Best C# book for learning

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I would like to know which is the best book to learn C# or I should say Visual C# because almost everybody uses Visual Studio for C# Development.
I have come across 3 books:

1. Head First C# 2nd Edition ( This books is based on C# 4.0 and it's latest edition for C# 5.0 is yet to come. What I like about this book is that focuses on C# working with the Visual Studio IDE. But this book has some topics missing in it.)

2. C# 5.0 in a nutshell ( This book has been praised by a lot of people and it has all the topics covered. But what I dislike about this book is that it doesn't talk C# with Visual Studio. It explains all the topics and takes into account that you are coding in Linqpad which most people won't prefer especially beginners. So it doesn't explain what the Visual Studio IDE does for you. So it is not very real world oriented according to me. As there is a lot of code that is generated automatically by the VS IDE one would not be able to get all that. ecause when we code in VS we use Winforms, WPF etc and these have there own auto generated code like public partial class etc.)

3. Visual C# 2012 Step by Step ( There are not many reviews about this book. But even in those few reviews it's all praise about this book. It has all topics covered and it also talks about C# with VS.)

So I would like to know which is the best book out of these or should I pick any other book over these.

I have worked with C, C++, Java and C# during my college. I have worked in WinForms also. Most of the time it was taking some code from the internet and changing it according to my needs for building a project. So basically I know basics of OOPS and also have some knowledge about C#. And I would like to use VS for my learning and later on for development as I plan to move to WP8 and W8 development later on.

Please help out people.

Thanks in advance.

Posted 23-Jul-13 21:27pm

ProCodingKing

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Joezer BH 24-Jul-13 3:30am

1 + 2 are very good.
don't know 3.

However, obviously it's a matter of opinion rather than a solid statement "which is better"

Also - what exactly do you want to learn, C# can mean a lot of different things ...

ProCodingKing 24-Jul-13 3:33am

Which one should I choose?
I would say 1st is for Visual C#
and 2nd is for C# doesn't take Visual Studio into account.

Which book would you prefer?

Joezer BH 24-Jul-13 3:40am

If I have to choose from 1 and 2 I'd say 2
BUT
I would consider learning from other sources, such as websites, and code samples.
See example of a good C# learning site:
C# Stataion - Tutorials

ProCodingKing 24-Jul-13 3:55am

The problem with tutorials is that you can't have them with you everywhere. I can read from the book when I'm not online. I will be able to get the concepts from the book and if I am in need of something more or something specific then I can refer to tutorials.

Joezer BH 24-Jul-13 3:55am

True :)

ProCodingKing 24-Jul-13 4:09am

Well I would like to thank you for helping me out. I guess I will buy that 2nd book and refer to tutorials side by side to check how much I am able to grasp waht I read from the book. Can you help me with some more tutorial sites that you might have used. Thanks alot.

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**Joezer BH** · Answer 1 · 2013-07-23T21:33:00

Solution 1

See Several previous questions on C# book recommendations[^]

Posted 23-Jul-13 21:33pm

Joezer BH

Pheonyx · Answer 2 · 2013-07-23T21:33:00

Solution 2

There are loads of books out there to help, each has its own merits and pitfalls. For the most part I would suggest starting with online tutorials, finding problems and creating applications to solve them. Books are good for reference but nothing beats practical experience for learning new techniques/languages etc.

If you are looking to develop for WP8 and W8, then find references that are targeted to that environment, don't try and learn a language across the board focus your efforts on one area, then if you need to expand move to a new area.

I have heard the step by step books are reasonable, but everyone has their own opinion. Personally, the only reference books I have have been targeted at any exams I have wanted to do in the subject.

Posted 23-Jul-13 21:33pm

Pheonyx

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ProCodingKing 24-Jul-13 4:11am

@Pheonyx
Well I was asking for a book because you can't have online tutorials with you all the time. A book will help me clear the basic concepts. And then I can refer to tutorials for something specific or when required. For eg: C# has something called Linq but when I don't what it is or what is it used for then what would I refer the tutorials for. I need to know the the language before starting with development. I would like to know what C# offers and where can I use it. And when I have a basic idea of things and I plan to develop something I will be clear that I need to use this concept or that concept to build that thing.

Pheonyx 24-Jul-13 4:20am

I understand what you are saying, I use a tool called Evernote to, in essence, build up my own repository of information that is available to me on and off line. I can understand why you are after one book, but in my experience, I have found that 1 book does not have all the answers, a collection of books/articles/tutorials etc give a much better insight. For the basic offerings of C#, read the MSDN, print the articles off, or save them to a hard-drive for offline access.
Just so you know, LINQ is not limited to C#, it is also available in VB.Net (and may be in other .Net languages i'm not certain).

Chui PuiKwan · Answer 3 · 2013-07-23T21:39:00

Solution 3

not exists the best ,just best suited to youself

e.g.

mvc 4 is suited for me ,but must not be suited for you.

Posted 23-Jul-13 21:39pm

Chui PuiKwan

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ProCodingKing 24-Jul-13 4:11am

Can you help me with a good book for C# and tutorials I can refer to when I'm online.

Chui PuiKwan 24-Jul-13 4:29am

If you still hava any question or need any help,send message to me .
I will try my best to help you.
In addition,you best book is MSDN!

Alireza Oliya · Answer 4 · 2013-08-16T12:21:00

Hi friend !
I have also learned c# programming from books and I'm doing well (hopefully! :) ). at first I struggled with a lot of books but what I found out was that every good programmer doesn't know how to properly teach programming and developing so I recommend that you have a peak at all these books:
Essential C# 4.0
C# 4.0 the complete reference
Illustrated C# 2012
Beginning visual C# 2010
good luck and happy coding !

Best C# book for learning

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