C#: Learn C# in One Day and Learn It Well. C# for Beginners with Hands-on Project. (Learn Coding Fast with Hands-On Project Book 3)

First of all, I never write reviews. A product has to be pretty outstanding for me to take my time to write something, and for me to take up your time.

I am a full-time student studying the Bachelor of Science program in Mobile Development at Full Sail University in Tampa, FL. I read the reviews of this book here on Amazon and took a chance that it might be helpful to me too so I ordered it. It came, I have read it and I am happy to say that it is really well done, but most importantly, it was a huge help to me in terms of my understanding of C# code!

It is simply written but that is what is so great about it. The author goes through everything that my professors at university go through but in simpler terms. The author covers the basics thoroughly, and in roughly the same order as we are learning at school, as he mirrors everything that all of our professors/instructors/lab assistants are saying so it’s been good to read the information again, only differently.

We all know there are thousands of books out there and not all of them are helpful, and in fact, make things worse by confusing the reader. This book reads like normal speech whereas most books on programming are like reading Greek, or some strange alien language. I often think to myself, "as if learning to code isn't confusing enough, and now I am going to read this textbook the size of New York and then be even more confused..." - well this book is not like that at all. It is thoughtfully written and the author has done a wonderful job of writing as if it is a conversation between two friends. So far, it’s been extremely helpful in sorting out some of my coding confusion, and I am always happy to share effective tools with others.

It’s only 120 pages long and it’s an easy read. I STRONGLY suggest reading the book once through completely, then going back to the beginning and re-reading it again but then type out the code snippets in Visual Studio as you read. By the end of the book, we have created an accounting program from start to finish and the author uses that as the coding exercises. Brilliant.

By page 15, I had gotten my money’s worth. In just the first 15 pages, I had a MUCH clearer understanding of some of the little things I had just missed in my classes at school. And for only $11.97 - what a steal!!! Already I can see myself reading it over and over again, AND recommending it to others. I have already shared this with my FSU classmates and professors, as well as a few tech friends. It will be a great reference tool for many years to come. I am very impressed and that is saying a lot.

I hope it can help you too. You won't regret buying this book. Thank you, Jamie Chan!!!

You will learn enough after a short time to compile basic, console apps - but the title is a bit of a stretch. It takes constant practice to get good at anything - especially something like programming. Following the examples provided (which are excellent) is easy, but truly understanding object oriented concepts and how to design your own classes will take much longer than a day.

Most programming books try to teach you every detail on every subject - which makes them pretty dry and you quickly get overloaded. This book takes the opposite approach by covering a lot of ground giving only enough detail to get started. This allows you to see the big picture quickly, rather than forget the start of the chapter that was 100 pages ago. This is a really effective approach IMHO. Once you have a start, you fill in the detail with another book, or using MSDN, StackOverflow etc as you write your own code. It really does only cover the basics, so you will need another book to cover working with data sources etc (but what did you expect in so few pages)

The end-to-end walkthrough is really effective at tying all of the content together. My only recommendation to the author would be to pose this as a problem for the user to solve, with a few hints, and then the solution. I did it this way, and it forced me to think about it more, and look up the things I thought I knew. Got a lot more out of it that way than just reading the solution. Great book.

For less than the price of a latte (Kindle edition) I got a book that gave the the basics of C# syntax and object oriented programming in a clear, "baby steps" sort of way. That's just what I needed.

I might have gotten through this in the equivalent of one business "day." I bought it two days ago and now I'm finished with it, but I'm a career programmer in older mainframe languages but familiar with the concepts that are at the root of all programming languages. What is different in C# at that level is syntax, so I got through some chapters very quickly. How many days it takes to get through the material really isn't important, but it's funny to me that a book would promise that in it's title.

And, I'm not sure that being able to write a console app in Visual Studio Community 2015 constitutes learning C# or Visual Studio "well." This book never goes beyond the console app. It introduces C# syntax and objected oriented programming all in the context of a console app, which is in and of itself to me rather clever, because it allowed the many concepts one must wrap their heads around to build on each other in a logical way that is easy to follow.

Ironically, the one thing a console app needs to have in order to work is the Console.Read() call always at the end so the console window stays on the screen. The author makes that point toward the beginning, but then leaves this line off the coding examples that follow, so the console screen just flashes and vanishes in a split second if you just code verbatim going forward.

Some other minor annoyances were:

1. Adding useless numbers at the beginning of each line of code in some of the examples. That doubles the work if anyone out there is like me and likes to copy code examples from Kindle to the Visual Studio IDE. Other book I've used to learn Visual Basic didn't have line numbers in the code. It's really not necessary.

