronous operations to create performant applications.
• Add dynamic components and unmanaged libraries to a C# program.
• Understand the use of generics and generic collections.
• Retrieve metadata from types using .NET reflection.

Course Content

Module 1: C# Syntax

Microsoft .NET 6 provides a comprehensive development platform that you can use to build, deploy, and manage applications and services. By using .NET, you can create visually compelling applications, enable seamless communication across technology boundaries, and provide support for a wide range of business processes.

In this module, you’ll learn about some of the core features provided by.NET and Microsoft Visual Studio. You’ll also learn about some of the core C# constructs that enable you to start developing .NET applications.

Lessons for module 1

• Lesson 1: Writing Applications in C# and .NET
• Lesson 2: Types of Data and Expressions
• Lesson 3: C# Language Constructs

Lab 1: Developing the Class Enrolment Application

• Developing the Class Enrolment Application

After completing module 1, students will be able to:

• Write Applications in C# and .NET
• Explain types of Data and Expressions
• Understand C# Language Constructs

Module 2: C# Language Concepts

Applications often consist of logical units of functionality that perform specific functions, such as providing access to data or triggering some logical processing. C# is an object-orientated language and uses the concept of methods to encapsulate logical units of functionality. Although a good practice is to have methods that do just one thing, they can be as simple or as complex as you like. It is also important to consider what happens to the state of your application when an exception occurs in a method.

Lessons for module 2

• Lesson 1: Methods
• Lesson 2: Method Overloading
• Lesson 3: Exception Handling
• Lesson 4: Monitoring

Lab 1: Extending the Class Enrolment Application

• Refactor code to facilitate reusability.
• Write C# code that validates data entered by a user.
• Write C# code that saves changes back to a database.

After completing module 2, students will be able to:

• In this module, you’ll learn how to create and use methods and how to handle exceptions. You’ll also learn how to use logging and tracing to record the details of any exceptions that occur

Module 3: C# Structures, Collections and Events

To create effective applications you must first learn some fundamental C# constructs. You need to know how to create simple structures to represent the data items you are working with. You need to know how to organize these structures into collections, so that you can add items, retrieve items, and iterate over your items. Finally, you need to know how to subscribe to events so that you can respond to the actions of your users.

Lessons for module 3

• Lesson 1: Structs
• Lesson 2: Enums
• Lesson 3: Built-in Collections
• Lesson 4: Events

Lab 1: Building the Grades Prototype Application

• Structs
• Enums
• Built-in Collections
• Events

After completing module 3, students will be able to:

• Create and use structs and enums
• Organize data into collections
• Create and subscribe to events

Module 4: C# Classes

In this module, you’ll learn how to use interfaces and classes to define and create your own custom, reusable types. You’ll also learn how to create and use enumerable type-safe collections of any type.

Lessons for module 4

• Lesson 1: Creating Classes
• Lesson 2: Interfaces
• Lesson 3: Understanding Generics in C#

Lab 1: Adding Data Validation to the Application

• Creating Classes
• Interfaces
• Understanding Generics in C#

After completing module 4, students will be able to:

• Use interfaces and classes to define and create custom, reusable types
• Create and use enumerable type-safe collections of any type

Module 5: C# Inheritance

In this module, you’ll learn how to use inheritance to create class hierarchies and to extend .NET types.

Lessons for module 5

• Lesson 1: Hierarchies of Classes
• Lesson 2: Polymorphism
• Lesson 3: Extending Classes

Lab 1: Refactoring

• Hierarchies of Classes
• Polymorphism
• Extending Classes

After completing module 5, students will be able to:

• Use inheritance to factor common functionality into a base class.
• Implement polymorphism by using an abstract method.
• Create a custom exception class.

Module 6: Input and Output

In this module, you’ll learn how to read and write data by using transactional filesystem I/O operations, how to serialize and deserialize data to the filesystem, and how to read and write data to the filesystem by using streams.

