Sams Teach Yourself C# in 24 Hours

By James Foxall and Wendy Haro-Chun

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Authors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • Audience and Organization
  • Conventions Used in This Book
  • Onward and Upward!
  • Part I. The Visual Studio Environment
  • Hour 1. A C# Programming Tour
  • Hour 2. Navigating C#
  • Hour 3. Understanding Objects and Collections
  • Hour 4. Understanding Events
  • Part II. Building a User Interface
  • Hour 5. Building FormsPart I
  • Hour 6. Building FormsPart II
  • Hour 7. Working with the Traditional Controls
  • Hour 8. Advanced Controls
  • Hour 9. Adding Menus and Toolbars to Forms
  • Hour 10. Drawing and Printing
  • Part III. Making Things HappenProgramming!
  • Hour 11. Creating and Calling Methods
  • Hour 12. Using Constants, Data Types, Variables, and Arrays
  • Hour 13. Performing Arithmetic, String Manipulation, and Date/Time Adjustments
  • Hour 14. Making Decisions in C# Code
  • Hour 15. Looping for Efficiency
  • Hour 16. Debugging Your Code
  • Hour 17. Designing Objects Using Classes
  • Hour 18. Interacting with Users
  • Part IV. Working with Data
  • Hour 19. Performing File Operations
  • Hour 20. Controlling Other Applications Using Automation
  • Hour 21. Working with a Database
  • Part V. Deploying Solutions and Beyond
  • Hour 22. Deploying a Solution
  • Hour 23. Introduction to Web Development
  • Hour 24. The 10,000-Foot View
    • The .NET Framework
    • Common Language Runtime ( CLR )
    • Microsoft Intermediate Language
    • Namespaces
    • Common Type System
    • Garbage Collection
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • Appendix A. Answers to Quizzes/Exercises

Common Type System

The Common Type System in the CLR is the component that defines how data types are declared and used. The fact that the CLR can support cross-language integration to the level it does is largely because of the Common Type System. In the past, each language used its own data types and managed data in its own way. This made it very difficult for applications developed in different languages to communicate, because no standard way existed in which to pass data between them.

The Common Type System ensures that all .NET applications use the same data types, provides for self-describing type information (called metadata), and controls all the data manipulation mechanisms so that data is handled (stored and processed) in the same way among all .NET applications. This allows data (including objects) to be treated the same way in all .NET languages.

Share This