2. Right from the get go, failing to differentiate between the code automatically generated by VSC and the code I have to enter myself. On page 11, the author had me enter a twenty line block of code, but only two lines were actually necessary because VSC had generated the other 18 automatically.

3. Going over my head in explaining an equal sign in C# syntax (page 21). "it means you are assigning the value of x to y (think of it as y <- x)". Well, thanks professor. I'm sure that's an assignment operator in some language, but using a symbol I don't know (and is very difficult to look up even using Google) really doesn't help much.

4.. On page 75 a certain code example in the Kindle version has a string surrounded by "right comma quotes" and "left comma quotes" which are not the same as the quotes you get when you type a " with your keyboard. The VSC IDE barfs on comma quotes, and it took me a while to figure that out, and a journey into unicode. Lesson learned.

But all that aside, this is an effective little book for it's target audience. It doesn't cover the .NET framework or Visual Studio 2015 in any depth at all, but it's a good prep for the books that do. Now, which book to buy next?

Great book. It covers all of the basics and most of the intermediate content of C#. It doesn't go super in-depth or detailed about C#, making it a perfect book for beginners.

I read this book as someone who has already learned and worked with a few other programming languages (C++, Java, etc). I found that I could skim past most of the beginning chapters, but it was just what I needed to get a feel for the language syntax and feel, without needing to read through a massive textbook on the language.

There's one major project that is given at the back of the book. It does a great job of combining all of the concepts taught throughout the book. While I didn't try to read this book all in one sitting, I don't find it hard to believe that a beginner could gain a working knowledge of C# from reading this book. This book definitely isn't comprehensive, as expected based on the price and 160 page length. It does a great job of delving into intermediate steps without going too far and confusing the reader.

The grammar throughout the book is just okay. No major mistakes, but it does read more like it was written from someone's blog than from a book. Maybe that's a good thing. It sort of helps to keep the tone light.

This book is a very quick read, but contains a plethora of good information. I have a background in computer science with experience in other languages. However, programming is not my primary job function and it has been years since I have coded anything. This book got me familiar with C# in less than a few days. It was a hair pulling exoerience, but the project at the end of the book was challenging and well written as far as what subjects were covered in the book - I did have to reference some online help, but that is how it is in practice anyway. I completed the project without looking at the appendix, and I feel a lot more confident in my C# coding ability.

This book is quite amazing, succinct yet packed with info. It is a great place to start. Bear in mind that it's just a start, but it's laid out well and covers an amazing amount of ground in its 150 pages. This book introduces practical concepts, and then moves on quickly. Even though it will take [much] further reading and work it is well worth it to a new C# programmer to work thru this book.

I would suggest going thru this book, doing the exercises as well as the project at the end. Try to do it yourself as much as you can. You will need to refer to google quite a bit, as well as Microsoft documentation. That should leap-frog you to where you can pick up a much more comprehensive book.

I purchased this book in preparation for school, and my main problem is the book doesn't give you much in the way of help to retain the information. The flow of the book is, in lack of better terms, "This is this, this and this do this, ok you don't need to know this now, but look at this."

It may be a personal aspect where I was always left with, "..ok but WHY am I coding this and what does this specific work do?" and I wanted a very granular definition which this book extremely lacks in. For beginners, this doesn't do you much justice. I would suggest looking up Pearson visual C# textbooks because instead of doing console programs, you're able to CREATE a visual and interactive program and see the fruits of your labor. This book really has the ebb and flow of presenting to people that already have a solid foundation in programming for other languages because it quickly explains syntax but not the definitions of what you're coding so you're introduced to how C# is coded, but not the reason why you're coding it that way.

I'll return to the book at a later time because with the Pearson book I learned in a much more comprehensive fashion and I want to talk a crack at the ONE (and yes, there is only one GIANT test project that you're supposed to throw together) project and see how far I've come with my coding.

All in all, its a great reference, but not a great tutorial.

This book does what the title says, and does it well, but that may not mean what you'd think it means.

The book quickly and efficiently covers all of the basic ground of C# coding, enabling you to understand and build classes, methods, and the like with a good understanding of object oriented concepts. By the end of the book, you should be able to build command line C# applications.

The thing is, hardly any real C# programming involves building command line applications. The book does not even touch on fundamentals of practical use like database access, ASP.NET, or even building Windows applications. Instead, it gives you the modern equivalent of decades-old DOS-style programming.

