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  3. What book would you recommend to learn C# from 0?

What book would you recommend to learn C# from 0?

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  • L Lost User

    OriginalGriff wrote:

    t has it's uses - you can;t do Linq without it

    Linq is itself too often used/abused when often it's really not necessary at all, it's backward syntax order is a PITA for those of us that work in multiple languages and later need to unravel some newbies 'I can do it all in one line' compound statements. I'd not loose a second sleep if it were removed entirely.

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    OriginalGriffO Offline
    OriginalGriffO Offline
    OriginalGriff
    wrote on last edited by
    #22

    I completely agree on the syntax - that's why I use the methods instead - but Linq does have some advantages over the "loads of loops" approach! :-D

    Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

    "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
    "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

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    • J Joan M

      Hi all, Coming from Visual C++. I'll have a little bit of time in a while and I'd love learning C#... Which book would you recommend me? Thank you! :thumbsup:

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      Tomaz Stih 0
      wrote on last edited by
      #23

      I know this is not exactly an answer to your question, but I would warmly recommend the following: 1) Job interview questions as by far the best source of condensed information about very handy C# features. A 100 questions interview is worth 314 pages in a book. 2) F..k Occam's razor. Complicate! Go to Stack Exchange and check three solutions to your problem, even if you know how to solve it. It helps build your skills beyond trivial. 3) Twitter for practicing code optimization.

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      • P Pete OHanlon

        If you really want to get to the core of C#, I would recommend this book[^].

        This space for rent

        S Offline
        S Offline
        Simon_Whale
        wrote on last edited by
        #24

        Can't recommend that book enough.

        Every day, thousands of innocent plants are killed by vegetarians. Help end the violence EAT BACON

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        • J Joan M

          Hi all, Coming from Visual C++. I'll have a little bit of time in a while and I'd love learning C#... Which book would you recommend me? Thank you! :thumbsup:

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          danm36
          wrote on last edited by
          #25

          If you want something that starts at the core of C# and - to a degree - programming, I'll have to recommend Rob Miles' Yellow Book[^]. It certainly helped me learn C# quite thoroughly, although I'll have to admit that he was one of my lecturers when I attended university.

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          • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

            I'd disagree to an extent: they ripped C++ to bits when they first created C# and got rid of a lot of the "dangerous" stuff - memory leak causes and so on - to create a simpler language that was faster to develop with than native C++ as a result. Since then, they have been layering on more complexity - some of it useful and justified, some of it badly abused. It's perhaps getting to the point where C# needs to be ripped apart and the same exercise done again (.NET Core would have been a good opportunity to do this)

            Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

            F Offline
            F Offline
            Fabio Franco
            wrote on last edited by
            #26

            OriginalGriff wrote:

            C# needs to be ripped apart and the same exercise done again

            Couldn't agree more. It's getting so bloated and ugly that it's starting to look like C++.

            To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia

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            • J Jon McKee

              I'd also agree on "C# in a Nutshell" by Joseph and Ben Albahari. If you ever really want to take a deep dive into C# and the CLR I highly recommend "CLR via C#" by Jeffrey Richter. In the meantime though, the Microsoft Docs on C#[^] are quite good to start off with :thumbsup:

              F Offline
              F Offline
              Fabio Franco
              wrote on last edited by
              #27

              Jon McKee wrote:

              "CLR via C#"

              This book is awesome. Must read for an in depth understanding of C# on top of .net.

              To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia

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              • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                It has it's uses - you can;t do Linq without it - but when you get lazy f'wits using it on every variable definition it's a PITA for maintenance:

                var i = 666;

                Is just lazy.

                var p = ComplicatedFunctionInAnotherClass(long, list, of, parameters);

                Is lazy, stupid, and uncaring of maintenance or the poor sod who will have to do it.

                Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

                D Offline
                D Offline
                dandy72
                wrote on last edited by
                #28

                I agree with using a var for what clearly should be an int. Or should it be a long? Or a 64-bit unsigned int? As for your 'p' example--it all depends on what you do with it next. If you just need to hang on to it so you can eventually return it from the current function, or to pass it as a param to another function, then under those circumstances I'd say the exact type shouldn't matter to a reader.

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                • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                  I completely agree on the syntax - that's why I use the methods instead - but Linq does have some advantages over the "loads of loops" approach! :-D

                  Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

                  M Offline
                  M Offline
                  Member 13046479
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #29

                  Agreed! Linq makes things easier to write, easier to maintain, easier to understand, and just makes code 'prettier'. I cannot stand ugly code!

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                  • G Gary Wheeler

                    Pro C# 6.0 and the .NET 4.6 Platform[^] by Andrew Troelsen. I've not read this edition (I have the VS2008 version), but it was a very good introduction.

                    Software Zen: delete this;

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                    C Offline
                    Clinton Gallagher
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #30

                    I agree Troelsen's book is very good BUT as a former instructor NOTHING beats a textbook with structured lessons. Deitel and Deitel are arguably the best textbook publishers and "C# A Programmer's Introduction" is what I would recommend to get started from scratch. Expensive but worth it if you are disciplined enough to do every excercise as if you were in school else a waste of money that will end up on the shelf next to Troelsen's "C# and the .NET Platform."

