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C# Programming Cookbook
C# Programming Cookbook

C# Programming Cookbook: Quick fixes to your common C# programming problems, with a focus on C# 6.0

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Paperback Jul 2016 476 pages 1st Edition
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C# Programming Cookbook

Chapter 2. Classes and Generics

Classes form the building blocks of software development and are essential in building good code. In this chapter, we will be looking at classes and generics and why we need to use them. The recipes we will be covering are going to be as follows:

  • Creating and implementing an abstract class
  • Creating and implementing an interface
  • Creating and using a generic class or method
  • Creating and using a generic interface

Introduction

As you probably know, classes are simply containers for related methods and properties to describe some object in your software. An object is an instance of a specific class and, sometimes, mimics real-world things. When thinking of a car, you might create a vehicle class that contains certain attributes (properties) that all vehicles contain, such as automatic or manual transmission, wheel count (not all vehicles have only four wheels), or fuel type.

When we create an instance of the vehicle class, we can create a car object, an SUV object, and so on. Here lies the power of classes, which is to describe the world around us and translate it into a programming language that a compiler can understand.

Creating and implementing an abstract class

Many developers have heard about abstract classes, but their implementation is a mystery. How can you as a developer identify an abstract class and decide when to use one? The definition is quite a simple one actually. Once you understand this fundamental definition of an abstract class, when and why to use one becomes obvious.

Imagine for a moment that you are developing an application that manages the animals in a cat sanctuary. The cat sanctuary rehabilitates lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards, cheetahs, pumas, and even domestic cats. The common noun that describes all these animals is the word cat. You can, therefore, safely assume that the abstraction of all these animals is a cat, and thus, this word identifies our abstract class. You would then create an abstract class called Cat.

However, you need to keep in mind that you will never ever create an instance of the abstract class Cat. All the classes that inherit from the abstract class also...

Creating and implementing an interface

For many developers, interfaces are confusing and their purpose not clearly understood. Interfaces are actually quite easy to get to grips with once you understand the concept that defines an interface.

Interfaces act like verbs. So, for example, if we had to create two classes called Lion and Tiger that derive from the Cat abstract class, the interface would describe some sort of action. Lions and tigers can roar (but not purr). We can then create an interface called IRoarable. If we had to derive a class called Cheetah from our abstract class Cat, we would not be able to use the IRoarable interface, because cheetahs purr. We would need to create an IPurrable interface.

Getting ready

Creating an interface is very similar to creating an abstract class. The difference is that the interface is describing what the class can do, in the case of the Cheetah class, by implementing IPurrable.

How to do it…

  1. If you haven't already done so in the previous...

Creating and using a generic class or method

Generics is a very interesting way of writing code. Instead of specifying the data type of the elements in the code at design time, you can actually delay the specification of those elements until they are used in code. This basically means that your class or method can work with any data type.

Getting ready

We will start off by writing a generic class that can take any data type as a parameter in its constructor and do something with it.

How to do it…

  1. Declaring a generic class is actually very easy. All that we need to do is create the class with the generic type parameter <T>:
    public class PerformAction<T>
    {
    
    }

    Note

    The generic type parameter is basically a placeholder for a specific type that will need to be defined when the class of variable is instantiated. This means that the generic class PerformAction<T> can never just be used without specifying the type argument inside angle brackets when instantiating the class.

  2. Next...

Creating and using a generic interface

Generic interfaces work in much the same way as the previous examples in generics. Let's assume that we want to find the properties of certain classes in our code, but we can't be sure how many classes we will need to inspect. A generic interface could come in very handy here.

Getting ready

We need to inspect several classes for their properties. To do this, we will create a generic interface that will return a list of all the properties found for a class as a list of strings.

How to do it…

Let's take a look at the following implementation of the generic interface as follows:

  1. Go ahead and create a generic interface called IListClassProperties<T>. The interface will define a method that needs to be used called GetPropertyList() that simply uses a LINQ query to return a List<string> object:
    interface IListClassProperties<T>
    {
        List<string> GetPropertyList();
    }
  2. Next, create a generic class called InspectClass...
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Key benefits

  • Unique recipes for C#, that places it in its real-world context.
  • You will be able to get yourself out of any coding-corner youve backed yourself into.
  • All code samples available through GitHub to bring C#.
  • In line with modern development workflows, written to the latest specification of C# 6.0.

Description

During your application development workflow, there is always a moment when you need to get out of a tight spot. Through a recipe-based approach, this book will help you overcome common programming problems and get your applications ready to face the modern world. We start with C# 6, giving you hands-on experience with the new language features. Next, we work through the tasks that you perform on a daily basis such as working with strings, generics, and lots more. Gradually, we move on to more advanced topics such as the concept of object-oriented programming, asynchronous programming, reactive extensions, and code contracts. You will learn responsive high performance programming in C# and how to create applications with Azure. Next, we will review the choices available when choosing a source control solution. At the end of the book, we will show you how to create secure and robust code, and will help you ramp up your skills when using the new version of C# 6 and Visual Studio

Who is this book for?

The book is aimed at developers who have basic familiarity with C# programming and will know the VS 2015 environment.

What you will learn

  • • Write better and less code to achieve the same result as in previous versions of C#.
  • • Generate tests from the Code Contracts for mission critical methods.
  • • Integrate code in Visual Studio with GitHub.
  • • Create a web application in Azure.
  • • Design and build a microservice architecture
  • • Demystify the Rx library using Reactive extensions
  • • Write high performing codes in C# and understanding multi-threading.
  • • Security and Debugging.
  • • Implement Code Contracts on code in Visual Studio.

Product Details

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Publication date : Jul 27, 2016
Length: 476 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781786467300
Vendor :
Microsoft
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Product Details

Publication date : Jul 27, 2016
Length: 476 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781786467300
Vendor :
Microsoft
Category :
Languages :

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Table of Contents

14 Chapters
1. New Features in C# 6.0 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Classes and Generics Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Object-Oriented Programming in C# Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Composing Event-Based Programs Using Reactive Extensions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Create Microservices on Azure Service Fabric Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Making Apps Responsive with Asynchronous Programming Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. High Performance Programming Using Parallel and Multithreading in C# Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Code Contracts Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Regular Expressions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Choosing and Using a Source Control Strategy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
11. Creating a Mobile Application in Visual Studio Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
12. Writing Secure Code and Debugging in Visual Studio Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
13. Creating a Web Application in Azure Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
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