TechInterviews Bank of technical inteview questions of software companies in Ind

ia. • Mahesu .K 1.1 What is .NET? .NET is a "revolutionary new platform, built on
open Internet protocols and standards, with tools and services that meld computi
ng and communications in new ways". A more practical definition would be that .N
ET is a new environment for developing and running software applications, featur
ing ease of development of web-based services, rich standard run-time services a
vailable to components written in a variety of programming languages, and inter-
language and inter-machine interoperability. 1.2 Does .NET only apply to people
building web-sites? No. If you write any Windows software (using ATL/COM, MFC, V
B, or even raw Win32), .NET may offer a viable alternative (or addition) to the
way you do things currently. Of course, if you do develop web sites, then .NET h
as lots to interest you - not least ASP.NET. 1.6 What platforms does the .NET Fr
amework run on? The runtime supports Windows XP, Windows 2000, NT4 SP6a and Wind
ows ME/98. Windows 95 is not supported. Some parts of the framework do not work
on all platforms - for example, ASP.NET is only supported on Windows XP and Wind
ows 2000. Windows 98/ME cannot be used for development. IIS is not supported on
Windows XP Home Edition, and so cannot be used to host ASP.NET. However, the ASP
.NET Web Matrix web server does run on XP Home. The Mono project is attempting t
o implement the .NET framework on Linux. 1.7 What languages does the .NET Framew
ork support? MS provides compilers for C#, C++, VB and JScript. Other vendors ha
ve announced that they intend to develop .NET compilers for languages such as CO
BOL, Eiffel, Perl, Smalltalk and Python. 1.8 Will the .NET Framework go through
a standardisation process? From http://msdn.microsoft.com/net/ecma/: "On Decembe
r 13, 2001, the ECMA General Assembly ratified the C# and common language infras
tructure (CLI) specifications into international standards. The ECMA standards w
ill be known as ECMA-334 (C#) and ECMA-335 (the CLI)." 2. Basic terminology 2.1
What is the CLR? CLR = Common Language Runtime. The CLR is a set of standard res
ources that (in theory) any .NET program can take advantage of, regardless of pr
ogramming language. Object-oriented programming model (inheritance, polymorphism
, exception handling, garbage collection)
 Security model Type system All .NET base classes Many .NET framework classes Dev
elopment, debugging, and profiling tools Execution and code management IL-to-nat
ive translators and optimizers What this means is that in the .NET world, differ
ent programming languages will be more equal in capability than they have ever b
een before, although clearly not all languages will support all CLR services. 2.
2 What is the CTS? CTS = Common Type System. This is the range of types that the
.NET runtime understands, and therefore that .NET applications can use. However
note that not all .NET languages will support all the types in the CTS. The CTS
is a superset of the CLS. 2.3 What is the CLS? CLS = Common Language Specificat
ion. This is a subset of the CTS which all .NET languages are expected to suppor
t. The idea is that any program which uses CLScompliant types can interoperate w
ith any .NET program written in any language. In theory this allows very tight i
nterop between different .NET languages - for example allowing a C# class to inh
erit from a VB class. 2.4 What is IL? IL = Intermediate Language. Also known as
MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language) or CIL (Common Intermediate Language). Al
l .NET source code (of any language) is compiled to IL. The IL is then converted
to machine code at the point where the software is installed, or at run-time by
a Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler. 2.5 What is C#? C# is a new language designed by
Microsoft to work with the .NET framework. "C# is a simple, modern, object orie
nted, and type-safe programming language derived from C and C++. C# (pronounced “C
sharp”) is firmly planted in the C and C++ family tree of languages, and will imm
ediately be familiar to C and C++ programmers. C# aims to combine the high produ
ctivity of Visual Basic and the raw power of C++." Substitute 'Java' for 'C#' in
the quote above, and you'll see that the statement still works pretty well :-).
2.6 What does 'managed' mean in the .NET context? The term 'managed' is the cau
se of much confusion. It is used in various places within .NET, meaning slightly
different things. Managed code: The .NET framework provides several core run-ti
me services to the programs that run within it - for example exception handling
and security. For these services to work, the code must provide a minimum level
of information to the runtime. Such code is called managed code. All C# and Visu
al Basic.NET code is managed by default. VS7 C++ code is not managed by default,
but the compiler can produce managed code by specifying a command-line switch (
/com+). Managed data: This is data that is allocated and de-allocated by the .NE
T runtime's garbage collector. C# and VB.NET data is always managed. VS7 C++ dat
a is unmanaged by default, even when using the /com+ switch, but it can be marke
d as managed using the __gc keyword.
Managed classes: This is usually referred to in the context of Managed Extension
s (ME) for C++. When using ME C++, a class can be marked with the __gc keyword.
As the name suggests, this means that the memory for instances of the class is m
anaged by the garbage collector, but it also means more than that. The class bec
omes a fully paid-up member of the .NET community with the benefits and restrict
ions that brings. An example of a benefit is proper interop with classes written
in other languages - for example, a managed C++ class can inherit from a VB cla
ss. An example of a restriction is that a managed class can only inherit from on
e base class. 2.7 What is reflection? All .NET compilers produce metadata about
the types defined in the modules they produce. This metadata is packaged along w
ith the module (modules in turn are packaged together in assemblies), and can be
accessed by a mechanism called reflection. The System.Reflection namespace cont
ains classes that can be used to interrogate the types for a module/assembly. Us
ing reflection to access .NET metadata is very similar to using ITypeLib/ITypeIn
fo to access type library data in COM, and it is used for similar purposes - e.g
. determining data type sizes for marshaling data across context/process/machine
boundaries. Reflection can also be used to dynamically invoke methods (see Syst
em.Type.InvokeMember), or even create types dynamically at run-time (see System.
Reflection.Emit.TypeBuilder). 3. Assemblies 3.1 What is an assembly? An assembly
is sometimes described as a logical .EXE or .DLL, and can be an application (wi
th a main entry point) or a library. An assembly consists of one or more files (
dlls, exes, html files etc), and represents a group of resources, type definitio
ns, and implementations of those types. An assembly may also contain references
to other assemblies. These resources, types and references are described in a bl
ock of data called a manifest. The manifest is part of the assembly, thus making
the assembly self-describing. An important aspect of assemblies is that they ar
e part of the identity of a type. The identity of a type is the assembly that ho
uses it combined with the type name. This means, for example, that if assembly A
exports a type called T, and assembly B exports a type called T, the .NET runti
me sees these as two completely different types. Furthermore, don't get confused
between assemblies and namespaces - namespaces are merely a hierarchical way of
organising type names. To the runtime, type names are type names, regardless of
whether namespaces are used to organise the names. It's the assembly plus the t
ype name (regardless of whether the type name belongs to a namespace) that uniqu
ely identifies a type to the runtime. Assemblies are also important in .NET with
respect to security - many of the security restrictions are enforced at the ass
embly boundary. Finally, assemblies are the unit of versioning in .NET. 3.2 How
can I produce an assembly? The simplest way to produce an assembly is directly f
rom a .NET compiler. For example, the following C# program: Public class CTest {
Public CTest ()
{ System.Console.WriteLine ("Hello from CTest"); } } Can be compiled into a libr
ary assembly (dll) like this: csc /t:library ctest.cs You can then view the cont
ents of the assembly by running the "IL Disassembler" tool that comes with the .
NET SDK. Alternatively you can compile your source into modules, and then combin
e the modules into an assembly using the assembly linker (al.exe). For the C# co
mpiler, the /target:module switch is used to generate a module instead of an ass
embly. 3.3 What is the difference between a private assembly and a shared assemb
ly? Location and visibility: A private assembly is normally used by a single app
lication, and is stored in the application's directory, or a sub-directory benea
th. A shared assembly is normally stored in the global assembly cache, which is
a repository of assemblies maintained by the .NET runtime. Shared assemblies are
usually libraries of code which many applications will find useful, e.g. the .N
ET framework classes. Versioning: The runtime enforces versioning constraints on
ly on shared assemblies, not on private assemblies. 3.4 How do assemblies find e
ach other? By searching directory paths. There are several factors, which can af
fect the path (such as the AppDomain host, and application configuration files),
but for private assemblies the search path is normally the application's direct
ory and its sub-directories. For shared assemblies, the search path is normally
same as the private assembly path plus the shared assembly cache. 3.5 How does a
ssembly versioning work? Each assembly has a version number called the compatibi
lity version. Also each reference to an assembly (from another assembly) include
s both the name and version of the referenced assembly. The version number has f
our numeric parts (e.g. 5.5.2.33). Assemblies with either of the first two parts
different are normally viewed as incompatible. If the first two parts are the s
ame, but the third is different, the assemblies are deemed as 'maybe compatible'
. If only the fourth part is different, the assemblies are deemed compatible. Ho
wever, this is just the default guideline - it is the version policy that decide
s to what extent these rules are enforced. The version policy can be specified v
ia the application configuration file. Remember: versioning is only applied to s
hared assemblies, not private assemblies. 4. Application Domains 4.1 What is an
Application Domain? An AppDomain can be thought of as a lightweight process. Mul
tiple AppDomains can exist inside a Win32 process. The primary purpose of the Ap
pDomain is to isolate an application from other applications. Win32 processes pr
ovide isolation by having distinct memory address spaces. This is effective, but
it is expensive and doesn't scale well. The .NET runtime enforces AppDomain iso
lation by keeping control over the use of memory - all memory in the
AppDomain is managed by the .NET runtime, so the runtime can ensure that AppDoma
ins do not access each other's memory. 4.2 How does an AppDomain get created? Ap
pDomains are usually created by hosts. Examples of hosts are the Windows Shell,
ASP.NET and IE. When you run a .NET application from the command-line, the host
is the Shell. The Shell creates a new AppDomain for every application. AppDomain
