It helps to have knowledge of .NET classes. I was recently working on a requirement where some files were to be generated on the fly and stored on the disk. The requirement was that the files had to be generated with random characters and random extensions, to add extra security to the files. System.IO.Path.GetRandomFileName() returns a random folder name or file name which makes the task very simple, as shown below:

C#

static void Main(string[] args){    for (int i = 1; i < 10; i++)        Console.WriteLine(System.IO.Path.GetRandomFileName());    Console.ReadLine();}

VB.NET

Shared Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)    For i As Integer = 1 To 9        Console.WriteLine(System.IO.Path.GetRandomFileName())    Next i    Console.ReadLine()End Sub

Note: If you want to physically create some files on the disk, just pass these random names to a FileStream object inside the for loop. GetRandomFileName() does not create a physical file like GetTempFileName() does.

OUTPUT

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If you are using .NET 4.0, then Enum.TryParse<TEnum> is now provided out of the box and support flags enumeration. As given in the documentation, Enum.TryParse<> ‘Converts the string representation of the name or numeric value of one or more enumerated constants to an equivalent enumerated object. The return value indicates whether the conversion succeeded.’

Here’s how to use it:

[Flags]enum Result { Fail = 0, Pass = 1, Grace = 2 };

static void Main(string[] args){    string a = (Result.Pass || Result.Grace).ToString();    Result b;    bool success = Enum.TryParse<Result>(a, out b);    Console.WriteLine("{0} = {1}", success, b);    Console.ReadLine();}

OUTPUT

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Here’s a simple way to concatenate items of a List<string>

C#

static void Main(string[] args){    List<string> strList = new List<string>()    {        "Jake", "Brian", "Raj", "Finnie", "Carol"    };

    string str = string.Join(";", strList.ToArray());

    Console.WriteLine(str);    Console.ReadLine();}

VB.NET

Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)    Dim strList As New List(Of String)() _              From {"Jake", "Brian", "Raj", "Finnie", "Carol"}

    Dim str As String = string.Join(";", strList.ToArray())

    Console.WriteLine(str)    Console.ReadLine()End Sub

OUTPUT

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The DriveInfo.AvailableFreeSpace property indicates the amount of available free space on a drive. Here’s how to use this property to programmatically retrieve the total free space of all logical drives (including CD/DVD drives) on your machine.

C#

static void Main(string[] args){    foreach (DriveInfo drive in DriveInfo.GetDrives())    {        try        {            Console.WriteLine("{0} has {1} MB free space available",            drive.RootDirectory, (drive.AvailableFreeSpace / 1024) / 1024);        }        catch (IOException io)        {            Console.WriteLine(io.Message);        }        catch (Exception ex)        {            Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);        }    }    Console.ReadLine();}

VB.NET

Shared Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)    For Each drive As DriveInfo In DriveInfo.GetDrives()        Try            Console.WriteLine("{0} has {1} MB free space available", _drive.RootDirectory, (drive.AvailableFreeSpace \ 1024) / 1024)        Catch io As IOException            Console.WriteLine(io.Message)        Catch ex As Exception            Console.WriteLine(ex.Message)        End Try    Next drive    Console.ReadLine()End Sub

OUTPUT

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In the previous versions of .NET, we used the String.IsNullOrEmpty method to find out whether the specified string is null or an Empty string. However this method did not tell us if the string contained only whitespaces. You had to use the Trim().Length method to detect that.

.NET 4.0 makes this simpler by introducing the String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace method to find out whether a specified string is null, empty, or consists only of white-space characters.

So the following piece of code

static void Main(string[] args){    string str = new String(' ', 10);    Console.WriteLine(String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(str));    Console.ReadLine();}

will return True.

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The RNGCryptoServiceProvider Class implements a cryptographic Random Number Generator (RNG) using the implementation provided by the cryptographic service provider (CSP). Here’s how to generate random numbers using this class. Make sure you import the System.Security.Cryptography namespace before using this sample code

C#

static void GenerateRandomNumber(){    byte[] byt = new byte[4];    RNGCryptoServiceProvider rngCrypto =        new RNGCryptoServiceProvider();    rngCrypto.GetBytes(byt);    int randomNumber = BitConverter.ToInt32(byt, 0);    Console.WriteLine(randomNumber);}

VB.NET

Shared Sub GenerateRandomNumber()    Dim byt As Byte() = New Byte(4) {}    Dim rngCrypto As New RNGCryptoServiceProvider()    rngCrypto.GetBytes(byt)    Dim randomNumber As Integer = BitConverter.ToInt32(byt, 0)    Console.WriteLine(randomNumber)End Sub

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The ServiceController class makes it easy to retrieve information about a windows service and manipulate it. Here’s some code. Before running this example, make sure you have added a reference to System.ServiceProcess

C#

static void Main(string[] args){    try    {       ServiceController controller = new ServiceController("SERVICENAME");

        if (controller.Status.Equals(ServiceControllerStatus.Running)            && controller.CanStop)        {            controller.Stop();            Console.WriteLine("Service Stopped");        }                 Console.ReadLine();    }    catch (Exception ex)    {        Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);    }}

VB.NET

Shared Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)    Try        Dim controller As New ServiceController("SERVICENAME")

        If controller.Status.Equals(ServiceControllerStatus.Running)_

          AndAlso controller.CanStop Then            controller.Stop()            Console.WriteLine("Service Stopped")        End If        Console.ReadLine()    Catch ex As Exception        Console.WriteLine(ex.Message)    End TryEnd Sub

Make sure you have permission to stop the service or else you will get an exception.

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A lot of developers do not know that Directory.CreateDirectory() can be used to create directories and subdirectories as specified by the path. Here’s an example

C#

static void Main(string[] args){    try    {        Directory.CreateDirectory(@"D:\ParentDir\ChildDir\SubChildDir\");        Console.WriteLine("Directories Created");        Console.ReadLine();    }    catch (Exception ex)    {        Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);    }}

VB.NET

Shared Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)    Try        Directory.CreateDirectory("D:\ParentDir\ChildDir\SubChildDir\")        Console.WriteLine("Directories Created")        Console.ReadLine()    Catch ex As Exception        Console.WriteLine(ex.Message)    End TryEnd Sub

OUTPUT

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I was collecting some learning material on C# 4.0 and stumbled across some useful videos, articles and documents available on C# 4.0. I am just listing a few of them. Check them out!

Samples and Documents

New features of C# 4.0 (Beta 2)

Download C# 4.0 Beta 2 samples and documents

Articles

Use C# 4.0 dynamic to drastically simplify your private reflection code

C# 4.0 Optional Parameters – Exploration

An Overview of C# 4.0

Two New Features of C# 4.0

Looking Ahead to C# 4.0: Optional and Named Parameters

Books

C# 4.0 in a Nutshell: The Definitive Reference

Accelerated C# 2010

Visual C# 2010 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach

Introducing .NET 4.0: with Visual Studio 2010

Training Videos

What’s New in C# 4.0

C# 4.0 Video Series

C# 4.0 Dynamic with Chris Burrows and Sam Ng

How to Use Named and Optional Arguments in Office Programming (C#)

Dynamic C# and a New World of Possibilities

Please note that C# 4.0 is in Beta as of this writing.

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