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Murach’s C# 2008

The first thing to note about this book and its VB.NET companion title, Murach’s Visual Basic 2008 by Anne Boehm, is that the books are more different than most books that come in both C# and VB.NET versions. Granted, the differences are not great — the examples are the same, and the text is mostly the same — but the organization is a bit different. For instance, in the C# version, object-oriented programming is covered before database programming, but in the Visual Basic version of the book, the order of these topics is reversed. Rather than simply convert the samples between C# and VB.NET, it is clear that the authors gave some thought as to the different needs of C# and VB.NET programmers.

This is an excellent book for beginners. Section One starts with the basics of working with Visual Studio and getting a simple program working, and the book builds from there. It even has an appendix that describes how to install Visual Studio and SQL Server Express, and how to download and connect to the sample database used in the book. It has lots of detailed instructions, and does everything in a step by step manner. It also is a very thorough book; even as an experienced C# programmer, I picked up a new trick every few pages. All books at this level show how to create new methods, but as an example of how Murach goes the extra mile, this book also shows how to rename a variable using Visual Studio’s refactoring tool. In Chapter 6, Murach also shows how to use the refactoring tool to create a method from an existing block of code.

The second section covers the basics of the C# language, expanding into arrays and collections. I especially like that it covers strings and dates at a level that is useful for everyday programming. I may keep this book handy just for the information it has on formatting dates, which I still find difficult to get just right. This is where Murach introduces debugging using Visual Studio, again covering details many books neglect.

The third section covers object-oriented programming, from the basics to nested and partial classes, and how to use classes to organize applications. It also shows how to use Visual Studio to automatically create class diagrams. I like how this book teaches not only C#, but Visual Studio, as well. This is important, because for most programmers, .NET programming is as much about Visual Studio as it is about .NET or C#.

The fourth section starts with a quick overview of client-server databases, then shows how to query data from a single table as well as from multiple joined tables. This section continues by demonstrating how to connect to databases and retrieve data by having Visual Studio do the hard work. It also covers all the ADO.NET data classes and how they work together, and how to bind data to all the .NET controls — including controls like the DataGrid control, which can display whole tables, and those like the TextBox control, which can only display a single value. Next, Murach’s C# 2008 delves in to more advanced techniques, like parameterized queries and using the ToolStrip control to allow users to create their own queries. The section closes by detailing how to do by hand all the work that Visual Studio had been doing for us (note that most programmers creating real-world database applications do this work by hand because they need the added control over the details).

The final section is titled “Other skills for C# developers,” and has five chapters. Chapters 21 and 22 cover reading and writing text, binary, and XML files. Chapter 23 covers the new LINQ database technologies in .NET 3.5 (you’ll need a book just on LINQ to really get an understanding of this, but Murach provides a good introduction). Chapter 24 provides more information about user interfaces, including single and multi-document interfaces, menus, toolbars, and adding help to an application. The final chapter covers how to deploy an application after you’ve built it, including XCopy deployment of Windows applications, and ClickOnce deployment of Web applications. It continues with creating set-up programs, and ends with deploying database applications.

This is probably the best introductory book I’ve seen on programming .NET. It is aimed at a college-level audience who knows nothing about programming. It assumes nothing, but gets straight to the point, with no pandering. It explains everything in detail, but never wastes time sugar-coating anything. This book is not for the advanced .NET programmer, but it doesn’t try to be. It simply tries to be the best introductory book on C#, and it may well have reached that goal.

— Dennis Hayes

Rating: ééééé

Title: Murach’s C# 2008

Author: Joel Murach

Publisher: Murach

ISBN: 978-1-890774-46-2

Web Site: http://www.murach.com

Price: US$52.50

Page Count: 816