Appd

Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile
Composite DefaultAll-In-One
screen / MCAD/MCSD Visual C# .NET Certification All-in-One Exam Guide / Rempel & Lind / 222443-6 / Chapter D
The .NET Class Library

APPENDIX
D
The .NET Framework includes an extensive collection of prebuilt class files. These have
been grouped together in meaningful namespaces and published to the .NET Class Li-
brary. It would fill the entire book if we were to cover every class and namespace here.
However, that is not our purpose. What we will attempt to do is document some of the
more common and possibly more useful classes in the library.
Keep in mind that any class you select from the class library can be used in any of the
.NET programming languages, so, in effect, this appendix is pertinent to all of the lan-
guages included in .NET, such as Visual Basic .NET, JScript .NET, and so on.
Accessing Classes from the .NET Class Library

The .NET Class Library is broken down into namespaces which, as we have seen, are a
convenient way to group together classes with a common or related background. Figure D-1
illustrates a very small piece of the .NET Class Library. When you look at this diagram,
Figure D-1 A small subset of the .NET Class Library
P:\010Comp\All-in-1\443-6\appd.vp
Monday, August 26, 2002 11:57:40 AM
All-In-One
Composite Default screen / MCAD/MCSD Visual C# .NET Certification All-in-One Exam Guide / Rempel & Lind / 222443-6 / Chapter D
MCAD/MCSD Visual C# .NET Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

2
keep in mind that we have only shown 6 of the approximately 84 namespaces, and un-
der each namespace only two of hundreds of the underlying classes. If this has given you
a sense of the magnitude of this library, remember that you can add to it as well. We are
only looking at Microsoft’s structure in these instances—third-party namespaces will ex-
pand the library even further.
Every namespace that you explore within the class library contains classes, structures,
enums, delegates, and interfaces (not necessary all of them) that you can use in your
programs. As discussed before, to use a namespace, code a line like the following at the
beginning of your program:
using System;
This code tells the compiler that you may be using one or more of the different types in
the System namespace.
There are many ways to access the documentation for .NET Library types. We will talk
about two of the ways. First, within the Visual Studio .NET development environment is
a large documentation and help subsystem. Figure D-2 shows the root of the .NET Class
Library help structure. The best way to find it is by typing Class Library in the Look For
Figure D-2 Documentation for the .NET Class Library
Appendix D: The .NET Class Library

3
field (a search tool). When you do this, you will see the introduction page, and you can
begin locating valuable information by clicking on the Class Library hyperlink. That
link will direct you to a page that has links to every namespace in the .NET library, as
shown in Figure D-3.
TIP You can add the web page to your list of favorites by selecting View |
Other Windows and Favorites from the menus. If you are anything like us,
you will find this page extremely helpful as you become familiar with the
classes available to you.
By selecting one of the namespaces shown in Figure D-3, you will find that you are
able to see all of the classes within that namespace.
There is another way to find help on the .NET Class Library, and that is by using
Microsoft’s MSDN web site at http://msdn.microsoft.com. Currently, the page that you
saw in Figure D-2 is also on Microsoft’s site (see Figure D-4).
Whichever method you choose when accessing the documentation, you will find
that Microsoft has spent a fair bit of time in making sure that the information is avail-
able to you and is easily readable.
PART VII
Figure D-3 The .NET Class Library namespaces
All-In-One

4
Figure D-4 The .NET Class Library documentation on the Internet
The System Namespace

Microsoft has grouped together a collection of classes that will help you with common
tasks. Table D-1 gives you an example of some of the classes that you might find in the
System namespace. Remember that this is just a short list of common classes available
in the System namespace. Take some time to become familiar with the other classes in
the library.
The Math Class

There are a lot of classes to choose from, but in order to illustrate how to use the class li-
brary, we have selected the Math class as our demonstration class. Figure D-5 shows the
page you will receive if you choose the System link from Figure D-3 and then click the
Math link.
There are a number of things to observe in Figure D-5. Notice that the inheritance hier-
archy is in the top left corner—the Math class inherits directly from System.Object. In
the large, gray-shaded area you can see the definition code for the class—public
sealed class Math. This means that you cannot create any children of the Math class.