                    Clinton Gallagher

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                    • J Joan M

                      Hi all, Coming from Visual C++. I'll have a little bit of time in a while and I'd love learning C#... Which book would you recommend me? Thank you! :thumbsup:

                      T Offline
                      T Offline
                      tchris
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #31

                      This one helped me got off the ground running.

                      1 Reply Last reply
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                      • J Joan M

                        Hi all, Coming from Visual C++. I'll have a little bit of time in a while and I'd love learning C#... Which book would you recommend me? Thank you! :thumbsup:

                        T Offline
                        T Offline
                        tchris
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #32

                        This one helped me get off the ground https://www.murach.com/shop/murach-s-c-2015-detail

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • J Joan M

                          Hi all, Coming from Visual C++. I'll have a little bit of time in a while and I'd love learning C#... Which book would you recommend me? Thank you! :thumbsup:

                          T Offline
                          T Offline
                          tchris
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #33

                          Murach's C# 2015[^]

                          1 Reply Last reply
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                          • J Joan M

                            Hi all, Coming from Visual C++. I'll have a little bit of time in a while and I'd love learning C#... Which book would you recommend me? Thank you! :thumbsup:

                            T Offline
                            T Offline
                            tchris
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #34

                            This one helped me get off the ground - [MurachBooks](https://www.murach.com/shop/murach-s-c-2015-detail). Its URL is https://www.murach.com/shop/murach-s-c-2015-detail

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • J Joan M

                              Hi all, Coming from Visual C++. I'll have a little bit of time in a while and I'd love learning C#... Which book would you recommend me? Thank you! :thumbsup:

                              P Offline
                              P Offline
                              pschaeffer
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #35

                              Hi, I have had good luck with the "Dummies" books. I needed to learn C++ in two days and the "Dummies" book was right on target. I also got a lot of value from the Python "Dummies" book. Try C# for Dummies.

                              1 Reply Last reply
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                              • J Joan M

                                Hi all, Coming from Visual C++. I'll have a little bit of time in a while and I'd love learning C#... Which book would you recommend me? Thank you! :thumbsup:

                                B Offline
                                B Offline
                                BotReject
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #36

                                It depends what you mean by 'from 0'. If you have C++ experience it may not be necessary to start right from the bottom. The most interesting one I have read, though a little advanced, is Accelerated C# 2010 by Trey Nash. That said, I rarely use C# these days as i have jumped ship to Java and JavaScript / PHP, so I may not be the best person to ask! The hardest part of C# to learn, in my experience, is delegates and the above book explains these well. In fact i never understood delegates at all until I read Trey's book. personally, though, I prefer the way Java handles events, I find this more intuitive.

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                                • F Fabio Franco

                                  Jon McKee wrote:

                                  "CLR via C#"

                                  This book is awesome. Must read for an in depth understanding of C# on top of .net.

                                  To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia

                                  D Offline
                                  D Offline
                                  Davyd McColl
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #37

                                  This is the best choice, especially if you're coming from native c++. You need to learn not just the c# language, but how to use it effectively on the .net platform. I also came from c++ to c# via this book.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • J Joan M

                                    Hi all, Coming from Visual C++. I'll have a little bit of time in a while and I'd love learning C#... Which book would you recommend me? Thank you! :thumbsup:

                                    D Offline
                                    D Offline
                                    Davyd McColl
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #38

                                    CLR via c#[^] Especially if you're coming from native c++, you're looking to learn not just the c# language, but how to effectively use it on the .net platform.

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • J Joan M

                                      Hi all, Coming from Visual C++. I'll have a little bit of time in a while and I'd love learning C#... Which book would you recommend me? Thank you! :thumbsup:

                                      A Offline
                                      A Offline
                                      azamkhon
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #39

                                      Hi! I think the best book is LINK[^]

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                                      • G Gary Wheeler

                                        Pro C# 6.0 and the .NET 4.6 Platform[^] by Andrew Troelsen. I've not read this edition (I have the VS2008 version), but it was a very good introduction.

                                        Software Zen: delete this;

                                        J Offline
                                        J Offline
                                        James Lonero
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #40

                                        I would second Troelsen. I had a class that used Troelsen's book in 2005 when VS2005 and .Net 2.0 was in vogue. He does a good job of explaining the subject. Be sure to read the first few chapters, then go to where you can start programming windows programs, either forms or WPF. (Forms is easier.) There are other books out there, but they are more for reference than taking you step by step.

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                                        • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                                          I'd disagree to an extent: they ripped C++ to bits when they first created C# and got rid of a lot of the "dangerous" stuff - memory leak causes and so on - to create a simpler language that was faster to develop with than native C++ as a result. Since then, they have been layering on more complexity - some of it useful and justified, some of it badly abused. It's perhaps getting to the point where C# needs to be ripped apart and the same exercise done again (.NET Core would have been a good opportunity to do this)

                                          Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

                                          J Offline
                                          J Offline
                                          James Lonero
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #41

                                          Actually, they simplified C++, as did Java. C++ was getting quite complicated and watching Bjarne Stroustrup running through the variations of template examples was enough to make your head swim. Both Java and C# are good attempts to simplify what C++ has become. Also, most people decided to take up C# because of the pointer problems with C++. Too many times, a raw pointer would be missed or deleted too soon and problems would arise. This was occurring in much larger programs. So, I am happy (so far) with C#.

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