Chapter One

A First Program Using

C#

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 Objectives
• Learn about programming tasks
• Learn object-oriented programming concepts
• Learn about the C# programming language
• Learn how to write a C# program that
produces output
• Learn how to select identifiers to use within
your programs

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 Objective

• Learn how to compile and execute a C#

program from the command line
• Learn how to add comments to a C# program
• Learn how to compile and execute a program
using Visual Studio IDE
• Learn how to eliminate the reference to Out by
using the System namespace

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 Programming

• A computer program is a set of instructions that you

write to tell a computer what to do
• Programmers do not use machine language when
creating computer programs. Instead, programmers tend
to use high-level programming languages
• Each high-level language has its own syntax and limited
set of vocabulary that is translated into machine code by
a compiler
• In addition to understanding syntax, a programmer must
also understand programming logic

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 Object-Oriented Programming

• Variables are named computer memory locations used

to hold values that may vary
• Operations are usually called or invoked to manipulate
variables
• A procedural program defines the variable memory
locations, then calls a series of procedures to input,
manipulate, and output the value stored in those
locations
• A single procedural program often contains hundreds of
variables and thousands of procedure calls

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 Object-Oriented Programming

• Object-oriented programming is an extension of

procedural programming, which in addition to variables
and procedures contains: objects, classes,
encapsulation, interfaces, polymorphism, and inheritance
• Objects are object-oriented components
• Attributes of an object represent its characteristics
• A class is a category of objects or a type of object
• An instance refers to an object based on a class

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 Object-Oriented Programming

• For example:
– An Automobile is a class whose objects have the following
attributes: year, make, model, color, and current running status
– Your 1997 red Chevrolet is an instance of the class that is made
up of all Automobiles
• Methods of classes are used to change attributes and
discover values of attributes
– The Automobile class may have the following methods:
getGas(), accelerate(), applyBreaks()

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 Object-Oriented Programming

• Methods and variables in object-oriented programming

are encapsulated, that is, users are only required to
understand the interface and not the internal workings
of the class
• Polymorphism and Inheritance are two distinguishing
features in the object-oriented programming approach
• Polymorphism describes the ability to create methods
that act appropriately depending on the context
• Inheritance provides the ability to extend a class so as to
create a more specific class

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 The C# Programming Language

• C# was developed as an object-oriented and

component-oriented language
• It exists as part of the Visual Studio .NET package
• C# (like Java) is modeled after the C++ programming
language
• Pointers are not used in C#
• C# does NOT require the use of object destructors,
forward declarations, or #include files
• It has the ability to pass by reference
• Multiple inheritance is not allowed in C#

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Writing a C# Program that Produces Output

• “This is my first C# program” is a literal string of

characters
• The string appears in parenthesis because it is a
parameter or an argument
• The WriteLine() method prints a line of output on the
screen
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Writing a C# Program that Produces Output

• Out is an object that represents the screen

• The Out object was created and endowed with the
method WriteLine()
• Not all objects have the WriteLine() method

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Writing a C# Program that Produces Output

• Console is a class
• Console defines the attributes of a collection of similar
“Console” objects

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Writing a C# Program that Produces Output

• System is a namespace, which is a scheme that

provides a way to group similar classes
• Namespaces are used to organize classes

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Writing a C# Program that Produces Output

• The difference between the above code and the previous

code is the amount of whitespace
• Both versions of code share the same method header
(including access modifiers and other keywords)

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 Selecting Identifiers

• Every method used in C# must be part of a class

• A C# class name or identifier must meet the basic
following requirements:
– An identifier must begin with an underscore or a letter
– An identifier can contain only letters or digits, not special
characters such as #,$, or &
– An identifier cannot be a C# reserved keyword

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 Selecting Identifiers

• The reserved public keyword is an access modifier

that defines the circumstance under which a class can
be accessed

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Writing a C# Program that Produces Output

• Code written for a C# program using a text editor

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 Compiling and Executing a Program from
the Command Line
• After creating source code, you must do the following
before you can view the program output:
– Compile the source code into intermediate language
(IL)
– Use the C# just in time (JIT) compiler to translate the
intermediate code into executable statements