5
Class Name Purpose
ApplicationException A parent class for non-terminating program errors.
Array Methods for creating, searching, and sorting arrays.
Console Standard input, output, and error streams. These are
used for console applications.
GC A class for controlling the system garbage collector.
Math Methods for common mathematical functions. See the
“The Math Class” section that follows for more details.
Object The parent class of every class.
OperatingSystem A class that provides information about the operating
system—version and the like.
String An immutable set of characters.
SystemException The base class for predefined exceptions.
UInt32 A structure that represents 32-bit unsigned integers.
Table D-1 A Short List of the Types of Classes in the System Namespace
PART VII
Figure D-5 The Math class documentation
All-In-One

6
This summary page also shows you how safe the code is to use in multithreaded opera-
tions. Notice, as well, that the platforms are listed on this page, along with the assembly in
which the class is found (in this case Mscorlib.dll).
If you are interested in checking out the properties and methods that are available for
use in this class, click the Math Members link. You will see a screen that looks like the
one in Figure D-6.
There are two fields, E and PI, that are listed, along with their purpose. As you can see
from the list, there are many public methods in the Math class. We will select one, the
Round() method, in order to dig deeper into this documentation. The Round()
method is used to return the integer nearest to the number given, following the rules of
rounding. For example, the following code segment returns 12.
using System;
class Rounding
{
public static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine (Math.Round(12.42));
}
}
Figure D-6 Math members

7
In order to select the documentation for the Round() method, simply click on the
method in the window shown in Figure D-6, and you will see the screen in Figure D-7.
This method is overloaded four times in order to give you an opportunity to pass it dif-
ferent sets of parameters. In our previous example, we simply sent the method a double
value (12.42). However, you could send a decimal and an int, as well as a double and
an int. This again demonstrates the power of overloading methods—you don’t have to
remember four different method names.
Notice the signature of all the methods. They are all static methods. This means that
you do not need an instance of the class in order to call the methods. As a matter of fact,
if you examine the code from our example, you will notice that we simply called the
method directly from the class name itself:
Console.WriteLine (Math.Round(12.42));
Most of the utility methods in the System class will operate in a similar fashion.
If you wish to dig deeper into the documentation, you can select any of the links for
the overloaded methods. We chose the first one to demonstrate:
public static decimal Round(decimal);
PART VII
Figure D-7 The Round( ) method from the Math class
All-In-One

8
As Figure D-8 shows, by selecting the link, you receive valuable information detailing
the method. Even though we have chosen to look at a relatively easy concept, rounding,
you can imagine that if you needed to find out about a method you knew nothing
about, the documentation presented here would be worth its weight in gold.
A Final Note on the System Namespace

Microsoft has attempted to alleviate some of the confusion that can arise when there are
so many different namespaces and classes from which to choose. By using the System
namespace and then further subdividing it, you really have one focused area in which to
start your search. You will find that there are a few other top-level namespaces, such as
Microsoft.Csharp, Microsoft.Jscript, Microsoft.VisualBasic, and so
on, that are used to describe classes pertinent to the individual languages. However, you
will probably spend most of your time in the System namespace.
Although this is not specific to the System namespace, there is another area of the
documentation that may be of interest to you. It is possible to view the namespace hierar-
chy in order to see which classes are base classes and which are derived classes. Figure D-9
illustrates the System namespace inheritance scheme. You will find a link on each of the
namespace home pages that will take you to <<namespace>> hierarchy.
Figure D-8 Digging deeper in the Math documentation

9
Figure D-9 The System namespace inheritance hierarchy
Useful System Namespaces

We will now take a brief look at some of the namespaces that might be pertinent to you
on the Microsoft exams, in particular, System.Data, System.Web.UI, and Sys-
tem.Windows.Forms. You saw System.Data in Chapter 10, and the other two were
discussed in Parts III and IV on Web and Windows development.
System.Data Namespace
You will find in the System.Data namespace a lot of classes that make up part of
PART VII
the ADO.NET structure. This allows you to manipulate data from many different
sources. ADO follows a concept of universal data access and provides tools to access,
update, and connect to data in any location. For more information on ADO.NET,
please review Chapter 10 on basic data access. Table D-2 lists some of the classes
found in this namespace.
There are many classes, interfaces, delegates, and enumerations available within the
System.Data namespace. For example, in the following list, you will see the inheritance
structure of the classes in the System.Data namespace. You can use this as a reference
All-In-One

