Object Oriented Programming

Introduction to C#

Dr. Mike Spann

m.spann@bham.ac.uk
Contents
 Introducing C#
 Writing applications in C#
 Visual Studio .NET
 Basic C# language concepts
Introducing C#

 C# (‘C-sharp’) is a language that targets one

and only one platform, namely .NET
 That doesn’t mean it’s restricted to
Windows
 There are now .NET implementations on
other operating systems including Linux
 As long as we get to grips with object
oriented programming, C# is a simple
language to master
Introducing C#
 C# derives it’s power from .NET and the
framework class library
 The most similar language to C# is Java
 There are a number of striking similarities

 BUT there is one fundamental difference

 Java runs on a virtual machine and is

interpreted
 C# programs runs in native machine code

 This is because of the power of .NET and

leads to much more efficient programs

Writing applications in C#
 An application in C# can be one of three
types
 Console application (.exe)

 Windows application (.exe)

 Library of Types (.dll)

 The .dll is not executable

 These 3 types exclude the more advanced
web-based applications
Writing applications in C#

 Before we look at the more detailed

structure and syntax of C# programs, we
will show a simple example of each type
 In each case we will use the command line
compiler (csc) to create the binary
(assembly)
 Later in this lecture we will look at using

Visual Studio to create our applications

Writing applications in C#
 Example 1 – A console application
 This example inputs a number from the

console and displays the square root back

to the console
 Uses a simple iterative algorithm rather

than calling a Math library function

Writing applications in C#
using System;
class Square_Root
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
double a,root;
do
{
Console.Write("Enter a number: ");
a=Convert.ToDouble(Console.ReadLine());
if (a<0)
Console.WriteLine(“Enter a positive number!");
} while (a<0);
root=a/2;
double root_old;
do
{
root_old=root;
root=(root_old+a/root_old)/2;
} while (Math.Abs(root_old-root)>1.0E-6);
Console.WriteLine("The square root of " + a + " is " + root);
}
}
Writing applications in C#
Writing applications in C#
 We can see that everything in a C# application is
in a class
 In this case the class defines a program entry point
Main
 This makes the application binary an executable

 Note the use of the System namespace

 Classes referred to, such as Console and Math,

are actually System.Console and System.Math

Writing applications in C#
 Example 2 – A windows application
 A simple GUI displaying a menu

 This example displays a window with

couple of menu buttons
• Clicking on a menu button displays
a pop-up dialog box
 The code listing demonstrates the
simplicity of GUI programming in C#
Writing applications in C#
using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;

class App{
public static void Main(){
Application.Run(new MenuForm());
}
}

class MenuForm:Form{
public MenuForm(){
this.ContextMenu = new ContextMenu(SetupMenu());
this.Menu = new MainMenu(SetupMenu());
}

MenuItem[] SetupMenu(){
MenuItem file = new MenuItem("&File");
file.MenuItems.Add("Exit", new EventHandler(OnExit));
MenuItem messages = new MenuItem("&Message Boxes");
EventHandler handler = new EventHandler(OnMessageBox);
messages.MenuItems.Add("Message Box 1", handler);
messages.MenuItems.Add("Message Box 2", handler);
return new MenuItem[]{file, messages};
}

void OnExit(Object sender, EventArgs args){

this.Close();
}

void OnMessageBox(Object sender, EventArgs args){

MenuItem item = sender as MenuItem;
MessageBox.Show(this, "You selected menu item - "+item.Text);
}
}
Writing applications in C#
Writing applications in C#
Writing applications in C#
 This program is considerably more complex than
the previous example
 It uses the System.Drawing and
System.Windows.Forms namespaces
 The (System.Windows.Forms).Form class is a

standard outer graphics container for most

windows/GUI applications
 It also uses event handling to respond to user
interaction (menu button clicks)
Writing applications in C#
 Example 3 – A library
 We can take some of the code from
example 1 for computing the square root
and make it a library
 It will not have a Main method

