Christian Nagel is a Microsoft MVP for Visual Studio and Development Technologies, software architect, and veteran developer who has been building solutions with .NET technologies since 2000. He has authored many acclaimed .NET books, and he also speaks at such international conferences as Ignite (formerly TechEd) and Tech Days. A supporter of .NET user groups, Christian is a Microsoft Certified Trainer and Professional Developer for WinUI and .NET MAUI Apps, [...] Core, and Microsoft Azure.

Introduction xxxix

Part I: The C# Language

Chapter 1: .NET Applications and Tools 3

From .NET Framework to .NET Core to .NET 3

.NET Terms 4

.NET Support Length 9

Application Types and Technologies 10

Microsoft Azure 12

Developer Tools 14

Using the .NET CLI 16

Summary 23

Chapter 2: Core C# 24

Fundamentals of C# 25

Nullable Types 30

Using Predefined Types 33

Controlling Program Flow 37

Organization with Namespaces 44

Working with Strings 45

Comments 49

C# Preprocessor Directives 51

C# Programming Guidelines 54

Summary 58

Chapter 3: Classes, Records, Structs, and Tuples 59

Creating and Using Types 60

Pass by Value or by Reference 60

Classes 62

Records 77

Structs 79

Enum Types 80

ref, in, and out 83

Tuples 86

ValueTuple 88

Deconstruction 88

Pattern Matching 89

Partial Types 92

Summary 94

Chapter 4: Object-Oriented Programming in C# 95

Object Orientation 96

Inheritance with Classes 96

Modifiers 104

Inheritance with Records 106

Using Interfaces 107

Generics 115

Summary 118

Chapter 5: Operators and Casts 119

Operators 120

Using Binary Operators 127

Type Safety 132

Operator Overloading 136

Comparing Objects for Equality 139

Implementing Custom Indexers 142

User-Defined Conversions 143

Summary 152

Chapter 6: Arrays 153

Multiple Objects of the Same Type 154

Simple Arrays 154

Multidimensional Arrays 157

Jagged Arrays 158

Array Class 159

Arrays as Parameters 163

Enumerators 163

Using Span with Arrays 167

Indices and Ranges 170

Array Pools 172

BitArray 174

Summary 176

Chapter 7: Delegates, Lambdas, and Events 177

Referencing Methods 178

Delegates 178

Lambda Expressions 187

Events 189

Summary 192

Chapter 8: Collections 193

Overview 194

Collection Interfaces and Types 194

Lists 195

Stacks 206

Linked Lists 208

Sorted List 209

Dictionaries 211

Sets 218

Performance 220

Immutable Collections 222

Summary 225

Chapter 9: Language Integrated Query 226

LINQ Overview 227

Standard Query Operators 233

Parallel LINQ 256

Expression Trees 258

LINQ Providers 261

Summary 262

Chapter 10: Errors and Exceptions 263

Handling Errors 264

Predefined Exception Classes 264

Catching Exceptions 265

User-Defined Exception Classes 278

Caller Information 285

Summary 287

Chapter 11: Tasks and Asynchronous Programming 288

Why Asynchronous Programming Is Important 289

Task-Based Async Pattern 290

Tasks 291

Error Handling 297

Cancellation of async Methods 299

Async Streams 300

Async with Windows Apps 302

Summary 306

Chapter 12: Reflection, Metadata, And Source Generators 307

Inspecting Code at Runtime and Dynamic Programming 308

Custom Attributes 308

Using Reflection 314

Using Dynamic Language Extensions for Reflection 322

ExpandoObject 325

Source Generators 327

Summary 334

Chapter 13: Managed and Unmanaged Memory 335

Memory 336

Memory Management Under the Hood 336

Strong and Weak References 342

Working with Unmanaged Resources 344

Unsafe Code 349

Span 365

Platform Invoke 368

Summary 373

Part II: Libraries

Chapter 14: Libraries, Assemblies, Packages, and Nuget 377

The Hell of Libraries 378

Assemblies 379

Creating and Using Libraries 381

Creating NuGet Packages 386

Module Initializers 390

Summary 391

Chapter 15: Dependency Injection and Configuration 392

What Is Dependency Injection? 393

