C# Essentials

Types

A C# program is written by building new types and leveraging existing types, either those defined in the C# language itself or imported from other libraries. Each type contains a set of data and function members, which combine to form the modular units that are the key building blocks of a C# program.

Type Instances

Generally, you must create instances of a type to use that type. Those data members and function members that require a type to be instantiated are called instance members. Data members and function members that can be used on the type itself are called static members .

Example: Building and Using Types

In this program, we build our own type called Counter and another type called Test that uses instances of the Counter. The Counter type uses the predefined type int, and the Test type uses the static function member WriteLine of the Console class defined in the System namespace:

// Imports types from System namespace, such as Console using System; class Counter { // New types are typically classes or structs // --- Data members --- int value; // field of type int int scaleFactor; // field of type int // Constructor, used to initialize a type instance public Counter(int scaleFactor) { this.scaleFactor = scaleFactor; } // Method public void Inc( ) { value+=scaleFactor; } // Property public int Count { get {return value; } } } class Test { // Execution begins here static void Main( ) { // Create an instance of counter type Counter c = new Counter(5); c.Inc( ); c.Inc( ); ...