An accessible guide for beginner-to-intermediate programmers to concepts, real-world applications, and latest features of C# 11 and .NET 7, with hands-on exercises using Visual Studio 2022 and Visual Studio Code.

Key Features

•  Explore the newest additions to C# 11, the .NET 7 class libraries, and Entity Framework Core 7

•  Create professional websites and services with ASP.NET Core 7 and Blazor

•  Build your confidence with step-by-step code examples and tips for best practices

Book Description

Extensively revised to accommodate the latest features that come with C# 11 and .NET 7, this latest edition of our guide will get you coding in C# with confidence.

You'll learn object-oriented programming, writing, testing, and debugging functions, implementing interfaces, and inheriting classes. Next, you'll take on .NET APIs for performing tasks like managing and querying data, working with the filesystem, and serialization. As you progress, you'll also explore examples of cross-platform projects you can build and deploy, such as websites and services using ASP.NET Core.

Instead of distracting you with unnecessary graphical user interface code, the first eleven chapters will teach you about C# language constructs and many of the .NET libraries through simple console applications. In later chapters, having mastered the basics, you'll then build websites, web services, and browser apps using ASP.NET Core, the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern, and Blazor.

C# 11 and .NET 7 - Modern Cross-Platform Development Fundamentals will give you a solid foundation to start building apps and services with confidence. By the end of this book, you'll be able to create rich web experiences and have a solid grasp of object-oriented programming that you can build upon.

What you will learn

•  Build rich web experiences using Blazor, Razor Pages, the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern, and other features of ASP.NET Core

•  Build your own types with object-oriented programming

•  Write, test, and debug functions

•  Query and manipulate data using LINQ

•  Integrate and update databases in your apps using Entity Framework Core models

•  Build and consume powerful services using the latest technologies, including Web API and Minimal API

For .NET 6 developers:

• C# 11 can be used with .NET 6, including features like raw string literals
• EF Core 7 targets .NET 6, so you can benefit from its new features like ExecuteUpdate and ExecuteDelete for more efficient data modifications

Who this book is for

This book is primarily for beginners, but intermediate-level C# and .NET programmers who have worked with C# in the past and want to catch up with the changes made in the past few years will also find plenty of useful information in it. Prior exposure to C# or .NET is not a prerequisite, but you should have a general understanding of programming before you jump in.

If you already have some C# and .NET skills and want to focus on developing apps, we recommend that you pick up Mark's other .NET book, Apps and Services with .NET 7, instead.About the Author

Mark J. Price is a Microsoft Specialist: Programming in C# and Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions, with over 20 years' experience. Since 1993, he has passed more than 80 Microsoft programming exams and specializes in preparing others to pass them. Between 2001 and 2003, Mark was employed to write official courseware for Microsoft in Redmond, USA. His team wrote the first training courses for C# while it was still an early alpha version. While with Microsoft, he taught "train-the-trainer" classes to get other MCTs up-to-speed on C# and .NET. Mark holds a Computer Science BSc. Hons. Degree. 

Key Features:

•  A tried-and-tested learning curve that provides a brisk, fun read

•  Detailed instructions for the most popular code editors, Visual Studio 2022 and Visual Studio Code

•  Complete solutions to coding tasks, review questions, and exercises on the book’s GitHub repository 

What approach does this book take to get readers started with C# 11 and .NET 7?

One of the key benefits is that it offers great value by balancing just the right amount of breadth with depth, teaching you a broad range of skills and technologies that you’ll be able to implement in the real world.

I briefly introduce a concept, like a C# language feature, a .NET API, or a web development task, and then take you step-by-step through writing simple code and running it to see the feature in action. Each chapter ends with review questions and exercises to complete.

• Designed for those new to programming or trying a career change
• Gain coding experience and pragmatic tips that impact your daily productivity and help you get the job you want
• Join the Discord channel for the book to interact with the author and other readers and get your trickier questions answeredWhat’s new in this seventh edition?

For this seventh edition, I went through the whole book and brought everything up to date for C# 11 and .NET 7.

This book covers some of the most useful new C# 11 features. For example, list patterns extend existing pattern matching, like type and property matching, to match elements in a sequence like a list or an array. My personal favorite new C# 11 feature is raw string literals, which make it much easier to define text values that contain whitespace, quotes, and other special characters without requiring escape sequences.

As usual with a major new version of .NET, there are many performance improvements that you will benefit from without needing to change your code. Tar archive support has been added, and there is better support for Linux filesystems. JSON serialization now has better polymorphism support and more convenience methods like ReadExactly. Probably the most consequential addition to ASP.NET Core 7 is the return of output caching.What should our readers’ next steps be after this book? What learning path would you recommend?

After learning the fundamentals of modern cross-platform development using C# 11 and .NET 7 and putting them into practice with web development basics using ASP.NET Core, the next step is to expand those skills by reading my second book, Apps and Services with .NET 7.

There are many technologies for common programming tasks. My book will get you started with all of them, so it is the best value for your time and money. Each chapter introduces a technology; you learn the basic concepts and capabilities and implement some of the most important parts. Once you’ve built a project yourself and seen the tech in action, you can then turn to the official documentation to continue learning, or look at an advanced book.

The hardest challenge for software developers is keeping up with all the changes and new tech in the industry. You often do not know if a technology is something you should learn or that you would enjoy until you’ve learned a bit about it. That’s where my books fill the gap.