Using the .NET DI Container 393

Using the Host Class 395

Lifetime of Services 396

Initialization of Services Using Options 403

Using Configuration Files 405

Configuration with .NET Applications 406

Azure App Configuration 411

Summary 418

Chapter 16: Diagnostics and Metrics 419

Diagnostics Overview 420

Logging 421

Metrics 429

Analytics with Visual Studio App Center 434

Application Insights 437

Summary 439

Chapter 17: Parallel Programming 440

Overview 441

Parallel Class 442

Tasks 448

Cancellation Framework 455

Channels 458

Timers 461

Threading Issues 463

Interlocked 468

Monitor 468

SpinLock 469

WaitHandle 470

Mutex 470

Semaphore 471

Events 473

Barrier 476

ReaderWriterLockSlim 479

Locks with await 481

Summary 484

Chapter 18: Files and Streams 485

Overview 486

Managing the File System 486

Iterating Files 492

Working with Streams 493

Using Readers and Writers 503

Compressing Files 505

Watching File Changes 508

JSON Serialization 509

Using Files and Streams with the Windows Runtime 515

Summary 519

Chapter 19: Networking 520

Overview 521

Working with Utility Classes 521

Using Sockets 526

Using TCP Classes 533

Using UDP 537

Using Web Servers 542

The HttpClient Class 548

HttpClient Factory 554

Summary 557

Chapter 20: Security 558

Elements of Security 559

Verifying User Information 559

Encrypting Data 566

Ensuring Web Security 576

Summary 581

Chapter 21: Entity Framework Core 582

Introducing EF Core 583

Creating a Model 593

Scaffolding a Model from the Database 600

Migrations 601

Working with Queries 606

Loading Related Data 612

Working with Relationships 617

Saving Data 625

Conflict Handling 630

Using Transactions 635

Using Azure Cosmos DB 639

Summary 643

Chapter 22: Localization 644

Global Markets 645

Namespace System.Globalization 645

Resources 656

Localization with [...] Core 658

Localization with WinUI 664

Summary 667

Chapter 23: Tests 668

Overview 668

Unit Testing 669

Using a Mocking Library 678

[...] Core Integration Testing 682

Summary 684

Part III: Web Applications and Services

Chapter 24: [...] Core 687

Understanding Web Technologies 687

Creating an [...] Core Web Project 689

Adding Client-Side Content 694

Creating Custom Middleware 696

Endpoint Routing 699

Request and Response 700

Session State 706

Health Checks 708

Deployment 711

Summary 713

Chapter 25: Services 714

Understanding Today's Services 715

REST Services with [...] Core 715

Creating a .NET Client 724

Using EF Core with Services 730

Authentication and Authorization with Azure AD B2C 732

Implementing and Using Services with GRPC 740

Using Azure Functions 748

More Azure Services 751

Summary 751

Chapter 26: Razor Pages and MVC 752

Setting Up Services for Razor Pages and MVC 753

Razor Pages 755

[...] Core MVC 773

Summary 778

Chapter 27: Blazor 779

Blazor Server and Blazor WebAssembly 780

Creating a Blazor Server Web Application 782

Blazor WebAssembly 788

Razor Components 792

Summary 800

Chapter 28: Signalr 801

Overview 801

Creating a Simple Chat Using SignalR 802

Grouping Connections 810

Streaming with SignalR 814

Summary 816

Part IV: Apps

Chapter 29: Windows Apps 819

Introducing Windows Apps 819

Introducing XAML 826

Working with Controls 837

Working with Data Binding 852

Implementing Navigation 861

Implementing Layout Panels 867

Summary 875

Chapter 30: Patterns with XAML Apps 876

Why MVVM? 876

Defining the MVVM Pattern 877

Sample Solution 879

Models 879

Services 882

View Models 883

Views 891

Messaging Using Events 897

Summary 898

Chapter 31: Styling Windows Apps 899

Styling 900

Shapes 900

Geometry 902

Transformation 903

Brushes 906

Styles and Resources 908

Templates 913

Animations 918

Visual State Manager 928

Summary 931

Index 933