As a consultant for the past 20+ years, having worked on every version of BASIC (from back when GW Basic shipped with DOS through current VB.NET), the time to "step-up" to C# was long overdue. Already having some experience with C back in the 90's it was expected that this book would be a good introduction on C# concepts. And it is.

However, the author(s) are clearly programmers and not educators. I breezed through the first 150 pages only doing a couple of the examples because the writing style and examples are so simplistic that working through them provided little more than gaining familiarity with the VS 2008 environment and IDE. (I'm using 2008 Express, and the book is compatible with any version of VS 2008.)

The rudimentary concepts of types, variables, operators, classes, etc, are explained in a fashion that someone with any programming experience will easily grasp. But, those with no programming experience whatsoever would be left with questions on many of the subjects.

Obviously the author is very knowledgeable on C# and is commended for his efforts. All the same, I wouldn't recommend this to be an educational tool for a true beginner/"newbie". While the author is clearly simplifying things as much as possible, the writing style is too simplistic for someone crossing over to C# from another language and not detailed enough for someone with no programming background.

All-in-all, this is a good "read" with some fine explanations of C# programming constructs. I won't return it or throw it away, but I'll have to keep looking for a better book to use as my primary tool for self-education in C# programming. If you are buying multiple books on the subject, this would make a fine second or third item in your library, but should not be the primary teaching tool

This book uses complicated examples in an attempt to teach simple programming concepts. It teaches a do loop by taking you through an exercise where you have to enter a positive whole number and convert it to its string representation in octal notation. Maybe I'm just simple-minded, but I would prefer to focus my attention to learning the language, not trying to figure out the octal base 8 value of some number so I can make sure my code is correct. Another example...the first exercise with classes has you using the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the distance between two points in two-dimensional space. Very frustrating. I would not recommend this book.

I am a VB.NET developer and purchased this book to get me started on learning C#. I like the general layout of this book and it was easy to follow.

I felt the content of this book was lacking in some areas and just a little irrelevant to the overall topic in other areas. For instance I think that way too much time was spent covering WPF and ASP.NET. A very brief overview would seem to suffice as these are fairly large subject and should really be covered in an entirely different book. It seems as though much of the information in this book is just fluff to fill the pages. I would like to have spent more time on the meat and potatoes of the C# language!!

However, it does cover a lot of important topics which are presented well and attempt to keep the reader engaged (the latter of which a lot of books I've read are severely lacking). A little more of this and it would make a great book.

I would recommend this book to beginners with little to no experience with the .NET framework. Me personally... I'm going to have to find a book with more and better content.

The finished example supplied for Chapter 24 simply doesn't work. I guess I'll have to buy another (expensive) book from a company that actually supports their products by having an erratum on the web. Microsoft gave me an automated response to my email, with a link to the same support web site that gave me the automated response. I think they need a little competition.

I am an experienced procedural programmer who recently had to build a moderately complex application fast with C#. So I wanted a book that explained the basics clearly, yet wasn't trying to 'dumb' it down.

OO concepts such as inheritance, encapsulation, polymorphism et al are new to me and I have found texts vary in how clearly they explain these concepts.

When I was looking at this book, I compared it to texts from publishers including SAMS, Dummies & O'Reilly (including Head First). I chose this guide because it explains things clearly and concisely for people who are new to C# but who are not new to programming. It also uses simple, easy to understand examples to demonstrate the concepts, yet it is not so basic as to be useless once you have obtained fundamental experience (as I found some '24 hour' type guides to be). The layout and use of white space on the page doesnt clutter my brain when I flick through, unlike some guides which seem to have so much info on each page in different formats you cant readily get a feel for whats important on that page.

However, it is not a 'cook book' type manual. Nor do I think it will help someone who needs to implement an advanced concept, but to be fair, its not trying to be an advanced text. It is literally, a step by step tutorial type manual. Yet each chapter is quite well contained, so I dont think you have to work through each chapter in strict sequence.

I suspect by the title and the way most of the book is written that the book is for beginners. Why then do you throw "binary tree theory" into a chapter where the reader is trying to learn about Generics. The example is then continued on into the next chapter. It seems to me that example makes learning Generics needlessly hard by throwing a data structure into the mix that is itself difficult enough to understand.

Other than that, I have had no problems with the book.

I've been through many books in programming. I have 4 books of Sam's Teach Yourself in 21 days. And others by different publications. Quite expensive though. But this I have to say about C# Step by Step of John Sharp. I have found his book truly amazing. I am only half through the book yet I can attest that it is one of the finest books I have come to read.

The style is not boring like some comments you read hear. Programming books are not for entertainment. If you are looking for entertainment then you ought to buy a novel for yourself.

