C# in Depth

is a completely new book designed to propel existing C# developers to a higher level of programming skill. One simple principle drives this book: explore a few things deeply rather than offer a shallow view of the whole C# landscape. If you often find yourself wanting just a little more at the end of a typical chapter, this is the book for you.

Expert author Jon Skeet dives into the C# language, plumbing new C# 2 and 3 features and probing the core C# language concepts that drive them. This unique book puts the new features into context of how C# has evolved without a lengthy rehearsal of the full C# language.

C# in Depth briefly examines the history of C# and the .NET framework and reviews a few often-misunderstood C# 1 concepts that are very important as the foundation for fully exploiting C# 2 and 3. Because the book addresses C# 1 with a light touch, existing C# developers don't need to pick through the book in order to find new material to enhance their skills.

This book focuses on the C# 2 and 3 versions of the language, but clearly explains where features are supported by changes in the runtime (CLR) or use new framework classes. Each feature gets a thorough explanation, along with a look on how you'd use it in real life applications.

C# in Depth is both a vehicle for learning C# 2 and 3 and a reference work. Although the coverage is in-depth, the text is always accessible: You'll explore pitfalls that can trip you up, but you'll skip over gnarly details best left to the language specification. The overall effect is that readers become not just proficient in C# 2 and 3, but comfortable that they truly understand the language.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 35 Ratings

Excellent C# book - 2009-06-17
Reviewer Rating:
This is one of the best computer books that I have ever read. Reading this book was like reading a fast paced action packed thriller, where each chapter opens you to new mysteries and then everything culminates together into an interesting climax in chapter 11, 12 and 13. This book is written for people who already have fairly good understanding of core language concepts and want to get deeper understanding of those concepts and also understand the evolution of those concepts from 1.0 to 2.0 to 3.0 with a historical perspective. This book is for people who want to, as author always likes say, "improve their relation with their language".

This book has razor sharp focus on the advanced concepts of C# only, starting from 1.0 to 3.0. It does not waste time and pages in explaining CLS and CTS and such. It dives straight into things like Delegates, boxing/unboxing, Parameterized typing, nullable types, iterators, static classes, anonymous/implicit typing, expression trees/lambda expression and extension methods. It then uses all these concepts to explain LINQ to Objects, LINQ to SQL and LINQ to XML. In the process it also explains functional way of thinking and programming.

Excellent - 2009-11-17
Reviewer Rating:
Highly recommended. Excellently written. To those who wanted C# 1 and 2 left out, I say seeing the progression of the language in such a deliberate way was one of the best features of the book. In the real world, I deal with a mish-mash of legacy and more recent code in the same code base that is written with C# 1, 2 and 3 idioms. No one had time to upgrade all C# 1 and 2 code to 3 standards and/or "shortcuts". This has helped me to know which is the most recent way to code for the desired result, so I can confidently update what is just legacy code using outdated constructs. I started coding C# with 2, and now 3, but inherited some C# 1 code, and I was confused for a long while on which idioms were the most recent best practices. This book connected a LOT of dots for me. Also the C# 1 coverage is very minimal -- he only covers what is going to be changed, superseded or improved by C# 2 and/or C# 3. This book was just what I wanted: a fantastic and solid intro to all advanced C# language features. And I agree with the author that you will miss many points if you don't understand at least the basics of the historical narrative about why the language was changed. That said, if I had had advanced understanding of C# 1 and 2, and only wanted C# 3, yes, this book would have been a little less useful, and I could then understand the desire for even more detail on C# 3.

If you're serious about C#, "C# in Depth" is a must-read - 2009-09-27
Reviewer Rating:


C# in Depth is not for beginners. It assumes a working knowledge of C# 1.0, and is not so much a tutorial of C# 2 and 3 features as an in-depth examination of how and why they work.

I don't think I learned anything I didn't know about using generics, extension methods, delegates, anonymous methods and lambdas, but Skeet does a great job of zooming in on the inner workings of each of these features, building up to the big picture of how they all snap together to make the game-changing programming paradigm that is LINQ. It's like a DVD of your favorite movie with behind-the-scenes features that show how the cool special effects were created.

When he says "in depth", he's not kidding. After re-emerging from the Marianas Trench level examination of expression trees to the C# surface level discussion of LINQ, I got a case of "the bends".

The book reminds me of Silverlight "Deep Zoom". As we zoom in and out between high-level syntax descriptions to low-level minutiae, everything is always kept in sharp focus, thanks to the considerable skills of the author.

I understand Jon Skeet is hard at work on updates to the book for C#4. When that comes out, I wish there would be a free upgrade to the book that I could download (I don't think that's going to happen ;) ), but that's one book that I'm sure will be well worth the price.

If you're serious about C#, "C# in Depth" is a must-read.

I can't say enough about this book - 2009-09-06
Reviewer Rating:
This is an absolutely brilliant book. This book is so well written and so much fun to read you will want to read every book from Jon Skeet... I looked him up and unfortunately, his other books deal with languages and topics I'm not interested in... bummer.

.NET Developer Group Coban - 2009-07-02
Reviewer Rating:
Es importante enriquecernos de la tecnolog-ía que hoy en d-ía existe, la programaci-ón cada d-ía crece y con este libro puedo aprender un poco mas aunque sinceramente es un poco dif-ícil por el idioma.

Ser-ía importante que llevara algunos im genes o elementos de lo que se est  explicando para un mejor aprendizaje (esto ayudar-ía a los principiantes).

Blanca Estela

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