s can also be explicitly created by .NET applications. Here is a C# sample which
creates an AppDomain, creates an instance of an object inside it, and then exec
utes one of the object's methods. Note that you must name the executable 'appdom
aintest.exe' for this code to work as-is. using System; using System.Runtime.Rem
oting; public class CAppDomainInfo : MarshalByRefObject { public string GetAppDo
mainInfo() { return "AppDomain = " + AppDomain.CurrentDomain.FriendlyName; } } p
ublic class App { public static int Main() { AppDomain ad = AppDomain.CreateDoma
in( "Andy's new domain", null, null ); ObjectHandle oh = ad.CreateInstance( "app
domaintest", "CAppDomainInfo" ); CAppDomainInfo adInfo = (CAppDomainInfo)(oh.Unw
rap()); string info = adInfo.GetAppDomainInfo(); Console.WriteLine( "AppDomain i
nfo: " + info ); return 0; } } 5. Garbage Collection 5.1 What is garbage collect
ion? Garbage collection is a system whereby a run-time component takes responsib
ility for managing the lifetime of objects and the heap memory that they occupy.
This concept is not new to .NET - Java and many other languages/runtimes have u
sed garbage collection for some time. 5.2 Is it true that objects don't always g
et destroyed immediately when the last reference goes away? Yes. The garbage col
lector offers no guarantees about the time when an object will be destroyed and
its memory reclaimed. 5.3 Why doesn't the .NET runtime offer deterministic destr
uction?
Because of the garbage collection algorithm. The .NET garbage collector works by
periodically running through a list of all the objects that are currently being
referenced by an application. All the objects that it doesn't find during this
search are ready to be destroyed and the memory reclaimed. The implication of th
is algorithm is that the runtime doesn't get notified immediately when the final
reference on an object goes away - it only finds out during the next sweep of t
he heap. Futhermore, this type of algorithm works best by performing the garbage
collection sweep as rarely as possible. Normally heap exhaustion is the trigger
for a collection sweep. 5.4 Is the lack of deterministic destruction in .NET a
problem? It's certainly an issue that affects component design. If you have obje
cts that maintain expensive or scarce resources (e.g. database locks), you need
to provide some way for the client to tell the object to release the resource wh
en it is done. Microsoft recommend that you provide a method called Dispose() fo
r this purpose. However, this causes problems for distributed objects - in a dis
tributed system who calls the Dispose() method? Some form of reference-counting
or ownership-management mechanism is needed to handle distributed objects - unfo
rtunately the runtime offers no help with this. 5.5 Does non-deterministic destr
uction affect the usage of COM objects from managed code? Yes. When using a COM
object from managed code, you are effectively relying on the garbage collector t
o call the final release on your object. If your COM object holds onto an expens
ive resource which is only cleaned-up after the final release, you may need to p
rovide a new interface on your object which supports an explicit Dispose() metho
d. 5.6 I've heard that Finalize methods should be avoided. Should I implement Fi
nalize on my class? An object with a Finalize method is more work for the garbag
e collector than an object without one. Also there are no guarantees about the o
rder in which objects are Finalized, so there are issues surrounding access to o
ther objects from the Finalize method. Finally, there is no guarantee that a Fin
alize method will get called on an object, so it should never be relied upon to
do clean-up of an object's resources. Microsoft recommend the following pattern:
public class CTest : IDisposable { public void Dispose() { ... // Cleanup activ
ities GC.SuppressFinalize(this); } ~CTest() // C# syntax hiding the Finalize() m
ethod { Dispose(); } } In the normal case the client calls Dispose(), the object
's resources are freed, and the garbage collector is relieved of its Finalizing
duties by the call to SuppressFinalize(). In
the worst case, i.e. the client forgets to call Dispose(), there is a reasonable
chance that the object's resources will eventually get freed by the garbage col
lector calling Finalize(). Given the limitations of the garbage collection algor
ithm this seems like a pretty reasonable approach. 5.7 Do I have any control ove
r the garbage collection algorithm? A little. For example, the System.GC class e
xposes a Collect method - this forces the garbage collector to collect all unref
erenced objects immediately. 5.8 How can I find out what the garbage collector i
s doing? Lots of interesting statistics are exported from the .NET runtime via t
he '.NET CLR xxx' performance counters. Use Performance Monitor to view them. 6.
Serialization 6.1 What is serialization? Serialization is the process of conver
ting an object into a stream of bytes. Deserialization is the opposite process o
f creating an object from a stream of bytes. Serialization/Deserialization is mo
stly used to transport objects (e.g. during remoting), or to persist objects (e.
g. to a file or database). 6.2 Does the .NET Framework have in-built support for
serialization? There are two separate mechanisms provided by the .NET class lib
rary - XmlSerializer and SoapFormatter/BinaryFormatter. Microsoft uses XmlSerial
izer for Web Services, and uses SoapFormatter/BinaryFormatter for remoting. Both
are available for use in your own code. 6.3 I want to serialize instances of my
class. Should I use XmlSerializer, SoapFormatter or BinaryFormatter? It depends
. XmlSerializer has severe limitations such as the requirement that the target c
lass has a parameterless constructor, and only public read/write properties and
fields can be serialized. However, on the plus side, XmlSerializer has good supp
ort for customising the XML document that is produced or consumed. XmlSerializer
's features mean that it is most suitable for cross-platform work, or for constr
ucting objects from existing XML documents. SoapFormatter and BinaryFormatter ha
ve fewer limitations than XmlSerializer. They can serialize private fields, for
example. However they both require that the target class be marked with the [Ser
ializable] attribute, so like XmlSerializer the class needs to be written with s
erialization in mind. Also there are some quirks to watch out for - for example
on deserialization the constructor of the new object is not invoked. The choice
between SoapFormatter and BinaryFormatter depends on the application. BinaryForm
atter makes sense where both serialization and deserialization will be performed
on the .NET platform and where performance is important. SoapFormatter generall
y makes more sense in all other cases, for ease of debugging if nothing else. 6.
4 Can I customise the serialization process? Yes. XmlSerializer supports a range
of attributes that can be used to configure serialization for a particular clas
s. For example, a field or property can be marked with the [XmlIgnore] attribute
to exclude it from serialization. Another example is the [XmlElement] attribute
, which can be used to specify the XML element name to be used for a particular
property or field. Serialization via SoapFormatter/BinaryFormatter can also be c
ontrolled to some extent by attributes. For example, the [NonSerialized] attribu
te is the equivalent of XmlSerializer's
[XmlIgnore] attribute. Ultimate control of the serialization process can be ache
ived by implementing the the ISerializable interface on the class whose instance
s are to be serialized. 6.5 Why is XmlSerializer so slow? There is a once-per-pr
ocess-per-type overhead with XmlSerializer. So the first time you serialize or d
eserialize an object of a given type in an application, there is a significant d
elay. This normally doesn't matter, but it may mean, for example, that XmlSerial
izer is a poor choice for loading configuration settings during startup of a GUI
application. 6.6 Why do I get errors when I try to serialize a Hashtable? XmlSe
rializer will refuse to serialize instances of any class that implements IDictio
nary, e.g. Hashtable. SoapFormatter and BinaryFormatter do not have this restric
tion. 6.7 XmlSerializer is throwing a generic "There was an error reflecting MyC
lass" error. How do I find out what the problem is? Look at the InnerException p
roperty of the exception that is thrown to get a more specific error message. 7.
Attributes 7.1 What are attributes? There are at least two types of .NET attrib
ute. The first type I will refer to as a metadata attribute - it allows some dat
a to be attached to a class or method. This data becomes part of the metadata fo
r the class, and (like other class metadata) can be accessed via reflection. An
example of a metadata attribute is [serializable], which can be attached to a cl
ass and means that instances of the class can be serialized. [serializable] publ
ic class CTest {} The other type of attribute is a context attribute. Context at
tributes use a similar syntax to metadata attributes but they are fundamentally
different. Context attributes provide an interception mechanism whereby instance
activation and method calls can be pre- and/or post-processed. 7.2 Can I create
my own metadata attributes? Yes. Simply derive a class from System.Attribute an
d mark it with the AttributeUsage attribute. For example: [AttributeUsage(Attrib
uteTargets.Class)] public class InspiredByAttribute : System.Attribute { public
string InspiredBy; public InspiredByAttribute( string inspiredBy ) { InspiredBy
= inspiredBy; } } [InspiredBy("Andy Mc's brilliant .NET FAQ")] class CTest { }
class CApp { public static void Main() { object[] atts = typeof(CTest).GetCustom
Attributes(true); foreach( object att in atts ) if( att is InspiredByAttribute )
Console.WriteLine( "Class CTest was inspired by {0}", ((InspiredByAttribute)att
).InspiredBy ); } } 8. Code Access Security 8.1 What is Code Access Security (CA
S)? CAS is the part of the .NET security model that determines whether or not a
piece of code is allowed to run, and what resources it can use when it is runnin
g. For example, it is CAS that will prevent a .NET web applet from formatting yo
ur hard disk. 8.2 How does CAS work? The CAS security policy revolves around two
key concepts - code groups and permissions. Each .NET assembly is a member of a
particular code group, and each code group is granted the permissions specified
in a named permission set. For example, using the default security policy, a co
ntrol downloaded from a web site belongs to the 'Zone - Internet' code group, wh
ich adheres to the permissions defined by the 'Internet' named permission set. (
Naturally the 'Internet' named permission set represents a very restrictive rang
e of permissions.) 8.3 Who defines the CAS code groups? Microsoft defines some d
efault ones, but you can modify these and even create your own. To see the code
groups defined on your system, run 'caspol -lg' from the command-line. On my sys
tem it looks like this: Level = Machine Code Groups: 1. All code: Nothing 1.1. Z
one - MyComputer: FullTrust 1.1.1. Honor SkipVerification requests: SkipVerifica
tion 1.2. Zone - Intranet: LocalIntranet 1.3. Zone - Internet: Internet 1.4. Zon
e - Untrusted: Nothing 1.5. Zone - Trusted: Internet 1.6. StrongName 00240000048
00000940000000602000000240000525341310004000003 000000CFCB3291AA715FE99D40D49040
336F9056D7886FED46775BC7BB5430BA4 444FEF8348EBD06
F962F39776AE4DC3B7B04A7FE6F49F25F740423EBF2C0B89698D8D08AC48D69C ED0FC8F83B465E0
8 07AC11EC1DCC7D054E807A43336DDE408A5393A48556123272CEEEE72F1660B7 1927D38561AAB
