Microsoft Virtual Academy: C# for Absolute Beginners by Bob Tabor

Over the past few months I've slowly been learning C#. I found this gem yesterday, and have been making progress through it. I highly suggest it as a starting point for anyone that is interested in learning how to code, especially applications for Revit. Bob Tabor does an excellent job at illustrating how to utilize Microsoft Visual Studio into your workflow, and how to read and write C# code. Give it a shot and start learning to code. It's absolutely free and the course is roughly nine hours long. Also in the course description there is a link to a supplemental course that has twenty one, three hour long, courses you can follow for additional knowledge. This will help your understanding of the Revit SDK, and you'll be on your way to writing the applications needed to benefit your office workflows... I will share what I come across as I learn to code, and hope that this eases anyone's anxiety for learning it!

https://mva.microsoft.com/en-US/training-courses/c-fundamentals-for-absolute-beginners-8295?l=EKbuxGYy_4304984382

The following is the course description as clearly stated on Microsoft's Virtual Academy

Course information

Want to learn a different language? Over the course of 25 episodes, our friend Bob Tabor, from www.LearnVisualStudio.net, teaches you the fundamentals of visual C# programming. Tune in to learn C# concepts applicable to video games, mobile environments, and client applications. We walk you through getting the tools, writing code, debugging features, customizations, and much more! Each concept in this C# for beginners course is broken into its own video so you can search for and focus on the information you need.

(NOTE: Would you like more practice questions, hands-on exercise projects, and additional reference materials to help you learn and use these skills? Download a companion guide to this course, courtesy of Dina and Sasha Goldshtein, of shecodes; academy. Dina and Sasha have put together 21 three-hour "she codes; hack nights" to complement Bob's course. They walk you through C# coding from start to finish, including creating your first C# program, performing advanced operations on strings and dates, exploring object-oriented programming, and much more. They even show you how to implement a game that you play against the computer! We are grateful to Dina and Sasha for sharing these resources with the MVA community.)

Instructor | Bob Tabor – Microsoft MVP

Series Introduction

Welcome to this series of lessons about the C# programming language. In this episode, Bob Tabor, from LearnVisualStudio.NET, introduces the topic, sets expectations for the series, and provides tips on how to get the most out of it. Bob also tells you where you can download the software you need to get started and offers some encouragement as you begin your journey.

Installing Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows Desktop

If you're not sure which version of Visual Studio to install or how to go about it, this video guides you in the right direction. You may skip this lesson if you already have Visual Studio 2013 Professional or later installed or if you have Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows Desktop or later installed. 

Creating Your First C# Program

This lesson teaches you how to create a simple application—first using Windows Notepad and the C# Command Line Compiler, and then by using Visual Studio or Visual C# Express Edition. The video concludes with an explanation of common solutions to the many different problems you might encounter as you first begin writing and compiling code.

Dissecting the First C# Program You Created

Follow an in-depth discussion of each completed action and written line of code. Explore the relationship between the C# code, the C# compiler, and the .NET Framework. The lesson also covers the concept of code blocks at a high level. Finally, the lesson shows you where your project files are stored and the different types of compilation.

Quick Overview of the Visual C# Express Edition IDE

See demonstrations of some common Visual Studio IDE features, various windows, debugging features, code window features, and customizations found in Visual C# Express Edition. A more complete discussion of features is found in the Visual C# Express Edition Fundamentals series and the Visual Studio Fundamentals series, both of which are available on Channel 9.

Declaring Variables and Assigning Values Duration

Here, we start adding C# syntax to your vocabulary by talking about fundamental building blocks: data types and variables. We also discuss basic topics, such as naming conventions and data type conversions. 

Branching with the if Decision Statement and the Conditional Operator

Branching allows us to add logic to our applications. This lesson introduces the ‘if Decision’ statement (in its various forms), along with the conditional operator. We also discuss how to refactor our code to make it more compact and less likely to produce errors, by eliminating duplicate code.

Operators, Expressions, and Statements Duration

In this lesson, we discuss how to create a properly formed C# statement. We discuss how statements are made up of expressions and how expressions are made up of operators (think: verbs) and operands (think: nouns). Finally, we talk about compilation errors that occur when the syntax rules of C# are ignored.

For Iterations

Iterations allow our applications to loop through a block of code until a condition is satisfied. We cover several different types of iteration statements throughout this series, how to utilize "code snippets" to help remind you of the syntax for this complex statement, and debugging in action.