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 Compiling and Executing a Program from
the Command Line
• After compiling your source code (typing csc followed by
the filename), you will have three possible outcomes:
– You receive an operating system error message
– You receive one or more program language error
messages
– You receive no error messages, indicating that the
program has compiled successfully

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 Compiling and Executing a Program from
the Command Line
• If you receive an operating system message it may
mean that:
– You misspelled the command csc
– You misspelled the filename
– You forgot to include the extensions .cs with the
filename
– You didn’t use the correct case
– You are not within the correct subdirectory or folder
on your command line
– The C# compiler was not installed properly
– You need to set a path command

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 Compiling and Executing a Program from
the Command Line
• A syntax error occurs when you introduce typing errors
into your program
• The C# compiler issues warnings as wells as errors
• If a syntax error occurs, you must reopen the source
code and make the necessary corrections
• If you compile the program with no errors (using csc
file.cs) you can run the program from the command
prompt by typing the name of the .exe file created

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 Compiling and Executing a Program from
the Command Line

• Output of Hello Program

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 Adding Comments to a Program

• In large programs it becomes difficult to remember why

certain steps were included and the role of certain
variables and methods
• Program comments are nonexecuting statements that
you add to document a program
• You can also comment out various statements in a
program to debug and observe the effects of the
program with the statement or statements commented
out

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 Adding Comments to a Program

• There are three types of comments in C#:

– Line comments
– Block comments
– XML-documentation format

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 Compiling and Executing a Program Using
the Visual Studio IDE
• C# programs can also be written using the Visual Studio
IDE (instead of a text editor). This approach offers many
advantages including:
– Some of the code you need is already created for you
– The code is displayed in color, so you can more easily identify
parts of your program
– If error messages appear when you compile your program, you
can double-click on an error message and the cursor will move
to the line of code that contains the error
– Other debugging tools are available

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 Compiling and Executing a Program Using
the Visual Studio IDE

• Navigating to Visual Studio .NET

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 Compiling and Executing a Program Using
the Visual Studio IDE

• Creating a project
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 Compiling and Executing a Program Using
the Visual Studio IDE

• Selecting project options

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 Compiling and Executing a Program Using
the Visual Studio IDE

• The console application template

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 Compiling and Executing a Program Using
the Visual Studio IDE

• Output screen after compiling the Hello program

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 Compiling and Executing a Program Using
the Visual Studio IDE

• Output of the Hello program as run from the Visual

Studio IDE

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 Compiling and Executing a Program Using
the Visual Studio IDE

• List of Hello Program Files

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 Eliminating the Reference to Out by Using
the System Namespace

• A program may contain an unlimited number of

statements, as long as they are each terminated by a
semicolon
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 Eliminating the Reference to Out by Using
the System Namespace

• The Output of ThreeLines program

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 Eliminating the Reference to Out by Using
the System Namespace
• When you need to repeatedly use a class from the same
namespace, you can shorten statements by using the
“using” keyword
• Output is identical as the previous version of ThreeLines

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 Eliminating the Reference to Out by Using
the System Namespace

• An alias is an alternative name for a class

• An alias can be used to shorten a long class name (as in
the above example)

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 Chapter Summary

• A computer program is a set of instructions that you write

to tell a computer what to do
• Procedural Programming involves creating computer
memory locations, called variables, and a set of
operations, called procedures. In object-oriented
programming, you envision program components as
objects that are similar to concrete objects in the real
world
• The C# language was developed as an object-oriented
and component-oriented language

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 Chapter Summary

• To write a C# program that produces a line of console

output, you must pass a literal string as a parameter to
the System.Console.Out.WriteLine() method
• You can define a C# class or variable by using any name
or identifier that begins with an underscore or a letter,
that contains only letters or digits, and that is not a C#
reserved keyword
• To create a C# program, you can use the Microsoft
Visual Studio environment or any text editor

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 Chapter Summary

• After you write and save a program, you must compile

the source code
• Program comments are nonexecuting statements that
add to document a program or to disable statements
• As an alternative to using the command line, you can
compile and write your program within the Visual Studio
IDE
• When you need to repeatedly use a class from the same
namespace, you can shorten the statements you type by
using a clause that indicates a namespace where the
class can be found

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