NOTE

This chapter is rather long, but don't allow it to be intimidating. In order to cater to a wider audience, this chapter covers as much C# base material as reasonably possible. If you're proficient with either C++ or Java, you may find yourself skimming this chapter and referencing it as you read subsequent chapters. Some of the topics touched upon in this chapter are covered in more detail in later chapters.

The first section of this chapter covers class (reference type) definitions, which is followed by a section discussing structure (value type) definitions. These are the two most fundamental classifications of types in the .NET runtime. Then you'll learn about System.Object (the base type of all types), the nuances of creating and destroying instances of objects, expressions for initializing objects, and the topic of boxing and unboxing. I then cover newer C# features such as anonymous types and named and optional arguments. Finally, I cover inheritance and polymorphism, and the differences between inheritance and containment with regard to code reuse.