F5C AC1DF1734633C602F8F2D5: Everything Note the hierarchy of code groups - the t
op of the hierarchy is the most general ('All code'), which is then sub-divided
into several groups, each of which in turn can be subdivided. Also note that (so
mewhat counter-intuitively) a sub-group can be associated with a more permissive
permission set than its parent. 8.4 How do I define my own code group? Use casp
ol. For example, suppose you trust code from www.mydomain.com and you want it ha
ve full access to your system, but you want to keep the default restrictions for
all other internet sites. To achieve this, you would add a new code group as a
sub-group of the 'Zone - Internet' group, like this: caspol -ag 1.3 -site www.my
domain.com FullTrust Now if you run caspol -lg you will see that the new group h
as been added as group 1.3.1: ... 1.3. Zone - Internet: Internet 1.3.1. Site - w
ww.mydomain.com: FullTrust ... Note that the numeric label (1.3.1) is just a cas
pol invention to make the code groups easy to manipulate from the command-line.
The underlying runtime never sees it. 8.5 How do I change the permission set for
a code group? Use caspol. If you are the machine administrator, you can operate
at the 'machine' level which means not only that the changes you make become th
e default for the machine, but also that users cannot change the permissions to
be more permissive. If you are a normal (non-admin) user you can still modify th
e permissions, but only to make them more restrictive. For example, to allow int
ranet code to do what it likes you might do this: caspol -cg 1.2 FullTrust Note
that because this is more permissive than the default policy (on a standard syst
em), you should only do this at the machine level - doing it at the user level w
ill have no effect. 8.6 Can I create my own permission set? Yes. Use caspol -ap,
specifying an XML file containing the permissions in the permission set. When y
ou have created the sample, add it to the range of available permission sets lik
e this: caspol -ap samplepermset.xml Then, to apply the permission set to a code
group, do something like this: caspol -cg 1.3 SamplePermSet (By default, 1.3 is
the 'Internet' code group) 8.7 I'm having some trouble with CAS. How can I diag
nose my problem? Caspol has a couple of options that might help. First, you can
ask caspol to tell you what code group an assembly belongs to, using caspol -rsg
. Similarly, you can ask what permissions are being applied to a particular asse
mbly using caspol -rsp. 8.8 I can't be bothered with all this CAS stuff. Can I t
urn it off? Yes, as long as you are an administrator. Just run:
caspol -s off 9. Intermediate Language (IL) 9.1 Can I look at the IL for an asse
mbly? Yes. MS supply a tool called Ildasm which can be used to view the metadata
and IL for an assembly. 9.2 Can source code be reverse-engineered from IL? Yes,
it is often relatively straightforward to regenerate high-level source (e.g. C#
) from IL. 9.3 How can I stop my code being reverse-engineered from IL? There is
currently no simple way to stop code being reverse-engineered from IL. In futur
e it is likely that IL obfuscation tools will become available, either from MS o
r from third parties. These tools work by 'optimising' the IL in such a way that
reverse-engineering becomes much more difficult. Of course if you are writing w
eb services then reverse-engineering is not a problem as clients do not have acc
ess to your IL. 9.4 Can I write IL programs directly? Yes. simple example .assem
bly MyAssembly {} .class MyApp { .method static void Main() { .entrypoint ldstr
"Hello, IL!" call void System.Console::WriteLine(class System.Object) ret } } Ju
st put this into a file called hello.il, and then run ilasm hello.il. An exe ass
embly will be generated. 9.5 Can I do things in IL that I can't do in C#? Yes. A
couple of simple examples are that you can throw exceptions that are not derive
d from System.Exception, and you can have non-zero-based arrays. 10. Implication
s for COM 10.1 Is COM dead? This subject causes a lot of controversy. COM is man
y things, and it's different things to different people. But to me, COM is funda
mentally about how little blobs of code find other little blobs of code, and how
they communicate with each other when they find each other. COM specifies preci
sely how this location and communication takes place. In a 'pure' .NET world, co
nsisting entirely of .NET objects, little blobs of code still find each other an
d talk to each other, but they don't use COM to do so. They use a model which is
similar to COM in some ways - for example, type information is stored in a tabu
lar form packaged with the component, which is quite similar to packaging a type
library with a COM component. But it's not COM. So, does this matter? Well, I d
on't really care about most of the COM stuff going away - I don't care that find
ing components doesn't involve a trip to the registry, or that I don't use IDL t
o define my interfaces. But there is one thing that I wouldn't like to go away -
I
wouldn't like to lose the idea of interface-based development. COM's greatest st
rength, in my opinion, is its insistence on a cast-iron separation between inter
face and implementation. Unfortunately, the .NET framework seems to make no such
insistence it lets you do interface-based development, but it doesn't insist. S
ome people would argue that having a choice can never be a bad thing, and maybe
they're right, but I can't help feeling that maybe it's a backward step. 10.2 Is
DCOM dead? Pretty much, for .NET developers. The .NET Framework has a new remot
ing model which is not based on DCOM. Of course DCOM will still be used in inter
op scenarios. 10.3 Is MTS/COM+ dead? No. The approach for the first .NET release
is to provide access to the existing COM+ services (through an interop layer) r
ather than replace the services with native .NET ones. Various tools and attribu
tes are provided to try to make this as painless as possible. The PDC release of
the .NET SDK includes interop support for core services (JIT activation, transa
ctions) but not some of the higher level services (e.g. COM+ Events, Queued comp
onents). Over time it is expected that interop will become more seamless - this
may mean that some services become a core part of the CLR, and/or it may mean th
at some services will be rewritten as managed code which runs on top of the CLR.
10.4 Can I use COM components from .NET programs? Yes. COM components are acces
sed from the .NET runtime via a Runtime Callable Wrapper (RCW). This wrapper tur
ns the COM interfaces exposed by the COM component into .NET-compatible interfac
es. For oleautomation interfaces, the RCW can be generated automatically from a
type library. For non-oleautomation interfaces, it may be necessary to develop a
custom RCW which manually maps the types exposed by the COM interface to .NET-c
ompatible types. When you've built the COM component, you should get a typelibra
ry. Run the TLBIMP utility on the typelibary, like this: tlbimp cppcomserver.tlb
If successful, you will get a message like this: Typelib imported successfully
to CPPCOMSERVERLib.dll You now need a .NET client - let's use C#. Create a .cs f
ile containing the following code: using System; using CPPCOMSERVERLib; public c
lass MainApp { static public void Main() { CppName cppname = new CppName(); cppn
ame.SetName( "bob" ); Console.WriteLine( "Name is " + cppname.GetName() ); } }
Note that we are using the type library name as a namespace, and the COM class n
ame as the class. Alternatively we could have used CPPCOMSERVERLib.CppName for t
he class name and gone without the using CPPCOMSERVERLib statement. Compile the
C# code like this: csc /r:cppcomserverlib.dll csharpcomclient.cs Note that the c
ompiler is being told to reference the DLL we previously generated from the type
library using TLBIMP. You should now be able to run csharpcomclient.exe, and get
the following output on the console: Name is bob 10.5 Can I use .NET components
from COM programs? Yes. .NET components are accessed from COM via a COM Callabl
e Wrapper (CCW). This is similar to a RCW (see previous question), but works in
the opposite direction. Again, if the wrapper cannot be automatically generated
by the .NET development tools, or if the automatic behaviour is not desirable, a
custom CCW can be developed. Also, for COM to 'see' the .NET component, the .NE
T component must be registered in the registry. Here's a simple example. Create
a C# file called testcomserver.cs and put the following in it: using System; nam
espace AndyMc { public class CSharpCOMServer { public CSharpCOMServer() {} publi
c void SetName( string name ) { m_name = name; } public string GetName() { retur
n m_name; } private string m_name; } } Then compile the .cs file as follows: csc
/target:library testcomserver.cs You should get a dll, which you register like
this: regasm testcomserver.dll /tlb:testcomserver.tlb /codebase Now you need to
create a client to test your .NET COM component. VBScript will do put the follow
ing in a file called comclient.vbs: Dim dotNetObj Set dotNetObj = CreateObject("
AndyMc.CSharpCOMServer") dotNetObj.SetName ("bob") MsgBox "Name is "& dotNetObj.
GetName() and run the script like this: wscript comclient.vbs And hey presto you
should get a message box displayed with the text "Name is bob". 10.6 Is ATL red
undant in the .NET world?
Yes, if you are writing applications that live inside the .NET framework. Of cou
rse many developers may wish to continue using ATL to write C++ COM components t
hat live outside the framework, but if you are inside you will almost certainly
want to use C#. Raw C++ (and therefore ATL which is based on it) doesn't have mu
ch of a place in the .NET world - it's just too near the metal and provides too
much flexibility for the runtime to be able to manage it. 11. Miscellaneous 11.1
How does .NET remoting work? .NET remoting involves sending messages along chan
nels. Two of the standard channels are HTTP and TCP. TCP is intended for LANs on
ly - HTTP can be used for LANs or WANs (internet). Support is provided for multi
ple message serializarion formats. Examples are SOAP (XML-based) and binary. By
default, the HTTP channel uses SOAP (via the .NET runtime Serialization SOAP For
matter), and the TCP channel uses binary (via the .NET runtime Serialization Bin
ary Formatter). But either channel can use either serialization format. There ar
e a number of styles of remote access: SingleCall. Each incoming request from a
client is serviced by a new object. The object is thrown away when the request h
as finished. This (essentially stateless) model can be made stateful in the ASP.
NET environment by using the ASP.NET state service to store application or sessi
on state. Singleton. All incoming requests from clients are processed by a singl
e server object. Client-activated object. This is the old stateful (D)COM model
whereby the client receives a reference to the remote object and holds that refe
rence (thus keeping the remote object alive) until it is finished with it. Distr
ibuted garbage collection of objects is managed by a system called 'leased based
lifetime'. Each object has a lease time, and when that time expires the object
is disconnected from the .NET runtime remoting infrastructure. Objects have a de
fault renew time - the lease is renewed when a successful call is made from the
client to the object. The client can also explicitly renew the lease. 11.2 How c
an I get at the Win32 API from a .NET program? Use P/Invoke. This uses similar t
echnology to COM Interop, but is used to access static DLL entry points instead
of COM objects. Here is an example of C# calling the Win32 MessageBox function:
using System; using System.Runtime.InteropServices; class MainApp { [DllImport("
user32.dll", EntryPoint="MessageBox", SetLastError=true, CharSet=CharSet.Auto)]
public static extern int MessageBox(int hWnd, String strMessage, String strCapti
on, uint uiType);
public static void Main() { MessageBox( 0, "Hello, this is PInvoke in operation!
", ".NET", 0 ); } } 12. Class Library 12.1 File I/O 12.1.1 How do I read from a
text file? First, use a System.IO.FileStream object to open the file: FileStream
fs = new FileStream( @"c:\test.txt", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read ); FileStre
am inherits from Stream, so you can wrap the FileStream object with a StreamRead
er object. This provides a nice interface for processing the stream line by line
: StreamReader sr = new StreamReader( fs ); string curLine; while( (curLine = sr
.ReadLine()) != null ) Console.WriteLine( curLine ); Finally close the StreamRea
der object: sr.Close(); Note that this will automatically call Close() on the un
derlying Stream object, so an explicit fs.Close() is not required. 12.1.2 How do
I write to a text file? Similar to the read example, except use StreamWriter in
stead of StreamReader. 12.1.3 How do I read/write binary files? Similar to text
files, except wrap the FileStream object with a BinaryReader/Writer object inste
ad of a StreamReader/Writer object. 12.1.4 How do I delete a file? Use the stati
c Delete() method on the System.IO.File object: File.Delete( @"c:\test.txt" ); 1
2.2 Text Processing 12.2.1 Are regular expressions supported? Yes. Use the Syste
m.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex class. For example, the following code updates t
he title in an HTML file: FileStream fs = new FileStream( "test.htm", FileMode.O
pen, FileAccess.Read ); StreamReader sr = new StreamReader( fs ); Regex r = new
Regex( "" ); string s; while( (s = sr.ReadLine()) != null ) { if( r.IsMatch( s )
) s = r.Replace( s, "" ); Console.WriteLine( s ); } 12.3 Internet 12.3.1 How do
I download a web page?
First use the System.Net.WebRequestFactory class to acquire a WebRequest object:
WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create( "http://localhost" ); Then ask for the
response from the request: WebResponse response = request.GetResponse(); The Get
Response method blocks until the download is complete. Then you can access the r
esponse stream like this: Stream s = response.GetResponseStream(); // Output the
downloaded stream to the console StreamReader sr = new StreamReader( s ); strin
g line; while( (line = sr.ReadLine()) != null ) Console.WriteLine( line ); Note
that WebRequest and WebReponse objects can be downcast to HttpWebRequest and Htt
pWebReponse objects respectively, to access http-specific functionality. 12.3.2
How do I use a proxy? Two approaches - to affect all web requests do this: Syste
m.Net.GlobalProxySelection.Select = new WebProxy( "proxyname", 80 ); Alternative
ly, to set the proxy for a specific web request, do this: HttpWebRequest request
= (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create( "http://localhost" ); request.Proxy = new
WebProxy( "proxyname", 80 ); 12.4 XML 12.4.1 Is DOM supported? Yes. Take this ex
ample XML document: Fred Bill This document can be parsed as follows: XmlDocumen
t doc = new XmlDocument(); doc.Load( "test.xml" ); XmlNode root = doc.DocumentEl
ement; foreach( XmlNode personElement in root.ChildNodes ) Console.WriteLine( pe
rsonElement.FirstChild.Value.ToString() ); The output is: Fred Bill 12.4.2 Is SA
X supported? No. Instead, a new XmlReader/XmlWriter API is offered. Like SAX it
is stream-based but it uses a 'pull' model rather than SAX's 'push' model. Here'
s an example: XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader( "test.xml" ); while( rea
der.Read() ) {
if( reader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element && reader.Name == "PERSON" ) { reader
.Read(); // Skip to the child text Console.WriteLine( reader.Value ); } } 12.4.3
Is XPath supported? Yes, via the XPathXXX classes: XPathDocument xpdoc = new XP
athDocument("test.xml"); XPathNavigator nav = xpdoc.CreateNavigator(); XPathExpr
ession expr = nav.Compile("descendant::PEOPLE/PERSON"); XPathNodeIterator iterat
or = nav.Select(expr); while (iterator.MoveNext()) Console.WriteLine(iterator.Cu
rrent); 12.5 Threading 12.5.1 Is multi-threading supported? Yes, there is extens
ive support for multi-threading. New threads can be spawned, and there is a syst
em-provided threadpool which applications can use. 12.5.2 How do I spawn a threa
d? Create an instance of a System.Threading.Thread object, passing it an instanc
e of a ThreadStart delegate that will be executed on the new thread. For example
: class MyThread { public MyThread( string initData ) { m_data = initData; m_thr
ead = new Thread( new ThreadStart(ThreadMain) ); m_thread.Start(); } // ThreadMa
in() is executed on the new thread. private void ThreadMain() { Console.WriteLin
e( m_data ); } public void WaitUntilFinished() { m_thread.Join(); } private Thre
ad m_thread; private string m_data; }
In this case creating an instance of the MyThread class is sufficient to spawn t
he thread and execute the MyThread.ThreadMain() method: MyThread t = new MyThrea
d( "Hello, world." ); t.WaitUntilFinished(); 12.5.3 How do I stop a thread? Ther
e are several options. First, you can use your own communication mechanism to te
ll the ThreadStart method to finish. Alternatively the Thread class has in-built
support for instructing the thread to stop. The two principle methods are Threa
d.Interrupt() and Thread.Abort(). The former will cause a ThreadInterruptedExcep
tion to be thrown on the thread when it next goes into a WaitJoinSleep state. In
other words, Thread.Interrupt is a polite way of asking the thread to stop when
it is no longer doing any useful work. In contrast, Thread.Abort() throws a Thr
eadAbortException regardless of what the thread is doing. Furthermore, the Threa
dAbortException cannot normally be caught (though the ThreadStart's finally meth
od will be executed). Thread.Abort() is a heavy-handed mechanism which should no
t normally be required. 12.5.4 How do I use the thread pool? By passing an insta
nce of a WaitCallback delegate to the ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem() method: cla
ss CApp { static void Main() { string s = "Hello, World"; ThreadPool.QueueUserWo
rkItem( new WaitCallback( DoWork ), s ); Thread.Sleep( 1000 ); // Give time for
work item to be executed } // DoWork is executed on a thread from the thread poo
l. static void DoWork( object state ) { Console.WriteLine( state ); } } 12.5.5 H
ow do I know when my thread pool work item has completed? There is no way to que
ry the thread pool for this information. You must put code into the WaitCallback
method to signal that it has completed. Events are useful for this. 12.5.6 How
do I prevent concurrent access to my data? Each object has a concurrency lock (c
ritical section) associated with it. The System.Threading.Monitor.Enter/Exit met
hods are used to acquire and release this lock. For example, instances of the fo
llowing class only allow one thread at a time to enter method f(): class C { pub
lic void f() {
try { Monitor.Enter(this); ... } finally { Monitor.Exit(this); } } } C# has a 'l
ock' keyword which provides a convenient shorthand for the code above: class C {
public void f() { lock(this) { ... } } } Note that calling Monitor.Enter(myObje
ct) does NOT mean that all access to myObject is serialized. It means that the s
ynchronisation lock associated with myObject has been acquired, and no other thr
ead can acquire that lock until Monitor.Exit(o) is called. In other words, this
class is functionally equivalent to the classes above: class C { public void f()
{ lock( m_object ) { ... } } private m_object = new object(); } 12.6 Tracing 12
.6.1 Is there built-in support for tracing/logging? Yes, in the System.Diagnosti
cs namespace. There are two main classes that deal with tracing - Debug and Trac
e. They both work in a similar way - the difference is that tracing from the Deb
ug class only works in builds that have the DEBUG symbol defined, whereas tracin
g from the Trace class only works in builds that have the TRACE symbol defined.
Typically this means that you should use System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine for
tracing that you want to work in debug and release builds, and
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine for tracing that you want to work only in deb
ug builds. 12.6.2 Can I redirect tracing to a file? Yes. The Debug and Trace cla
sses both have a Listeners property, which is a collection of sinks that receive
the tracing that you send via Debug.WriteLine and Trace.WriteLine respectively.
By default the Listeners collection contains a single sink, which is an instanc
e of the DefaultTraceListener class. This sends output to the Win32 OutputDebugS
tring() function and also the System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Log() method. This is
useful when debugging, but if you're trying to trace a problem at a customer sit
e, redirecting the output to a file is more appropriate. Fortunately, the TextWr
iterTraceListener class is provided for this purpose. Here's how to use the Text
WriterTraceListener class to redirect Trace output to a file: Trace.Listeners.Cl
ear(); FileStream fs = new FileStream( @"c:\log.txt", FileMode.Create, FileAcces
s.Write ); Trace.Listeners.Add( new TextWriterTraceListener( fs ) ); Trace.Write
Line( @"This will be writen to c:\log.txt!" ); Trace.Flush(); Note the use of Tr
ace.Listeners.Clear() to remove the default listener. If you don't do this, the
output will go to the file and OutputDebugString(). Typically this is not what y
ou want, because OutputDebugString() imposes a big performance hit. 12.6.3 Can I
customise the trace output? Yes. You can write your own TraceListener-derived c
lass, and direct all output through it. Here's a simple example, which derives f
rom TextWriterTraceListener (and therefore has in-built support for writing to f
iles, as shown above) and adds timing information and the thread ID for each tra
ce line: class MyListener : TextWriterTraceListener { public MyListener( Stream
s ) : base(s) { } public override void WriteLine( string s ) { Writer.WriteLine(
"{0:D8} [{1:D4}] {2}", Environment.TickCount - m_startTickCount, AppDomain.GetC
urrentThreadId(), s ); } protected int m_startTickCount = Environment.TickCount;
} (Note that this implementation is not complete - the TraceListener.Write meth
od is not overridden for example.) The beauty of this approach is that when an i
nstance of MyListener is added to the Trace.Listeners collection, all calls to T
race.WriteLine() go through MyListener,
including calls made by referenced assemblies that know nothing about the MyList
ener class. What platforms support .NET? Right now the only operating system wit
h a full implementation of .NET (that I know about, anyway) is Microsoft Windows
. The .NET Framework redistributable is available for Windows 98, Windows NT, Wi
ndows 2000, and Windows XP. The .NET Framework SDK is available for Windows 2000
and Windows XP. The Mono Project is an ongoing open-source implementation of .N
ET for Linux and Windows that is currently still in development. The dotGNU proj
ect is another opensource .NET implementation. The Rotor project is a Microsoft
shared source CLI implementation targeting Windows and FreeBSD. C SHARP FAQ’S 1. I
ntroduction 1.1 What is C#? C# is a programming language designed by Microsoft.
It is loosely based on C/C++, and bears a striking similarity to Java in many wa
ys. Describe C# as follows: "C# is a simple, modern, object oriented,