10
Class Purpose
Constraint Simulates a constraint on one or more DataColumn objects.
DataColumn Represents the field level from a table.
DataException Represents an exception that is thrown from ADO.NET components.
DataRelation Represents the relationship between two DataTable objects.
DataRow Same as DataColumn, except it represents a row of data.
DataSet Represents the powerful, internal cache of data returned.
DataTable Represents one table of in-memory data.
Table D-2 Sample classes from the System.Data namespace
to the classes that are available in the namespace. Although this is a long list, for the pur-
poses of the three Microsoft exams, you should become familiar with this namespace.
System.Object
System.Attribute
System.ComponentModel.DescriptionAttribute
System.Data.DataSysDescriptionAttribute
System.Collections.Hashtable
System.Data.PropertyCollection
System.ComponentModel.MarshalByValueComponent
System.Data.DataColumn
System.Data.DataSet
---- System.ComponentModel.IListSource,
System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize,
System.Runtime.Serialization.ISerializable
System.Data.DataTable
---- System.ComponentModel.IListSource,
System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize,
System.Runtime.Serialization.ISerializable
System.Data.DataView
---- System.ComponentModel.IBindingList,
System.Collections.IList,
System.Collections.ICollection,
System.Collections.IEnumerable,
System.ComponentModel.ITypedList,
System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize
System.Data.DataViewManager
---- System.ComponentModel.IBindingList,
System.Collections.IList,
System.Collections.ICollection,
System.Collections.IEnumerable,
System.ComponentModel.ITypedList
System.Data.Constraint
System.Data.ForeignKeyConstraint
System.Data.UniqueConstraint
System.Data.DataRelation
System.Data.DataRow
System.Data.DataRowView
---- System.ComponentModel.ICustomTypeDescriptor,
System.ComponentModel.IEditableObject,
System.ComponentModel.IDataErrorInfo
System.Data.DataViewSetting

11
System.Data.DataViewSettingCollection
---- System.Collections.ICollection,
System.Collections.IEnumerable
System.Data.InternalDataCollectionBase
System.Data.ConstraintCollection
System.Data.DataColumnCollection
System.Data.DataRelationCollection
System.Data.DataRowCollection
System.Data.DataTableCollection
System.Data.TypedDataSetGenerator
System.Delegate
System.MulticastDelegate
System.Data.DataColumnChangeEventHandler
System.Data.DataRowChangeEventHandler
System.Data.FillErrorEventHandler
System.Data.MergeFailedEventHandler
System.Data.StateChangeEventHandler
System.EventArgs
System.Data.DataColumnChangeEventArgs
System.Data.DataRowChangeEventArgs
System.Data.FillErrorEventArgs
System.Data.MergeFailedEventArgs
System.Data.StateChangeEventArgs
System.Exception
System.SystemException
System.Data.DataException
System.Data.ConstraintException
System.Data.DeletedRowInaccessibleException
System.Data.DuplicateNameException
System.Data.InRowChangingEventException
System.Data.InvalidConstraintException
System.Data.InvalidExpressionException
System.Data.EvaluateException
System.Data.SyntaxErrorException
System.Data.MissingPrimaryKeyException
System.Data.NoNullAllowedException
System.Data.ReadOnlyException
System.Data.RowNotInTableException
System.Data.StrongTypingException
System.Data.TypedDataSetGeneratorException
System.Data.VersionNotFoundException
System.Data.DBConcurrencyException
System.ValueType
System.Enum
System.Data.AcceptRejectRule
System.Data.CommandBehavior
System.Data.CommandType
System.Data.ConnectionState
System.Data.DataRowAction
PART VII
System.Data.DataRowState
System.Data.DataRowVersion
System.Data.DataViewRowState
System.Data.DbType
System.Data.IsolationLevel
System.Data.MappingType
System.Data.MissingMappingAction
System.Data.MissingSchemaAction
System.Data.ParameterDirection
System.Data.PropertyAttributes
All-In-One