 We indicate that we are compiling to a

.dll using the /Target:library option

Writing applications in C#
using System;

public class Square_Root_Class

{
public static double calcRoot(double number)
{
double root;
root=number/2;
double root_old;
do
{
root_old=root;
root=(root_old+number/root_old)/2;
} while (Math.Abs(root_old-root)>1.0E-6);

return root;
}
}
Writing applications in C#
Writing applications in C#

 We can now write a simple program

containing a Main method which uses this
library class
 The only thing we need to do is to
reference the library .dll using the /r
switch when we compile the application
Writing applications in C#
using System;

class Square_Root
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
double a,root;
do
{
Console.Write("Enter a number: ");
a=Convert.ToDouble(Console.ReadLine());
if (a<0)
Console.WriteLine("Please enter a positive
number!");
} while (a<0);

root=Square_Root_Class.calcRoot(a);

Console.WriteLine("The square root of " + a + " is " +

root);
}
}
Writing applications in C#
Visual Studio .NET
 VS.NET is an Integrated Development
Environment or IDE
 It includes a source code editors (usually pretty

fancy ones containing language help features)

 Software project management tools

 Online-help and

 Debugging

 GUI design tools

 And lots more......

Visual Studio .NET
 Creating a new project gives the user the option of
the language and project type
 Visual Basic, C++, C#, J#

 Console, Windows, Class Library, Active Web

Page or Web Service

Visual Studio .NET
Visual Studio .NET
 We can group our projects under a common
solution
 Each application has just one solution but may

comprise many projects

 A single solution can comprise projects written

in different languages
 Each project contains a number of files including
source files, executables and xml files containing
information about the project and resources
Visual Studio .NET
 We can add each of our previous 3 example
applications (projects) to a single solution
Learning C Sharp
 Its a simple matter to flip between them
and view the code from each project by
selecting the appropriate tab
 Each project must be built (compiled)
before executing and any of the projects
in a solution can be selected to be
executed
Visual Studio .NET
Visual Studio .NET
 It is a simple matter to reference a .dll from
a project
 We can check all the references that a
project makes by expanding the References
menu item in the solution explorer
 Notice for the windows project, lots of
FCL classes are referenced
Visual Studio .NET
Visual Studio .NET
 An important feature of VS is its ability to enable
visual programming
 Essentially we can create fairly sophisticated

GUI’s without writing a line of code

 We simply add GUI components to an outer

window (a Form) and set up the properties of

the components to get the required look and
feel
 VS allows us to easily switch between code and

design views
 We will look more into visual programming in
a future lecture
Basic C# language concepts
 C# has a rich C-based syntax much like C++ or
Java
 The concepts of variables, program statements,
control flow, operators, exceptions etc are the same
in C# as in C++ and Java
 Like Java, everything in C# is inside a class{}
 We will only look at those C# language issues
which differ from those we are already familiar
with
Basic C# language concepts
 Primitive types
 These are types representing the basic types we
are familiar with – integers, floats, characters
etc
 In C# they are part of the FCL so they are

treated as Objects (unlike in Java!) but are used

in the same way as normal primitive types
 So, for example, we can apply the normal
arithmetic operators to them
Basic C# language concepts
C# Primitive C# Alias Description
Boolean bool Indicates a true or false value. The if, while, and do-
while constructs require expressions of type Boolean.

Byte byte Numeric type indicating an unsigned 8-bit value.

Char char Character type that holds a 16-bit Unicode character.
Decimal decimal High-precession numerical type for financial or scientific
applications.

Double double Double precision floating point numerical value.