That's not a bad thing, necessarily; it just means that while you can literally learn C# in a day if you apply yourself and perhaps have some basic familiarity with programming, you will still need to do additional learning in order to be able to do anything with your newfound C# skills, like read a book on ASP.NET (for example).

There are minor writing errors in the book (for instance, the non-word "alright" is used more than once, and the word "staff" is often used as though it means "staff member") that make it clear that the book was not professionally edited, and the example code is simplistic and pedestrian, but any reservations I may have on those points are far more than compensated for by the clear, concise way the author communicates all of the basic and intermediate C# concepts the book covers.

If you're learning to code from this book, please note too that the author has a few bad coding habits that he is passing along to you. For example, he consistently includes a variety of unneeded references in the example programs, making it seem as though you need LINQ and threading, for example, for a "Hello world" program. He also, for the sake of examples, codes a lot of literal data into his sample routines, which may make the impressionable new programmer think that information that properly belongs in a database or other structured form of data storage should be hard-coded or at best listed one item per line in a text file. He does cover error handling but often (for the sake of clarity and simplicity, I imagine) doesn't include it.

These minor complaints aside, this is a remarkably well-written book that works surprisingly well for the experienced programmer who wants to learn or revisit C# concepts as well as for the beginner. However, beginners might be advised to start with something more fundamental that establishes good programming habits, so that the sample code in this book can be considered in context.

Questo libro descrive con parole semplici e dirette, le basi del linguaggio di programmazione C#.

Lo considero molto utile per chi buole iniziare a studiare c#.

Who would I recommend this to?

Beginner programmers who know the basics of a high level language.

Why? Because it uses terminology and logic familiar to someone who has coded before, if you are experienced in coding I see no use for this, but if you know a little coding and want to chill with the big boys after a day of reading, then this book is for you. I knew Visual basics, JavaScript and a little Java, but I had a few holes that needed patching on the logic of programming and who High level programming works, so I though why not learn C#? I know I could have just got a book to explain programming, but I wanted to learn a coding language with OOP fluently and I chose C#, the online tutorials for this were trash, they just taught things in a stupid order with terminology left unexplained of undefined. This book reinforced my understanding of Instances and OOP without learning me thinking "what's going on?" because it had good examples and explanations without unnecessary bulk, and the order in which it explained things was good. It explained smaller concepts that lead to it explaining a combination of those concepts in certain contexts.

It wasn't a one day read for me, I got to say that, you need the content to sink in a little, and you need to process the logic of the coding if you want to truly understand the book, but it was definitely fast and condensed, and could be used as a reference book. It was interesting to read and although I personally couldn't finish it in a weeks if I wanted to "learn it well", I think it's excellent for learning a language ASAP provided you know some basic programming. If you don't know programming too well I suggest you learn a few basic concepts, because this book does cover basic stuff but it might still leave you confused, I've seen it happen to friends and a few other beginners.

La forma como te explica de inicio a fin y con los ejercicios se entiende muy bien excelente libro. Para aprender en 1 día.

For an active project, I needed to learn the basics of C# quickly. As another reader stated, one "could possibly" cover this material in one day, but it also took me two and a half days to complete. The material is presented clearly and logically. The author builds new information based on a solid foundation of previous material presented. Most importantly, the examples work (for the most part). Where there is need for improvement is in the following: some of the examples present a series of Console.WriteLine() commands without a corresponding Console.ReadLine() command at the end of the code segment. This results in a run-away application which simply blinks onto the screen and is gone in an instant (an annoying, but minor problem). Another issue has to do with the calculation of BasicPay in the Staff class. The base pay should be predicated on a value of 160 or less for hoursWorked, but as it stands base pay is calculated on the total hours entered multiplied by the hourly rate. This is incorrect. Here is how I overcame this issue in the Staff class:

int baseHoursWorked = (hWorked <= 160) ? hWorked : 160;

BasicPay = baseHoursWorked * hourlyRate;

TotalPay = BasicPay;

In other words, when calculating base pay, the hours should never exceed 160. Anything over that would be considered overtime hours. TotalPay is set to BasicPay, and any additional funds (based on overtime hours) simply are added to TotalPay within their respective child classes.

This book covers only the very basics of C#, which is exactly what it promises. Honestly, I’m not sure why I bought it—I’ve been coding in C# for 15 years, probably just out of curiosity.

If you already have experience, this book isn’t necessary. However, for beginners, it’s an excellent first step. It introduces coding without overwhelming you with deep technical details, letting you start writing code and see immediate results. Once you’re ready to understand the “how” and “why” behind it, you’ll need a more advanced book.