12
System.Data.Rule
System.Data.SchemaType
System.Data.SqlDbType
System.Data.StatementType
System.Data.UpdateRowSource
System.Data.UpdateStatus
System.Data.XmlReadMode
System.Data.XmlWriteMode
TIP You would be wise to investigate this namespace thoroughly before writing
the Microsoft exams. Although you will find the testing more specific to data
access within the Web or Windows Forms, you will still need to have a good
understanding of ADO.NET, the architecture for which the System.Data
namespace was built.
System.Web.UI Namespace
Just as the classes for ADO.NET were encapsulated inside of the System.Data namespace,
you will find the classes and interfaces for ASP.NET server controls and pages inside the
System.Web.UI namespace. These classes will allow you to create the user interface com-
ponents for your web applications. You will discover classes that provide server controls,
user controls, data binding, web page state management, and a lot more here. Table D-3
lists a few of the classes to be found in System.Web.UI.
The use of this namespace is discussed in an entire part of this book, Part III. You will
need to understand it for the web application exam.
The System.Windows.Forms Namespace

The System.Windows.Forms namespace is a very large namespace that is used for
creating Windows-based applications. In order to take advantage of the power of the
Class Purpose
Control Contains properties, methods, and events that are shared by all ASP.NET
server controls.
DataBinding Creates data-binding expressions at design time within Visual Studio
.NET.
HtmlTextWriter Writes a sequential series of HTML-specific characters and text on a
Web Forms page.
Page Represents an .aspx file.
StateBag Represents the state of server controls in terms of their view state.
UserControl Represents the .ascx file when it is called from an .aspx file.
Table D-3 Some of the Classes Within the System.Web.UI Namespace

13
Windows operating system, many classes have been prebuilt to represent components
in the Windows interface. You will find the following types of classes in this namespace:
• Controls You will find text boxes, combo boxes, labels, lists, buttons, and the
like in this grouping.
• Control, User Control, and Form Control is base class for all the controls
on a Windows form. The form allows you to create dialog boxes, windows, and
so on, and the user control is there so that you can create custom controls that
are made up of other controls.
• Common Dialog Boxes If you want to represent the common file-open,
file-print, font, and other dialog boxes, you will find a lot of useful classes in
this section of the namespace.
• Components You will find menus, help, tool tips, and the like here.
As we mentioned, this is a very large namespace, and as such, is better viewed within
the documentation. Part IV of this book explores several of the classes found in the
System.Windows.Forms namespace. As with System.Web.UI, you will need to
know these classes for the exam, so we have devoted a full part of the book to them.
Summary
This has been a brief introduction to the .NET Class Library. Hopefully you now have an
appreciation for the amount of work that has been done by the developers of the library,
to help you spend more time on your business problems. We recommend that you dig
around the documentation a bit in order to become more familiar with the classes in the
different namespaces.
PART VII

Appd

Încărcat de

Informații document

Descriere originală:

Drepturi de autor

Formate disponibile

Partajați acest document

Partajați sau inserați document

Opțiuni de partajare

Vi se pare util acest document?

Este necorespunzător acest conținut?

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Appd

Încărcat de

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile

The .NET Class Library

Accessing Classes from the .NET Class Library

Figure D-1 A small subset of the .NET Class Library

MCAD/MCSD Visual C# .NET Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

Figure D-2 Documentation for the .NET Class Library

Appendix D: The .NET Class Library

Figure D-3 The .NET Class Library namespaces

MCAD/MCSD Visual C# .NET Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

Figure D-4 The .NET Class Library documentation on the Internet

The System Namespace

The Math Class

Appendix D: The .NET Class Library

Figure D-5 The Math class documentation

MCAD/MCSD Visual C# .NET Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

Figure D-6 Math members

Appendix D: The .NET Class Library

public static decimal Round(decimal);

Figure D-7 The Round( ) method from the Math class

MCAD/MCSD Visual C# .NET Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

A Final Note on the System Namespace

Figure D-8 Digging deeper in the Math documentation

Appendix D: The .NET Class Library

Figure D-9 The System namespace inheritance hierarchy

Useful System Namespaces

MCAD/MCSD Visual C# .NET Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

Appendix D: The .NET Class Library

MCAD/MCSD Visual C# .NET Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

The System.Windows.Forms Namespace

Appendix D: The .NET Class Library

S-ar putea să vă placă și