C# Book Recommendations?

Stevecrox asks: "I'm in my final year of university and have a working knowledge of C/C++, Visual Basic, VHDL and a variety of Assembler languages, however chatting to a friend on his placement year I've been told that C# is what employers are really looking for. What book would you recommend to someone looking to learn C# with my experience?"

A few

[Anonymous Coward]

Professional c# 2005 and the .net 2.0 platform by apress is excellent. Read it from cover to cover (about 1000 pages but very high quality book). It will cover the basics of C#. Also it exposes you to database access with c#, and covers both data readers and datasets from .net library. It also covers winforms and gdi+ programming. It gives you a taste of asp.net 2.0 also. If you buy 1 book, buy this one. I bought it and just lucked out. I spoke with several other people and this is the one book everyone seems to recommend.

Next up i'd look into beginning asp.net 2.0 with c# by wrox press if you are interested in web development. It is an example driven book. You read a little, then it walks you through doing something. It also has assignments at the end of the chapter to make sure you are getting it.

Continue with pro asp.net 2.0 with c# 2005 by apress. It will give you a deeper look into more advanced topics of asp.net.

A programmer's introduction to C#

[martijn-s]

I got this book around when C# was first introduced. I started from the same languages you name, and I've quite possibly never read a better book about a programming language (and API of course).

http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=45 4 [apress.com]

(Actually, A programmer's introduction to PHP is also very good.)

MSDN

[jfclavette]

If you are familiar with object-oriented programming, then I dont believe you need a book. MSDN C# language page [microsoft.com] should be all you need. If you insist on getting a book, I recommend Programming C# by Jessy Liberty for a tutorial.

Re:Charles Petzold

[DudeTheMath]

I can't agree more. I'd also recommend his free .NET Book Zero [charlespetzold.com], which is specifically aimed at C/C++ programmers, and did I mention it's free?

Re:Even if he wants books

[plover]

Something I've found useful is to learn which publishers to trust. The editors at each publishing house each have their own eye as to what they think makes a good book. Some lean more towards the scholarly, some to the "reference style", while others take a more colloquial approach. And some just publish whatever crap gets submitted.

After you've read a few, you'll start to get a feel for the kinds of books you like. You'll probably also get the taste of a few lemons. But you'll eventually find that a few publishers seem to hire authors that present the kind of information you learn best from, and you'll end up going back to them repeatedly.

Looking around my cube, I just surprised myself by learning that I have more Addison-Wesley titles than books by all other publishers combined. I have some really good titles by Apress and O'Reilly, and the rest are scattered across other publishers. And I've never cared for the "Dummies" series or the style of writing they seek out. Not that the smaller publishers don't produce good and useful books, it's just that I've found a consistently high level of quality in A-W books, which is why I've bought so many. As a plus, their bindings have proven quite durable even with the crap treatment some of my books take. (I've also learned that I could probably stand to weed out some of these really old titles, like "Programming the 8086/8088" :-)

I realize I'm not answering your direct question, but I'm saying that if you have some books that have helped you well in the past, try looking at other titles by the same publisher.

Disclaimer: I have no relationship to Addison-Wesley other than as a very satisfied customer. And I really like Apress and O'Reilly, too.

I question your assumption

[Anonymous Codger]

My experience in a recent job search is that the demand for Java exceeds that for C#. Unless you're enamored of Microsoft software and operating systems, you might want to learn Java first.

One thing for sure - the demand for C++ programmers has collapsed, at least in the DC area.

C# Essentials

[InsertCleverUsername]

You're already very familiar with OOP. If you're like me and just want the facts in hurry, I'd recommend something like C# Essentials: http://www.amazon.com/C-Essentials-2nd-Ben-Albahar i/dp/0596003153/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-5749589-837266 3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174093734&sr=8-1 [amazon.com]

It covers the language as quickly as anything I've seen. I felt fairly up-to-speed after a long weekend with this book. It won't waste your time telling you how to code "hello world" or giving you architectual guidance (there's plenty of that online). It's cheap too.

Your biggest hurdle will be learning the .Net framework libraries and getting proficient will other aspects/pitfalls of .Net development. The language itself will be easy for you.