and
type-s
afe programming language derived from C and C++. C# (pronounced C sharp ) is fi
rmly planted in the C and C++ family tree of languages, and will immediately be
familiar to C and C++ programmers. C# aims to combine the high productivity of V
isual Basic and the raw power of C++." 2. Basic types 2.1 What standard types do
es C# supply? C# supports a very similar range of basic types to C++, including
int,

long, float, double, char, string, arrays, structs and classes. However, do
n t assume too much. The names may be familiar, but some of the details are diff
erent. For example, a long is 64 bits in C#, whereas in C++ the size of a long d
epends on the platform (typically 32 bits on a 32-bit platform, 64 bits on a 64-
bit platform). Also classes and structs are almost the same in C++ - this is not
true for C#. 2.2 Is it true that all C# types derive from a common base class?
Yes and no. All types can be treated as if they derive from object (System.Objec
t), but in order to treat an instance of a value type (e.g. int, float) as objec
t-derived,

the

instance must be converted to a reference type using a process ca
lled boxing . In theory a developer can forget about this and let the run-time
worry about when the conversion is necessary, but in reality this implicit conve
rsion can have side-effects that may trip up the unwary. 2.3 So this means I can
pass an instance of a value type to a method that takes an object as a paramete
r? Yes. For example: class CApplication { public static void Main() { int x = 25
; string s = "fred";
DisplayMe( x ); DisplayMe( s ); } static void DisplayMe( object o ) { System.Con
sole.WriteLine( "You are {0}", o ); } } This would display: You are 25 You are f
red 2.4 What are the fundamental differences between value types and reference t
ypes? C# divides types into two categories - value types and reference types. Mo
st of the basic intrinsic types (e.g. int, char) are value types. Structs are al
so value types. Reference types include classes, interfaces, arrays and strings.
The basic idea is straightforward - an instance of a value type represents the
actual data (stored on the stack), whereas an instance of a reference type repre
sents a pointer or reference to the data (stored on the heap). int x1 = 3; // x1
is a value on the stack int x2 = new int(); x2 = 3; // x2 is also a value on th
e stack! 2.5 Okay, so an int is a value type,

and a class is a reference type. H
ow can int be derived from object? It isn t, really. When an int is being used a
s an int, it is a value (on the stack). However, when it is being used as an obj
ect, it is a reference to an integer value on the heap. In other words, when you
treat an int as an object, the runtime automatically converts the int value to
an object reference. This process is called boxing. The conversion involves copy
ing the contents of the int from the stack to the heap, and creating an object i
nstance which refers to it. Unboxing is the reverse process - the object is conv
erted back to a stack-based value. int x = 3; // new int value 3 on the stack ob
ject objx = x; // new int on heap, set to value 3 - still have x=3 on stack int
y = (int)objx; // new value 3 on stack, still got x=3 on stack and objx=3 on hea
p 3. Classes and structs 3.1 Structs are largely redundant in C++. Why does C# h
ave them? In C++, a struct and a class are pretty much the same thing. The only
difference is the default visibility level (public for structs, private for clas
ses). However, In C# structs and classes are very different. In C#, structs are
value types (stored on the stack), whereas classes are reference types (stored o
n the heap). Also structs cannot inherit from structs or classes, though they ca
n implement interfaces. Structs cannot have destructors. 3.2 Does C# support mul
tiple inheritance (MI)? C# supports multiple inheritance of interfaces, but not
of classes.
3.7 What is a static constructor? A constructor for a class, rather than instanc
es of a class. The static constructor is called when the class is loaded. 3.8 Ar
e all methods virtual in C#? No. Methods are non-virtual by default, but can be
marked as virtual. 3.9 How do I declare a pure virtual function in C#? Use the a
bstract modifier on the method. The class must also be marked as abstract (natur
ally). Note that abstract methods cannot have an implementation. 4. Exceptions 4
.1 Can I use exceptions in C#? Yes, in fact exceptions are the recommended error
-handling mechanism in C# (and in .NET in general). Most of the .NET framework c
lasses use exceptions to signal errors. 4.2 What types of object can I throw as
exceptions? Only instances of the System.Exception classes, or classes derived f
rom System.Exception. 4.3 Can I define my own exceptions? Yes, as long as you fo
llow the rule that exceptions derive from System.Exception. More specifically, r
ecommend that user-defined exceptions inherit from System.ApplicationException (
which is derived from System.Exception). 4.5 Does the System.Exception class hav
e any cool features? Yes - the feature which stands out is the StackTrace proper
ty. This provides a call stack which records where the exception was thrown from
. For example, the following code: using System; class CApp { public static void
Main() { try { f(); } catch( Exception e ) { Console.WriteLine( "System.Excepti
on stack trace = \n{0}", e.StackTrace ); } } static void f() { throw new Excepti
on( "f went pear-shaped" ); } } produces this output: System.Exception stack tra
ce = at CApp.f()
at CApp.Main() Note, however, that this stack trace was produced from a debug bu
ild. A release build may
optimise away some of the method calls which could mean
that the call stack isn t quite what you expect.
4.6 When should