Creating Arrays of Values

In this lesson, we talk about arrays, which are multi-part variables—a "bucket" containing other "buckets," if you will. We demonstrate how to declare and utilize arrays, and we demonstrate a couple of powerful built-in methods that give arrays added features. 

Creating and Calling Simple Overloaded Helper Methods

Now, we begin wading into the topic of methods by creating a helper method to break out code we may need to use in multiple places within our code. We create and call our methods to retrieve a value, create and use input parameters, learn about string formatting, and create overloaded versions of our method.

While Iterations and Reading Data from a Text File

Learn a new type of iteration statement (while) and how to utilize the StreamReader class to stream data from a file to the Console window. Additionally, we learn how to add new files to our project, how to set properties of our file using the Properties window, and how to add a using statement as a means of resolving a class name referenced in our code to the namespace in which it is defined. 

Working with Strings

Since oftentimes in our applications we'll want to work with string data, this lesson approaches a number of different string manipulations. We look at built-in String methods to manipulate the content inside of a literal string and at the StringBuilder class for concatenating many strings together in a memory and resource-friendly manner.

Working with DateTime

Like strings, dates and times are represented using special types and so deserve some attention. In this lesson, we learn how to work with Date and Time data, how to create new instances of DateTime, how to add time, and how to format the data for display. We also discuss the TimeSpan class.

Understanding and Creating Classes

Classes are integral to the .NET Framework, particularly the .NET Framework Class Library. Learn how classes are defined and new instances are created, how to define Properties, and how to both set values and get values for a given instance of the class.  

More About Classes and Methods

This lesson digs into more details about classes—what exactly happens when you create a new instance of a class? What is a reference to an instance of a class? How does passing the reference to a method affect a class? We also review overloaded methods, static versus instance methods, and constructors.

Working with Classes and Inheritances in the .NET Framework Class Library

This lesson continues to teach concepts about classes (specifically, in this case, inheritance) by showing you how to utilize inheritance in your own custom classes. Learn about overriding virtual functionality, abstract base classes, and sealed classes.  

Understanding Namespaces and Adding References to Assemblies

In this lesson, we explain how Namespaces allow us to disambiguate classes that may share the same name. And we explain how the .NET Framework Class Library is so large that including all its classes in every application you write is a waste of system resources. Certain project templates include references to the typical assemblies required by a given type of application, and we demonstrate this by referencing a custom assembly of Bob's own design.

Understanding Scope and Utilizing Accessibility Modifiers

Explore the scope of variables within code blocks and how accessibility modifiers, such as Public, Private, and Protected, are used by the .NET Framework Class Library to expose or hide implementation of their given services to consumers of that given class. This is sometimes referred to as "encapsulation."

Enumerations and the switch Decision Statement

Here, we demonstrate the use of Enumerations because, in the .NET Framework Class Library, properties can often be set only to a predetermined subset of possible values. To illustrate this point, we create our own custom enumeration and then utilize it in a simple application that demonstrates a third Decision statement, the switch.

Gracefully Handling Exceptions

Exceptions occur when an application experiences some unexpected problem at run time. This lesson discusses how to use the try catch finally block to anticipate potential problems and to attempt to shield the end user from those problems as much as possible. We also explore best practices when checking for exceptions.

Working with Collections

Collections are a more powerful form of arrays. In this lesson, we demonstrate an "old style" collection (pointing out its limitations), along with several of the newer, strongly typed generic collections (List<T> and Dictionary<T1, T2>) utilizing the generics syntax.

Filtering and Managing Data Collections Using LINQ

In this lesson, we discuss how Structured Query Language provides a means of working with sets of data. Similarly, the LINQ syntax provides a simple way of working with groups of data in generic collections. We demonstrate projecting data onto existing types and new anonymous types.

Understanding Event-Driven Programming

Learn how events are utilized in the .NET Framework Class Library specific to WPF and ASP.NET Web Forms applications. In these examples, we see how C# is generated by the IDE to "wire up" a user action or application event to the code that handles that event.

Where to Go from Here

In this final video, Bob talks about approaches to solving common issues that arise for new software developers, where to turn for help, how to search for answers to technical questions, and how to become part of the .NET community. He also provides a long-term path that you can follow to learn more about developing Windows and web applications.

Learn

• Walk through the concepts of C#.

Prerequisites

None

Time requirements, modules, assessments and points for this course:

9 hours* 25 modules 19 assessment

*Excluding labs, knowledge checks and assessments.