Lessons for module 6

• Lesson 1: File I/O
• Lesson 2: Serialization and Deserialization
• Lesson 3: Streams

Lab 1: Creating the Grades Report

• File I/O
• Serialization and Deserialization
• Streams

After completing module 6, students will be able to:

• Read and write data by using transaction filesystem I/O operations
• How to searlize and deserialize data to the file system
• How to read and write data to the filesystem by using streams.

Module 7: Database Access

In this module, you’ll learn how to use Entity Framework and how to query many types of data by using Language-Integrated Query (LINQ).

Lessons for module 7

• Lesson 1: Entity Framework
• Lesson 2: LINQ

Lab 1: Updating Grade Data

• Entity Framework
• LINQ

After completing module 7, students will be able to:

• Use entity Framework
• Learn how to query many types of data by using Language-Integrated Query (LINQ).

Module 8: Using the Network

In this module, you’ll learn how to use the request and response classes in the System.Net namespace to directly manipulate remote data sources. You’ll also learn about REST and OData and look briefly at ASP.NET Core MVC.

Lessons for module 8

• Lesson 1: Web Services
• Lesson 2: REST and OData
• Lesson 3: ASP.NET Core MVC

Lab 1: None

• None

After completing module 8, students will be able to:

• Send data to remote web services.
• Access remote data over web services.
• Understand REST and OData.

Module 9: Graphical User Interfaces

In this module, you’ll learn how to use Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) to create engaging UIs.

Lessons for module 9

• Lesson 1: Using UI Frameworks
• Lesson 2: Data binding
• Lesson 3: Styling the UI

Lab 1: Adding a Graphical User Interface

• Using UI Frameworks
• Data binding
• Styling the UI

After completing module 9, students will be able to:

• Use Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML)
• Create and use user controls.
• Use styles and animations.

Module 10: Application Performance

In this module, you’ll learn how to improve the performance of your applications by distributing your operations across multiple threads.

Lessons for module 10

• Lesson 1: Multitasking
• Lesson 2: Asynchronous Calls
• Lesson 3: Dealing with Conflicts

Lab 1: Performance Tuning

• Multitasking
• Asynchronous Calls
• Dealing with Conflicts

After completing module 10, students will be able to:

• Improve performance by distributing operations across multiple threads.
• Use the async and await keywords to implement asynchronous methods.
• Use events and user controls to provide visual feedback during long-running operations.

Module 11: C# Interop

In this module, you’ll learn how to interoperate with unmanaged code in your applications and how to ensure that your code releases any unmanaged resources.

Lessons for module 11

• Lesson 1: Dynamic Objects
• Lesson 2: Managing Resources

Lab 1: Working with Word

• Dynamic Objects
• Managing Resources

After completing module 11, students will be able to:

• Interoperate with unmanaged code in applications.
• Ensure that code releases any unmanaged resources.

Module 12: Designing for Reuse

In this module, you’ll learn how to consume existing assemblies by using reflection, and how to add additional metadata to types and type members by using attributes. You’ll also learn how to generate code at runtime by using the Code Document Object Model (CodeDOM) and how manage your .NET assemblies.

Lessons for module 12

• Lesson 1: Metadata
• Lesson 2: Attributes
• Lesson 3: Generating Code
• Lesson 4: Assemblies

Lab 1: Managing the Grades Report Assembly

• Metadata
• Attributes
• Generating Code
• Assemblies

After completing module 12, students will be able to:

• Consume existing assemblies by using .NET reflection.
• Add additional metadata to types and type members using attributes.
• Create custom attributes.
• Get information about assemblies.

Course Prerequisites

For students who don’t have prior experience of programming in a high-level language, it is recommended that they take the 55337AC course, which uses C# as the language to facilitate an introduction to programming.

Course 55339AC focuses on the C# language itself, making it an excellent follow-on course.

Recommended prerequisites:

• M55337 - Introduction to Programming