I throw an exc
eption? Exceptions should be thrown only when an unexpected error occurs. How
do you decide if an error is expected or unexpected? This is a judgement call, b
ut a straightforward example of an expected error is failing to read from a file
because the seek pointer is at the end of the file, whereas an example of an un

expected

error is failing to allocate memory from the heap. 4.7 Does C# have a
throws clause? C# does not require (or even allow) the developer to specify the
exceptions that a method can throw. 5. Run-time type information 5.1 How can I
check the type of an object at runtime? You can use the is keyword. For example:
using System; class CApp { public static void Main() { string s = "fred"; long
i = 10; Console.WriteLine( "{0} is {1}an integer", s, (IsInteger(s) ? "" : "not
") ); Console.WriteLine( "{0} is {1}an integer", i, (IsInteger(i) ? "" : "not ")
); } static bool IsInteger( object obj ) { if( obj is int || obj is long ) retu
rn true; else return false; } } produces the output: fred is not an integer 10 i
s an integer 5.2 Can I get the name of a type at runtime? Yes, use the GetType m
ethod of the object class (which all types inherit from). For example: using Sys
tem; class CTest
{ class CApp { public static void Main() { long i = 10; CTest ctest = new CTest(
); DisplayTypeInfo( ctest ); DisplayTypeInfo( i ); } static void DisplayTypeInfo
( object obj ) { Console.WriteLine( "Type name = {0}, full type name = {1}", obj
.GetType(), obj.GetType().FullName ); } } } produces the following output: Type
name = CTest, full type name = CTest Type name = Int64, full type name = System.
Int64 6. Advanced language features 6.1 What are delegates? A delegate is a clas
s derived from System.Delegate. However the
language has a special syntax for de
claring delegates which means that they don t look like classes. A delegate repr
esents a method with a particular signature. An instance of a delegate represent
s a method with a particular signature on a particular object (or class in the c
ase of a static method). For example: using System; delegate void Stereotype();
class CAmerican { public void BePatriotic() { Console.WriteLine( "... ... God bl
ess America."); } } class CBrit { public void BeXenophobic() { Console.WriteLine
( "Bloody foreigners ... " ); }
} class CApplication { public static void RevealYourStereotype( Stereotype[] ste
reotypes ) { foreach( Stereotype s in stereotypes ) s(); } public static void Ma
in() { CAmerican chuck = new CAmerican(); CBrit edward = new CBrit(); // Create
our list of sterotypes. Stereotype[] stereotypes = new Stereotype[2]; stereotype
s[0] = new Stereotype( chuck.BePatriotic ); stereotypes[1] = new Stereotype( edw
ard.BeXenophobic ); // Reveal yourselves! RevealYourStereotype(stereotypes ); }
} This produces the following result: ... ... God bless America. Bloody foreigne
rs ... 6.2 Are delegates just like interfaces with a single method? Conceptually
delegates can be used in a similar way to an interface with a single method. Th
e main practical difference is that with an interface the method name is fixed,
whereas with a delegate only the signature is fixed - the method name can be dif
ferent, as shown in the example above. 8. Miscellaneous 8.1 String comparisons u
sing == seem to be case-sensitive? How do I do a caseinsensitive string comparis
on? Use the String.Compare function. Its third parameter is a boolean which spec
ifies whether case should be ignored or not. "fred"
== "Fred" // false System.St
ring.Compare( "fred", "Fred", true ) // true

8.2 I
ve seen some string literals
which use the @ symbol, and some which don t. What s that all about? The @ symbo
l before a string literal means that escape sequences are ignored. This is parti
cularly useful for file names, e.g. string fileName = "c:\\temp\\test.txt" versu
s: string fileName = @"c:\temp\test.txt"
8.3 Does C# support a variable number of arguments? Yes, using the params keywor
d. The arguments are specified as a list of arguments of a specific type, e.g. i
nt. For ultimate flexibility, the type can be object. The standard example of a
method which uses this approach is System.Console.WriteLine(). 8.4 How can I pro
cess command-line arguments? Like this: using System; class CApp { public static
void Main( string[] args ) { Console.WriteLine( "You passed the following argum
ents:" ); foreach( string arg in args ) Console.WriteLine( arg ); } } 8.5 Does C
# do array bounds checking? Yes. An IndexOutOfRange exception is used to signal
an error. 8.6 How can I make sure my C# classes will interoperate with other .NE
T languages? Make sure your C# code conforms to the Common Language Subset (CLS)
. To help with this, add the [assembly:CLSCompliant(true)] global attribute to y
our C# source files. The compiler will emit an error if you use a C# feature whi
ch is not CLS-compliant. Posted by Nisha Nitin on 11:24 PM 0 Comments ASP.NET, C
#, VB.NET What is view state and use of it? The current property settings of an
ASP.NET page and those of any ASP.NET server controls contained within the page.
ASP.NET can detect when a form is requested for the first time versus when the
form is posted (sent to the server), which allows you to program accordingly. Wh
at are user controls and custom controls? Custom controls: A control authored by
a user or a third-party software vendor that does not belong to the .NET Framew
ork class library. This is a generic term that includes user controls. A custom
server control is used in Web Forms (ASP.NET pages). A custom client control is
used in Windows Forms applications. User Controls: In ASP.NET: A user-authored s
erver control that enables an ASP.NET page to be re-used as a server control. An
ASP.NET user control is authored declaratively and persisted as a text file wit
h an ascx extension. The ASP.NET page framework compiles a user control on the f
ly to a class that derives from the System.Web.UI.UserControl class.
What are the validation controls? A set of server controls included with ASP.NET
that test user input in HTML and Web server controls for programmer-defined req
uirements. Validation controls perform input checking in server code. If the use
r is working with a browser that supports DHTML,
the validation controls can als
o perform validation using client script. What s the difference between Response
.Write() andResponse.Output.Write()? The latter one allows you to write formatte
doutput. What methods are fired during the page load? Init() When the page is in
stantiated, Load() - when the page is loaded into server memory,PreRender () - t
he brief moment before the page is displayed to the user as HTML, Unload() - whe
n page finishes loading. Where does the Web page belong in the .NET Framework cl
ass
hierarchy? System.Web.UI.Page Where do you
store the information about the u
ser s locale? System.Web.UI.Page.Culture What s the difference between Codebehin
d="MyCode.aspx.cs" and Src="MyCode.aspx.cs"? CodeBehind is relevant to Visual St
udio.NET only.


What s a bubbled event? When you have a complex control, like DataGrid, writing
an event processing routine for each object (cell, button, row, etc.) is quite t
edious. The controls can bubble up their eventhandlers, allowing the main DataGr
id event handler to take care of its constituents. Suppose you want a certain AS
P.NET function executed

on MouseOver over a certain button. Where do you add an
event handler? It s the Attributesproperty, the Add function inside that propert
y. e.g. btnSubmit.Attributes.Add("onMouseOver","someClientCode();") What data ty
pe does the RangeValidator control support? Integer,String and Date. What are th
e different types of caching? Caching is a technique widely used in computing to
increase performance by keeping frequently accessed or expensive data in memory
. In context of web application, caching is used to retain the pages or data acr
oss HTTP requests and reuse them without the
expense of recreating them.ASP.NET has 3 kinds of caching strategiesOutput Cachi
ngFragment CachingData CachingOutput Caching: Caches the dynamic output generate
d by a request. Some times it is useful to cache the output of a website even fo
r a minute, which will result in a better performance. For caching the whole pag
e the page should have OutputCache directive. Fragment Caching: Caches the porti
on of the page generated by the request. Some times it is not practical to cache
the entire page, in such cases we can cache a portion of page Data Caching: Cac
hes the objects programmatically. For data caching asp.net provides a cache obje
ct for eg: cache["States"] = dsStates; What do you mean by authentication and au
thorization? Authentication is the process of validating a user on the credentia
ls (username and password) and authorization performs after authentication. Afte
r Authentication a user will be verified for performing the various tasks, It ac
cess is limited it is known as authorization. What are different types of direct
ives in .NET? @Page: Defines page-specific attributes used by the ASP.NET page p
arser and compiler. Can be included only in .aspx files @Control:Defines control
-specific attributes used by the ASP.NET page parser and compiler. Can be includ
ed only in .ascx files. @Import: Explicitly imports a namespace into a page or u
ser control. The Import directive cannot have more than one namespace attribute.
To import multiple namespaces, use multiple @Import directives. @Implements: In
dicates that the current page or user control implements the specified .NET fram
ework interface. @Register: Associates aliases with namespaces and class names f
or concise notation in custom server control syntax. @Assembly: Links

an assembl
y to the current page during compilation, making all the assembly s classes and
interfaces available for use on the page. @OutputCache: Declaratively controls t
he output caching policies of an ASP.NET page or a user control contained in a p
age @Reference: Declaratively indicates that another user control or page source
file should be dynamically compiled and linked against the page in which

this d
irective is declared. How do I debug an

ASP.NET application that wasn t written
with Visual Studio.NET and that doesn t use code-behind? Start the DbgClr debugg
er that comes with the .NET Framework SDK, open the file containing the code you
want to debug, and set your breakpoints. Start the ASP.NET application. Go back
to DbgClr, choose Debug Processes from the Tools menu,

and select aspnet_wp.exe
from the list of processes. (If aspnet_wp.exe doesn t appear in the list,check
the "Show system processes" box.) Click the Attach button to attach to aspnet_wp
.exe and begin debugging. Be sure to enable debugging in the ASPX file before de
bugging it with DbgClr. You can enable tell ASP.NET to build debug executables b
y placing a statement at the top of an ASPX file or a statement in a Web.config
file.
Can a user browsing my Web site read my Web.config or Global.asax files? No. The
section of Machine.config, which holds the master configuration settings for AS
P.NET, contains entries that map ASAX files, CONFIG files, and selected other fi
le types to an HTTP handler named HttpForbiddenHandler, which fails attempts to
retrieve the associated file. You can modify it by
editing Machine.config or inc
luding a section in a local Web.config file. What s the difference between Page.
RegisterClientScriptBlock and Page.RegisterStartupScript? RegisterClientScriptBl
ock is for returning blocks of client-side script containing functions. Register
StartupScript is for returning

blocks of client-script not packaged in functions
-in other words, code that s to execute when the page is loaded. The latter posi
tions script blocks near the end of the document so elements on the page that th
e script interacts are loaded before the script runs.

