A perfectly crafted prep guide that prepares you for the MCSD 70-483 The MCSD 70-483 exam is the entry-level Microsoft certification exam for C# developers and this must-have resource offers essential coverage of the exam that will test your competency in C# programming. Each chapter covers one of the core subject domains that comprise the exam. Among the authors are experienced trainers who advised Microsoft on the development of its certification programs, affording them a unique understanding of both the objectives and what it takes to master them. This invaluable knowledge is passed to you so that you will not only be prepared to take the exam, but also become a better C# developer Features a step-by-step lab tutorial for each lesson covered in the book, encouraging you to practice what you've just learned in order to reinforce your learning Includes an accompanying website that includes more than 100 simulated test questions and answers Shares solutions to the hands-on labs presented in the book Contains complete sample code Offers a unique author approach that not only teaches you how to answer a set of exam questions but also provides you with an understanding of the underlying concepts and skills needed to succeed as a professional C# programmer MCSD Certification Toolkit is all you need to fully prepare for exam 70-483!

Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION xxvii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCING THE PROGRAMMING C# CERTIFICATION 1 Getting Certified 1 Why Get Certified? 2 What Is MS Certification? 4 Certification Changes 5 The Initial Certifications (Version One) 5 A New Generation of Certifications (Version 2) 6 The Current Microsoft Certifications (Version 3) 6 Other Microsoft Certifications: The MTA 7 Things to Know About the Test 8 How the Test Is Created 8 How Questions Are Written 9 How to Study for the Exam Using This Book 11 Prep Guide 11 Functional Groups 11 Practice Questions 12 Preparation 12 The 70-483 Objectives 12 Manage Program Flow (25 Percent) 12 Implement Multithreading and Asynchronous Processing 13 Manage Multithreading 13 Implement Program Flow 13 Create and Implement Events and Callbacks 13 Implement Exception Handling 13 Create and Use Types (24 Percent) 13 Create Types 13 Consume Types 14 Enforce Encapsulation 14 Create and Implement a Class Hierarchy 14 Find, Execute, and Create Types at Runtime Using Reflection 14 Manage the Object Life Cycle 14 Manipulate Strings 14 Debug Applications and Implement Security (25 Percent) 14 Validate Application Input 15 Perform Symmetric and Asymmetric Encryption 15 Manage Assemblies 15 Debug an Application 15 Implement Diagnostics in an Application 15 Implement Data Access (26 Percent) 15 Perform I/O Operations 15 Consume Data 16 Query and Manipulate Data and Objects by Using LINQ 16 Serialize and Deserialize Data 16 Store Data in and Retrieve Data from Collections 16 Summary 16 Additional Reading and Resources 17 CHAPTER 2: BASIC PROGRAM STRUCTURE 19 Writing Your First Program 20 Exploring the Structure of the Program 21 Understanding Simple Statements 21 Understanding Complex Statements 23 Controlling Program Flow 24 Conditional Instructions 25 Boolean Expressions 28 Making Decisions in Code 29 if Statements 30 Beyond Basic if Statements 35 switch statements 36 Using Loops 38 for statements 39 Nested for Loops 42 foreach statements 43 while statements 45 do-while statements 46 Summary 51 Test Questions 51 Additional Reading and Resources 53 Cheat Sheet 54 Review of Key Terms 56 CHAPTER 3: WORKING WITH THE TYPE SYSTEM 59 Creating Value Types 61 Understanding Predefi ned Value Types 61 Working with Data Structures 66 Working with Enumerations 72 Creating Reference Types 76 Understanding Modifiers 77 Defining Fields 79 Using Constructors 81 Defining Methods 82 Overloaded Methods 88 Abstract and Overridden Methods 90 Extension Methods 92 Optional and Named Parameters 94 Understanding Encapsulation 95 Properties 96 Enforced Encapsulation by Using Properties 97 Indexed Properties 101 Understanding Generic Types and Generic Methods 102 Defining Generic Types 103 Using Generic Types 103 Defining Generic Methods 103 