Every page if very informative and the sample programs in the separate CD seems like to cement the theories to your brain. They are easy to follow and that it also include completed codes of the sample programs just in case you have difficulty completing the projects. I also love the quick reference area after each chapter. They reinforces rather than just give a summary.

To those who are serious in studying C#, this is a straight forward book for you. You will easily digest all the ideas on every page. Even experienced C# programmers will make this a good reference while doing some coding.

John sharp, you are amazing. Thank you so much. I hope to read more of your books after this one.

Hi,
I have to admit I was disappointed with this book.

Part of the problem was confusion as to target audience.

In the first console applications your hand is held while every mouse click and keystroke needed is fed to you. Midway through the book you're working on esoteric classes called binary trees. In a scant 300 pages you've supposedly gone from absolute beginner to a savvy developer who would know how an advanced recursive algorithm operates so well that virtually no explanation is needed.

And ironically, despite the sudden inclusion of advanced CompSci concepts midway through the book, most of the time the author is churning out one trivial example after the next. Yes I recognize that small programs are useful in illustrating basic ideas. But small programs are boring. And the more you do the more you feel like sawing off your hand so you don't have to do another one. It's like being promised a meal and being handed one crumb after another... just imagine it's an actual meal!

A good counterexample is the book 'Beginning Visual Basic 6 Database Programming'. In this book the author (John Connell) actually walks you through the construction of a usable, well-built database application all the while illustrating the ideas. This is so much more interesting and allows you to actually see why the given programming techniques are used.

Is there useful information in the book? Yes. And at the least all of the examples work properly, as written. I bumped it up a point to three stars for this reason. The right reader might find this to be a good choice. Personally I found it painful and am still looking for a good book on C#.

Jeff

This book has been really useful, I am always interested on the step by step books as provide me with a nice journey that takes me to the heart of the technology.

This book hasn't failed to deliver, the author is very well respected and was one of the reasons why I bought the book.

There section about generics is just amazing, it is not an easy topic but the author has really simplified the model.

4 stars because it fails to deliver more advanced operations, they are mentioned but the out of scope paragraph annoyed me a bit.

This book is the best I've found among various books about C#, but it does have problems.

The first 21 chapters provide a good beginner's tutorial about working with applications in a console window, The author carefully explains each subject as it is introduced.

From chapter 22 onwards, the subject changes to Windows and Web applications that most readers will be most interested in. In these chapters, the author introduces many new concepts without explanations.

I've spent many hours trying to follow through the directions in chapter 22 onwards, but without success.

So, I recommend this book to people who want to gain a basic understanding of C#. I do not recommend the book for people who want to create Windows appplications.

This is a great book; however, as the chapters progress it no longer becomes Step by Step. Instead the staircase is abrubtly removed and one is left climbing a rope. The examples become complicated and methods and variables are pulled from multiple class files which are not explained. For example, the chapter on indexers is extremely difficult to understand. The chapter on delegates starts well but then changes to the view of the "object oriented purist" with a digital clock example that was extremely hard to understand; or maybe it was late in the afternoon or maybe I'm getting old for this stuff. I'm reading on in the hope that the buld will eventually light up.

Great book. Teaches from the basics to more advanced subjects. Teaches with examples and CD tutorials.

Coming from a background of MySql, I was interested in learning C# to help me make Gui based databases.

I found this book to be very well written. It was so well done that even a newbie can learn and make programs.

The exercises in this book are great because they are mind stimulating and force you to think, which in the end help you retain the knowledge.

I highly recommend this book if you are new to C# and want to learn at a rapid pace.

No fillers, no BS. This is the kind of book which writers of computer books must emulate ( Computer books are notorious for errata and poor authorship)

I congratulate Mr Sharp on an outstanding work.

Money well spent.

M Khan

I got this book because it looked like a beginners guide. The snag is that the images on the screen when I followed directions look nothing like the images in the book. The descriptions of what happens were all off too. I have the feeling that this was a C# guide for 2005 and they just changed the title when the 2008 version came out. I am SLOWLY figuring out how to do everything it says buy endless searching. An example: On the VERY first program you have to write it says "On the file menu click New Project. Click the WPF Application icon." With that, there is a photo showing what the screen looks like- it shows a new program screen with a form on it. The form was not on my computer. It was SO frustrating trying over and over to get the screen to come up. Only after an hour did I put the form on myself manually after much trial and error.

On the very same program the next step is to "locate the TEXT section in the properties window, from there you can change the font size." I clicked, then right click, etc. and nothing about font size appeared. I saw later that font size was controlled in it's own section.

I'm still struggling with this book, but so far it's not something you want to use as a beginners guide.