Is it necessary to lock ap
plication state before accessing it? Only if you re performing a
multistep updat
e and want the update to be treated as an atomic operation. Here s an example: A
pplication.Lock (); Application["ItemsSold"] = (int) Application["ItemsSold"] +
1; Application["ItemsLeft"] = (int) Application["ItemsLeft"] - 1; Application.Un
Lock (); By locking application state before updating it and unlocking it afterw

ards, you ensure that another request being processed on another thread doesn t
read application state at exactly the wrong time and see an inconsistent view of
it. If I update session state, should I lock it, too? Are concurrent accesses b
y multiple requests executing

on multiple threads a concern with session state?
Concurrent

accesses aren t an issue with session state, for two reasons. One, it
s unlikely that two requests from the same user will overlap. Two, if they do o
verlap, ASP.NET

locks down session state during request processing so that two t
hreads can t touch
it at once. Session state is locked down when the HttpApplica
tion instance that s processing the request fires an AcquireRequestState event a
nd unlocked when it fires a ReleaseRequestState event. Do ASP.NET forms authenti
cation cookies provide
any protection against replay attacks? Do they, for examp
le, include the client s IP address or anything else that would distinguish the
real client from an attacker?
No. If an authentication cookie is stolen, it can
be used by an attacker. It s up to you to prevent this from happening by using a
n encrypted communications channel (HTTPS). Authentication cookies issued as ses
sion cookies, do, however,include a time-out valid that limits their lifetime. S
o a stolen session cookie can only be used in replay attacks as long as the tick
et inside the cookie is valid. The default time-out interval is 30 minutes.You c
an change that by modifying the timeout attribute accompanying the element in Ma
chine.config or a local Web.config file. Persistent authentication cookies do no
t time-out and therefore are a more serious security threat if stolen. How do I
send e-mail from an ASP.NET application?
MailMessage message = new MailMessage (); message.From = ; message.To = ; messag
e.Subject = "Scheduled Power Outage"; message.Body = "Our servers will be down t
onight."; SmtpMail.SmtpServer = "localhost"; SmtpMail.Send (message); MailMessag


e and SmtpMail are classes defined in the .NET Framework Class Library s System.
Web.Mail namespace. Due to a security

change made to ASP.NET just before it ship
ped, you need to set SmtpMail s SmtpServer property to "localhost" even though "
localhost" is the default. In addition, you must use the IIS configuration apple
t to enable localhost (127.0.0.1) to relay messages through the local SMTP servi
ce. What are VSDISCO files? VSDISCO files are DISCO files that support dynamic d
iscovery of Web services. If you place the following VSDISCO file in a directory
on your Web server, for example, it returns references to all ASMX and DISCO fi
les in the host directory and any subdirectories not noted in elements: xmlns="u
rn:schemas-dynamicdiscovery:disco.2000-03-17"> How does dynamic discovery work?
ASP.NET maps the file name extension VSDISCO to an HTTP handler that scans the h
ost directory and subdirectories for ASMX and DISCO files and returns a dynamica
lly generated DISCO document. A client who requests a VSDISCO file gets back wha
t appears to be a static DISCO document. Note that VSDISCO files are disabled in
the release version of ASP.NET. You can re enable them by uncomment the line in
the section of Machine.config that maps *.vsdisco to System.Web.Services.Discov
ery.DiscoveryRequestHandler and granting the ASPNET user account permission to r
ead the IIS metabase. However, Microsoft is actively discouraging the use of VSD
ISCO files because they could represent a threat to Web server security. Is it p
ossible to prevent a browser from caching an ASPX page? Just call

SetNoStore on
the HttpCachePolicy object exposed through the Response object s Cache property,
as demonstrated here: SetNoStore works by returning a Cache-Control: private, n
o-store header in the HTTP response. In this example, it prevents caching of a W
eb page that shows the current time. What does AspCompat="true" mean and when sh
ould I use it? AspCompat is an aid in migrating ASP pages to ASPX pages. It defa
ults to false but should be set to true in any ASPX file that creates apartment-
threaded COM objects--that is, COM objects registered ThreadingModel=Apartment.
That includes all COM objects written with Visual Basic 6.0. AspCompat should al
so be set to true (regardless of threading model) if the page creates COM object
s that access intrinsic ASP objects such as Request and Response. The following
directive sets AspCompat to true: Setting AspCompat to true does two things. Fir
st, it makes intrinsic ASP objects available to the COM components by placing un
managed wrappers around the equivalent ASP.NET
objects. Second, it improves the performance of calls that the page places to ap
artmentthreaded COM objects by ensuring that the page (actually, the thread that
processes the request for the page) and the COM objects it creates share an apa
rtment. AspCompat="true" forces ASP.NET request threads into single-threaded apa
rtments (STAs). If those threads create COM objects marked ThreadingModel=Apartm
ent, then the objects are created in the same STAs as the threads that created t
hem. Without AspCompat="true," request threads run in a multithreaded apartment

(MTA) and each call to an STA-based COM object incurs a performance hit when it
s marshaled across apartment boundaries.Do not set AspCompat

to true if your pag
e uses no COM objects or if it uses COM objects that don t access ASP intrinsic
objects and that are registered ThreadingModel=Free or ThreadingModel=Both. Expl
ain the differences between Server-side and Client-side code? Server side script
ing means that all
the script will be executed by the server and interpreted as
needed. ASP doesn t have some of the functionality like sockets, uploading, etc.
For these you have to make a custom components usually in VB or VC++. Client si
de scripting means that the script will be executed immediately in the browser s
uch as form field validation, clock, email validation, etc. Client side scriptin
g is usually done in VBScript or JavaScript. Download time, browser compatibilit
y, and visible code - since JavaScript and VBScript code is included in the HTML
page, then anyone can see the code by viewing the page source. Also a possible
security hazards for the client computer. What type of code (server or client) i
s found in a Code-Behind class? C# Should validation (did the user enter a real
date) occur server-side or client-side? Why? Client-side validation because ther
e is no need to request a server side date when you could obtain a date from the
client machine. What are ASP.NET Web Forms? How is this technology different th
an what is available though ASP? Web Forms are the heart and soul of ASP.NET. We
b Forms are the User Interface (UI) elements that give your Web applications the
ir look and feel. Web Forms are similar to Windows Forms in that they provide pr
operties, methods, and events for the controls that are placed onto them. Howeve
r, these UI elements render themselves in the appropriate markup language requir
ed by the request, e.g. HTML. If you use Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, you will
also get the familiar drag-and-drop interface used to create your UI for your We
b application. What is the difference between Server.Transfer and Response.Redir
ect? Why would I choose one over the other? In earlier versions of IIS, if we wa
nted to send a user to a new Web page, the only option we had was Response.Redir
ect. While this method does accomplish our goal, it has several important drawba
cks. The biggest problem is that this method causes each page to be treated as a
separate transaction. Besides making it difficult to maintain your transactiona
l integrity, Response.Redirect introduces some additional headaches. First, it p
revents good encapsulation of code. Second, you lose access to all
of the proper
ties in the Request object. Sure, there are workarounds, but they re difficult.
Finally, Response.Redirect necessitates a round trip to the client, which, on hi
gh-volume sites, causes scalability problems.
As you might suspect, Server.Transfer fixes all of these problems. It does this
by performing the transfer on the server without requiring a roundtrip to the cl
ient. How can you provide an alternating color scheme in a Repeater control? Alt
ernatingItemTemplate Like the ItemTemplate element, but rendered for every other
row (alternating items) in the Repeater control. You can specify a different ap
pearance for the AlternatingItemTemplate element by setting its style properties
. Which template must you provide, in order to display data in a Repeater contro
l? ItemTemplate What event handlers can I include in Global.asax? Application_St
art,Application_End, Application_AcquireRequestState, Application_AuthenticateRe
quest, Application_AuthorizeRequest, Application_BeginRequest, Application_Dispo
sed, Application_EndRequest, Application_Error, Application_PostRequestHandlerEx
ecute, Application_PreRequestHandlerExecute, Application_PreSendRequestContent,
Application_PreSendRequestHeaders, Application_ReleaseRequestState, Application_
ResolveRequestCache, Application_UpdateRequestCache, Session_Start,Session_End Y
ou can optionally include "On" in any of method names. For example, you can name
a BeginRequest event handler.Application_BeginRequest or Application_OnBeginReq
uest.You can also include event handlers in Global.asax for events fired by cust
om HTTP modules.Note

that not all of the event handlers make sense for Web Servi
ces (they re designed for ASP.NET applications in general, whereas .NET XML Web
Services are specialized instances of an ASP.NET app). For example, the Applicat
ion_AuthenticateRequest and Application_AuthorizeRequest events are designed to
be used with ASP.NET Forms authentication. What is different b/w webconfig.xml &
Machineconfig.xml Web.config & machine.config both are configuration files.Web.
config contains settings specific to an application where as machine.config cont
ains settings to a computer. The Configuration system first searches settings in
machine.config file & then looks in application configuration files.Web.config,
can appear in multiple directories on an ASP.NET Web application server. Each W
eb.config file applies configuration settings to its own directory and all child