Single float Single precision floating point numerical value.
Int32 int Numerical type indicating a 32-bit signed value.
Int64 long Numerical type indicating a 64-bit signed value.
SByte sbyte Numerical type indicating an 8-bit signed value.
Int16 short Numerical type indicating a 16-bit signed value.
UInt32 uint Numerical type indicating a 32-bit unsigned value.
UInt64 ulong Numerical type indicating a 64-bit unsigned value.
UInt16 ushort Numerical type indicating a 16-bit unsigned value.
String string Immutable string of character values
Object object The base type of all type in any managed code.
Basic C# language concepts
 Reference Types and Value Types
 When we declare a variable in a C# program it is
either a reference or a value type
 All non-primitive types are reference types

 Essentially the variable name is a reference to

the memory occupied by the variable

 But primitive types can be either

 Even though all primitive types are treated as

objects (unlike in Java)!!
Basic C# language concepts
 For example String and Int32 are both primitive
types
 BUT

 String is a reference type

 Int32 is a value type

Int32 x=10;
String s=“Hello”;

 String variable s is a reference (memory

address) of some memory which stores the
string (which defaults to null)
 Int32 variable x is the actual value of the

integer (which defaults to zero)

Basic C# language concepts
 Arrays
 Array declaration and initialization is
similar to other languages
// A one dimensional array of 10 Bytes
Byte[] bytes = new Byte[10];

// A two dimensional array of 4 Int32s

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

// A one dimensional array of references to Strings

String[] strings = new String[10];
Basic C# language concepts
 The array itself is an object
 The array is automatically derived from the

Array class in the FCL

 This enables a number of useful methods of the

Array class to be used

 Finding the length of an array

 Finding the number of dimensions of an

array
 Arrays themselves are reference types although
their elements can be value types, or reference
types
Basic C# language concepts
 Control flow statements in C# are the same
as for C++ and Java
 if {} else{}

 for {}

 do{} while()

 etc

 However, there is one additional new one in

C#!
 foreach
Basic C# language concepts
 foreach simplifies the code for iterating through
an array

foreach (type identifier in arrayName)

 There is no loop counter

 If the loop counter variable is required in the

loop, then a for construct must be used

 The type must match the type of elements in the
array
 The array cannot be updated inside the loop
Basic C# language concepts

using System;

public class ForEachTest

{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
int[] array ={ 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14};

int total = 0;

foreach (int n in array)

total += n;

Console.WriteLine("Array total= " + total);

}
}
Basic C# language concepts
 Expressions and operators
 C# is a strongly typed language

 Variables are declared before use

 Implicit type conversions that don’t lose precision

will be carried out

 Unlike C++ (but like Java) C# has a Boolean type

 Thus the following code generates a compilation

error

Int32 x = 10;
while(x--) DoSomething();
Basic C# language concepts
 C# has the standard set of operators we are
familiar with
 Also it has operators such as is and typeof
for testing variable type information
 C# provides operator overload functions (as
does C++ but not Java) to enable standard
operators to be applied to non-primitive
types
Basic C# language concepts
Operator category Operators
Arithmetic + - * / %
Logical (boolean and bitwise) & | ^ ! ~ && || true false
String concatenation +
Increment, decrement ++ --
Shift << >>
Relational == != < > <= >=
Assignment = += -= *= /= %=
&= |= ^= <<= >>=

Member access .
Indexing []
Cast ()
Conditional (Ternary) ?:
Delegate concatenation and removal + -

Object creation New

Type information is sizeof typeof
Overflow exception control checked unchecked
Indirection and Address * -> [] &
Basic C# language concepts
 Error handling
 This is always done in C# using
structured exception handling
 Use of the try{} catch{} mechanism as
in Java and C++
 Functions should not return error

conditions but should throw exceptions

 This is done universally by methods in
FCL classes
Basic C# language concepts
public static void ExceptionExample()
{
// try-catch
try
{
Int32 index = 10;
while(index-- != 0)
Console.WriteLine(100/index);
}
catch(DivideByZeroException)
{
Console.WriteLine("A divide by zero exception!");
}
Console.WriteLine("Exception caught; code keeps running");

// try-finally
try
{
return;
}
finally
{
Console.WriteLine("Code in finally blocks always runs");
}
}
Summary
 We have looked at different types of simple
C# applications
 Console applications

 Windows applications

 Libraries (reusable types)

 We have looked at the basics of using

Visual Studio.NET
 We have looked at some C# language issues
from the point of view of differences from
C++ and Java