Using Generic Methods 104 Summary 105 Chapter Test Questions 106 Additional Reading and Resources 108 Cheat Sheet 109 Review of Key Terms 111 CHAPTER 4: USING TYPES 113 Converting Between Types 114 Using Widening and Narrowing Conversions 114 Using Implicit and Explicit Conversions 116 Casting 117 The is Operator 118 The as Operator 118 Casting Arrays 119 Converting Values 122 Parsing Methods 122 System.Convert 127 System.BitConverter 128 Boxing and Unboxing Value Types 128 Ensuring Interoperability with Unmanaged Code 130 Handling Dynamic Types 133 Manipulating Strings 137 Behind the Strings 138 String Constructors 138 String Fields and Properties 139 String Methods 140 Additional String Classes 144 StringBuilder 145 StringWriter 147 StringReader 147 Formatting Values 149 ToString 150 String.Format 150 Formatting Strings 151 Summary 153 Test Questions 154 Additional Reading and Resources 156 Cheat Sheet 157 Review of Key Terms 158 CHAPTER 5: CREATING AND IMPLEMENTING CLASS HIERARCHIES 161 Inheriting from a Base Class 162 Calling Parent Class Constructors 164 Calling Same Class Constructors 165 Designing and Implementing Interfaces 171 Defining Interfaces 173 Implementing Interfaces 174 Delegating Interfaces 175 Implementing Common Interfaces 176 IComparable 177 IComparer 179 IEquatable 182 ICloneable 183 IEnumerable 185 Managing Object Life Cycle 190 Implementing the IDisposable Interface 190 Providing Destructors 191 Using the using Statement 197 Summary 199 Test Questions 199 Additional Reading and Resources 202 Cheat Sheet 203 Review of Key Terms 205 CHAPTER 6: WORKING WITH DELEGATES, EVENTS, AND EXCEPTIONS 207 Working with Delegates 208 Delegates 208 Delegate Details 211 Static and Instance Methods 212 Covariance and Contravariance 214 Built-in Delegate Types 215 Action Delegates 216 Func Delegates 216 Anonymous Methods 217 Lambda Expressions 218 Expression Lambdas 218 Statement Lambdas 221 Async Lambdas 222 Working with Events 223 Publishing Events 224 Predefi ned Event Types 225 Event Best Practices 225 Event Inheritance 227 Subscribing and Unsubscribing to Events 230 Using Code to Subscribe to an Event 230 Using Designer to Subscribe to an Event 231 Exception Handling 234 Error Checking and Exception Handling 234 try-catch-fi nally Blocks 235 Unhandled Exceptions 238 Common Exception Types 240 SQL Exceptions 242 Overfl ow Exceptions 244 Exception Properties 246 Throwing and Rethrowing Exceptions 248 Using Exceptions and Return Values 248 Catching, Throwing, and Rethrowing Exceptions 249 Creating Custom Exceptions 251 Making Assertions 252 Summary 253 Chapter Test Questions 253 Additional Reading and Resources 258 Cheat Sheet 259 Review of Key Terms 262 CHAPTER 7: MULTITHREADING AND ASYNCHRONOUS PROCESSING 265 Creating Responsive Applications 266 Working with Threads 267 Spawning New Threads by Using ThreadPool 273 Unblocking the UI 276 BackgroundWorker Class 276 Multithreaded Windows Forms Applications 279 Multithreaded WPF Applications 280 Working with the Task Parallel Library 281 Introducing Task 282 Creating Tasks 284 Working with the Scheduler 288 Using the Parallel Class 288 Working with Continuations 291 Programming Asynchronous Applications with C# 5.0 293 Exploring Advanced Multithreading Programming Topics 297 Synchronizing Resources 298 Synchronization Events 298 Barriers 302 Using Locking Mechanisms 304 Monitors 305 Lock-Free Alternatives 306 Working with Concurrent Collections 308 Working with Cancellations 309 Summary 311 Chapter Test Questions 312 Additional Reading and Resources 314 Cheat Sheet 315 Review of Key Terms 316 CHAPTER 8: CREATING AND USING TYPES WITH REFLECTION, CUSTOM ATTRIBUTES, THE CODEDOM, AND LAMBDA EXPRESSIONS 319 Using the System.Reflection Namespace 320 Assembly Class 321 The System.Type Class 325 GetArrayRank 328 GetConstructors 328 GetEnumName, GetEnumNames, and GetEnumValues 329 GetField and GetFields 330 GetProperty and GetProperties 332 GetMethod and GetMethods 332 Read and Create Custom Attributes 335 Read Attributes 335 Create Attributes 337 Generate Code Using the CodeDOM Namespace 340 CodeCompileUnit 344 CodeNamespace and CodeNamespaceImport 344 CodeTypeDeclaration 