This is an excellent book to learn C# especially if you have some programming experience in non-C based languages but want to learn C#.
A lot of the code is written for you from the CD and you complete or add to it. At the same time that you learn the language you are learning visual studio and how to make the most of it's many features.
If you are going to buy one book to learn C# I think you will be happy with this one.

This is one of the better tech books I have read. Very concise, easy to follow, logically assembled, and progresses at a reasonable rate. If you are new to C#, then I highly recommend this book. If you are new to ASP.NET and are thinking about using C#, then I would also recommend this book.

After laying the foundations of programming and introducing the standard lexicon, the book then delves deeper into the features of C#. The chapters are grouped together in a way that provides several starting points depending on your level of programming experience. Finally, the reader is introduced to databinding and working with databases (including LINQ), then finally web development with ASP.NET. Talk about comprehensive. This is a superb starting point if you are new to C#, or even programming in general.

I'm learning C# and Visual Studio 2008. I have limited (circa 1992) C programming experience, so I wanted to jump back in and see what C# was all about.

This is a good book for beginners, yet is is very comprehensive. The book sometimes requires significant focus, but I'm not reading it for entertainment. I'm reading it to learn C#.

I'm learning C# and Visual Studio 2008. I have limited (circa 1992) C programming experience, so I wanted to jump back in and see what C# was all about.

This is a good book for beginners, yet is is very comprehensive. The book sometimes requires significant focus, but I'm not reading it for entertainment. I'm reading it to learn C#.

I'm using this book to teach myself C# from scratch. I have virtually no relevant programing experience so I'm really starting from square one. I found the book and the exercises very easy to follow and easy to understand. The included files are invaluable. I looked at a lot of other books first and am very glad that I started with this one. I also purchased Beginning Microsoft Visual C# 2008 (Wrox Beginning Guides)at the same time and I'm reading it a couple chapters behind the Microsoft book. Between the two of them I've learned alot.

I recently purcahsed this book to begin to learn C#. So far it has been easy to understand and the excersises really make you use the code instead of just reading it.

As these sorts of books go, this is just ok. While the author covers many aspects of the language in fine detail, the book is lean on actual examples one would encounter in the real working world. Technically the book is fine, but realistically there is a lot lacking.

Sharp is an excellent technical writer.

A good example is Chapter 3 where he guides you through Visual Studio 2008's excellent Debugger Toolbar where you Step Into, Step Out and Step Over code as it runs in an example.
If you are lucky enough to have access to an (SkillSoft) online version of this book, you will be immersed in a unique and productive learning experience.

And I don't just mean a person whose last name is Sharp! :-) Although each chapter is ostensibly about some particular C# programming construct, a reader would learn more than just C# syntax from this book. By the time one finishes reading this book, one would also have learned enough about useful .Net frameworks such as Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation and LINQ. Kudos to the author for pulling this off!!

I love programming, and this was a great book to have. I still use it to keep my programming skills up and up. The author has a great grasp of the material.

unlike most books that may seem more entertaining-- this book makes you use c# for the common tasks you actually will be doing. The plan is that you program along with the author and learn "step by step" how to build many different essential programming building blocks using different net features. The section on wpf programming is wonderful'

I got this book because I wanted to learn Visual Studio 2008 and C# at the same time. It has certainly done the trick. I am currently at page 449, and I am amazed at how much information John Sharp has put in book. Even more amazing is that his teaching technique of a brief overview, and explaining while doing examples is surprisingly effective. If you are a Pro Developer familiar with C++ or java, then this book is probably not going to teach you anything interesting till part 4. I am very please and recommend to any novice who wants to learn.

This book is definately geared for beginners with no programming experience, which is fine. There are a few typo's but nothing to panic about. More importantly, there is little to keep you entertained and motivated to read it. An example, of the dryness is on page 241: Interface Restrictions...a bunch of "You-can-do-this-but-not thats". I am sure they are important points, but I think they are misplaced or better learned as you go along with each thing. I'm reading it and thinking "oh yeah, I'm going to remember all that." Nevertheless, if you can persist through the book, you will learn a lot and have a good foundation. But I recommend you buy "Head First C#" instead of this book.

After trying to pickup programming again several times (after not doing well in the few undergrad classes I took years ago), I've just completed the rough-design/implementation of my first c# application after reading through 9 chapters in this book.

John Sharp's book is laid out in fairly concise chapters, dealing with two or three concepts at a time. The text is clearly written, and has been fairly easy for me to understand.

The only exception (and the reason for 4/5) was the discussion of private data structures in objects. He stated that the this data is available to the class, but only implied that meant every instantiation of the class can access any other instantiation's private data. A friend who's a programmer clarified the matter, and made it sound like I was misreading it, but for a "beginners guide," I think such a point should be spelt out a bit better.

Great book: well laid out, easy to read, great examples (in the book and the code is on the CD).