345 CodeMemberField 345 CodeMemberProperty 345 CodeMemberMethod 347 CodeParameterDeclarationExpression and CodeMethodInvokeExpression 348 CodeDOMProvider 348 Lambda Expressions 349 Delegates 349 Anonymous Methods 351 Lambda Expressions 351 Summary 352 Chapter Test Questions 353 Additional Reading and Resources 357 Cheat Sheet 358 Review of Key Terms 359 CHAPTER 9: WORKING WITH DATA 361 Working with Data Collections 362 Arrays 362 Collections 365 System.Collections 365 System.Collections.Generic 371 Custom Collections 374 Consuming Data 377 Working with ADO.NET 377 Connection 377 Command 379 DataSet, DataTable, and DataAdapter 384 Working with the ADO.NET Entity Framework 388 Create an Entity Framework Model 388 Select Records 391 Insert Records 392 Update Records 393 Delete Records 393 Call a Stored Procedure 393 Creating WCF Data Services 394 Create a WCF Data Service 395 Create a Client Application That Uses WCF Data Services 400 Request Data as JSON in a Client Application 403 Performing I/O Operations 404 Files and Directories 405 Streams 408 Readers and Writers 410 Asynchronous I/O Operations 414 Understanding Serialization 416 Binary Serialization 416 XML Serialization 417 JSON Serialization 418 Custom Serialization 419 Summary 421 Chapter Test Questions 422 Additional Reading and Resources 427 Cheat Sheet 428 Review of Key Terms 429 CHAPTER 10: WORKING WITH LANGUAGE INTEGRATED QUERY (LINQ) 431 Understanding Query Expressions 432 Filtering 434 Ordering 436 Projection 437 Joining 438 Grouping 443 Understanding Method-Based LINQ Queries 445 Filtering 445 Ordering 446 Projection 446 Joining 449 Grouping 454 Aggregate Functions 455 first and last 456 Concatenation 457 Skip and Take 459 Distinct 459 Utilizing LINQ to XML 461 Summary 462 Chapter Test Questions 463 Additional Reading and Resources 465 Review of Key Terms 467 CHAPTER 11: INPUT VALIDATION, DEBUGGING, AND INSTRUMENTATION 469 Input Validation 470 Avoiding Validation 470 Triggering Validations 471 Validating Data 472 Using Built-in Functions 473 Using String Methods 474 Using Regular Expressions 475 Using Sanity Checks 483 Managing Data Integrity 494 Using Database Validations 494 Using Assertions 494 Debugging 497 Preprocessor Directives 498 #define and #undef 498 #if, #elif, #else, and #endif 498 #warning and #error 500 #line 500 #region and #endregion 500 #pragma warning 501 #pragma checksum 503 Predefined Compiler Constants 503 Debug and Trace 504 Debug and Trace Objects 505 Listeners 506 Programming Database Files 508 Instrumenting Applications 509 Tracing 509 Logging and Event Logs 509 Profiling 511 Using a Profiler 511 Profiling by Hand 513 Using Performance Counters 514 Summary 517 Chapter Test Questions 518 Additional Reading and Resources 521 Cheat Sheet 522 Review of Key Terms 525 CHAPTER 12: USING ENCRYPTION AND MANAGING ASSEMBLIES 527 Using Encryption 528 Choosing an Appropriate Encryption Algorithm 529 Symmetric Encryption 529 Asymmetric Encryption 534 Stream Encryption 536 Hashing Data 538 Managing and Creating Certificates 542 Implementing Key Management 547 Choosing When to Use Which 548 Managing Assemblies 551 What Is an Assembly? 551 Understanding Assembly Versions 552 Signing Assemblies Using Strong Names 555 Implementing Side-by-Side Versioning 558 Adding Assemblies to the Global Assembly Cache 562 Summary 564 Chapter Test Questions 564 Additional Reading and Resources 567 Cheat Sheet 568 Review of Key Terms 569 APPENDIX: ANSWERS TO SAMPLE TEST QUESTIONS 571 Chapter 1: Introducing the Programming in C# Certification 571 Chapter 2: Basic Program Structure 571 Chapter 3: Working with the Type System 572 Chapter 4: Using Types 573 Chapter 5: Creating and Implementing Class Hierarchies 574 Chapter 6: Working with Delegates, Events, and Exceptions 575 Chapter 7: Multithreading and Asynchronous Processing 577 Chapter 8: Creating and Using Types with Refl ection, Custom Attributes, the CodeDOM, and Lambda Expressions 578 Chapter 9: Working with Data 580 Chapter 10: Working with Language Integrated Query (LINQ) 582 Chapter 11: Input Validation, Debugging, and Instrumentation 584 Chapter 12: Using Encryption and Managing Assemblies 585 INDEX 587