directories below it. There is only Machine.config file on a web server. If I m
developing an application that must accomodate multiple security levels though
secure login and my ASP.NET web appplication is spanned across three web-servers
(using round-robbin load balancing) what would be the best approach to maintain
loginin state for the users? Use the state server or store the state in the dat
abase. This can be easily done through simple setting change in the web.config.
StateConnectionString="tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424" sqlConnectionString="data source=1
27.0.0.1; user id=sa; password=" cookieless="false" timeout="30" /> You can spec
ify mode as “stateserver” or “sqlserver”.
Where would you use an iHTTPModule, and what are the
limitations of any approach
you might take in implementing one "One of ASP.NET s most useful features is th
e extensibility of the HTTP pipeline, the path that data takes between client an
d server. You can use them to extend your ASP.NET applications by adding pre- an
d post-processing to each HTTP request coming into your application. For example
, if you wanted custom authentication facilities for your application, the best
technique would be to intercept the request when it comes in and process the req
uest in a custom HTTP module. How do you turn off cookies for one page in your s
ite? Since no Page Level directive is present, I am afraid that cant be done. Ho
w do you create a permanent cookie? Permanent cookies are available
until a
spec
ified expiration date, and are stored on the hard disk.So Set the Expires prop
erty any value greater than DataTime.MinValue with respect to the current dateti
me. If u want the cookie which never expires set its Expires property equal to D
ateTime.maxValue. Which method do you use to redirect the user to another page w
ithout performing a round trip to the client? Server.Transfer and Server.Execute
What property do you have to set to tell the grid which page to go to when usin
g the Pager object? CurrentPageIndex Should validation (did the user enter a rea
l date) occur server-side or client-side? Why? It should occur both at client-si
de and Server side.By using expression validator control with the specified expr
ession ie.. the regular expression provides the facility of only validatating th
e date specified is in the correct format or not. But for checking the date wher
e it is the real data or not should be done at the server side, by getting the s
ystem date ranges and checking the date whether it is in between that range or n
ot. What does the "EnableViewState" property do? Why would I want it on or off?
Enable ViewState turns on the automatic state management feature that enables se
rver controls to re-populate their values on a round trip without requiring you
to write any code. This feature is not free however, since the state of a contro
l is passed to and from the server in a hidden form field. You should be aware o
f when ViewState is helping you and when it is not. For example, if you are bind
ing a control

to data on every round trip, then you do not need the control to m
aintain it s view state, since you will wipe out any re-populated data in any ca
se. ViewState is enabled for all server controls by default. To disable it, set
the EnableViewState property of the control to false. What is the difference bet
ween Server.Transfer and Response.Redirect? Why would I choose one over the othe
r? Server.Transfer() : client is shown as it is on the requesting page only, but
the all the content is of the requested page. Data can be persist accros the pa
ges using Context.Item collection, which is one of the best way to transfer data
from one page to another keeping the page state alive. Response.Dedirect() :cli
ent know the physical location (page name and query string as well). Context.Ite
ms loses the persisitance when nevigate to destination page. In earlier versions
of IIS, if we wanted to send a user to a new Web page, the only option we had w
as Response.Redirect. While this method does accomplish our goal, it has several
important drawbacks. The biggest problem is that this method causes each page to
be treated as a separate transaction. Besides making it difficult to maintain y
our transactional integrity, Response.Redirect introduces some additional headac
hes. First, it prevents good encapsulation of code. Second, you lose access to a
ll
of the properties in the Request object. Sure, there are workarounds, but the
y re difficult. Finally, Response.Redirect necessitates a round trip to the clie
nt, which, on high-volume sites, causes scalability problems. As you might suspe
ct, Server.Transfer fixes all of these problems. It does this by performing the
transfer on the server without requiring a roundtrip to the client.
Can you give an example of when it would be appropriate to use a web service as
opposed to a non-serviced .NET component? · Communicating through a Firewall When
building a distributed application with 100s/1000s of users spread over multiple
locations, there is always the problem of communicating between client and serv
er because of firewalls and proxy servers. Exposing your middle tier components
as Web Services and invoking the directly from a Windows UI is a very valid opti
on. · Application Integration When integrating applications written in various lan
guages and running on disparate systems. Or even applications running on the sam
e platform that have been written by separate vendors. · Business-to-Business Inte
gration This is an enabler for B2B intergtation which allows one to expose vital
business processes to authorized supplier and customers. An example would be ex
posing electronic ordering and invoicing, allowing customers to send you purchas
e orders and suppliers to send you invoices electronically. · Software Reuse This
takes place at multiple levels. Code Reuse at the Source code level or binary co
mponet-based resuse. The limiting factor here is that you can reuse the code but
not the data behind it. Webservice overcome this limitation. A scenario could b
e when you are building an app that aggregates the functionality of serveral oth
er Applicatons. Each of these functions could be performed by individual apps, b
ut there is value in perhaps combining the the multiple apps to present a unifie
nd view in a Portal or Intranet. · When not to use Web Services: Single machine Ap
plicatons When the apps are running on the same machine and need to communicate
with each other use a native API. You also have the options of using component t
echnologies such as COM or .NET Componets as there is very little overhead. · Homo
geneous Applications on a LAN If you have Win32 or Winforms apps that want to co
mmunicate to their server counterpart. It is much more efficient to use DCOM in
the case of Win32 apps and .NET Remoting in the case of .NET Apps Can you give a
n example of what might be best suited to place in the Application_Start and Ses
sion_Start subroutines? The Application_Start event
is guaranteed to occur only
once throughout the lifetime of the application. It s a good place to initialize
global variables. For example, you might want to retrieve a list of products fr
om a database table and place the list in application state or the Cache object.
SessionStateModule exposes both Session_Start and Session_End events. What are
the advantages and disadvantages of viewstate?
The primary advantages of the ViewState feature in ASP.NET are: 1. Simplicity. T
here is no need to write possibly complex code to store form data between page s
ubmissions. 2. Flexibility. It is possible to enable, configure, and disable Vie
wState on a control-bycontrol basis, choosing to persist the values of some fiel
ds but not others. There are, however a few disadvantages that are worth pointin
g out: 1. Does not track across pages. ViewState information does not automatica
lly transfer from page to page. With the session approach, values can be stored
in the session and accessed from other pages. This is not possible with ViewStat
e, so storing data into the session must be done explicitly. 2. ViewState is not
suitable for transferring data for back-end systems. That is, data still has to
be transferred to the back end using some form of data object. Describe session
handling in a webfarm, how does it work and what are the limits? ASP.NET Sessio
n supports storing of session data in 3 ways, i] in In-Process ( in the same mem
ory that ASP.NET uses) , ii] out-of-process using Windows NT Service )in separat
e memory from ASP.NET ) or iii] in SQL Server (persistent storage). Both the Win
dows Service and SQL Server solution support a webfarm scenario where all the we
b-servers can be configured to share common session state store. 1. Windows Serv
ice : We can start this service by Start | Control Panel | Administrative Tools
| Services | . In that we service names ASP.NET State Service. We can start or s
top service by manually or configure to start automatically. Then we have to con
figure our web.config file
mode = “StateServer” stateConnectionString = “tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424” stateNetworkTimeout
= “10” sqlConnectionString=”data source = 127.0.0.1; uid=sa;pwd=” cookieless =”Flase” time
ut= “20” />
Here ASP.Net Session is directed to use Windows Service for state management on
local server (address : 127.0.0.1 is TCP/IP loop-back address). The default port
is 42424. we can configure to any port but for that we have to manually edit th
e registry. Follow these simple steps - In a webfarm make sure you have the same
config file in all your web servers. - Also make sure your objects are serializ
able. - For session state to be maintained across different web servers in the w
ebfarm, the application path of the web-site in the IIS Metabase should be ident
ical in all the webservers in the webfarm.
Which template must you provide, in order to display data in a Repeater control?
You have to use the ItemTemplate to Display data. Syntax is as follows, < ItemT
emplate > < div class =”rItem” > < img src=”images/” hspace=”10” /> <b> < /div > < ItemTemp
ate > How can you provide an alternating color scheme in a Repeater control? Usi
ng the AlternatintItemTemplate What property must you set, and what method must
you call in your code, in order to bind the data from some data source to the Re
peater control? Set the DataMember property to the name of the table to bind to.
(If this property is not set, by default the first table in the dataset is used
.) DataBind method, use this method to bind data from a source to a server contr
ol. This method is commonly used after retrieving a data set through a database
query. What method do you use to explicitly kill a user s session? You can dump
(Kill) the session yourself

by calling the method Session.Abandon. ASP.NET autom
atically deletes a user s Session object, dumping its contents, after it has bee
n idle for a configurable timeout interval. This interval, in minutes, is set in
the section of the web.config file. The default is 20 minutes. How do you turn
off cookies for one page in your site? Use Cookie.Discard property, Gets or sets
the discard flag set by the server. When true, this

property instructs the clie
nt application not to save the Cookie on the user s hard disk when a session end
s. Which two properties are on every validation control? We have two common prop
erties for every validation controls 1. Control to Validate, 2. Error Message. W
hat tags do you need to add within the asp:datagrid tags to bind columns manuall
y? < asp:DataGrid id="dgCart" AutoGenerateColumns="False" CellPadding="4" Width=
"448px" runat="server"> < Columns > < asp:ButtonColumn HeaderText="SELECT" Text=
"SELECT" CommandName="select">< /asp:ButtonColumn > < asp:BoundColumn DataField=
"ProductId" HeaderText="Product ID">< /asp:BoundColumn > < asp:BoundColumn DataF
ield="ProductName" HeaderText="Product Name">< /asp:BoundColumn > < asp:BoundCol
umn DataField="UnitPrice" HeaderText="UnitPrice">< /asp:BoundColumn > < /Columns
> < /asp:DataGrid > How do you create a permanent cookie? Permanent cookies are
the ones that are most useful. Permanent cookies are available until a specifie
d expiration date, and are stored on the hard disk. The location of cookies
differs with each browser, but this doesn’t matter, as this is all handled by your
browser and the server. If you want to create a permanent cookie called Name wi
th a value of Nigel, which expires in one month, you’d use the following code Resp
onse.Cookies ("Name") = "Nigel" Response.Cookies ("Name"). Expires = DateAdd ("m
", 1, Now ()) What tag do you use to add a hyperlink column to the DataGrid? < a
sp:HyperLinkColumn > Which method do you use to redirect the user to another pag
e without performing a round trip to the client? Server.transfer What is the tra
nsport protocol you use to call a Web service SOAP ? HTTP Protocol Explain role
based security ? Role Based Security lets you identify groups of users to allow
or deny based on their role in the organization.In Windows NT and Windows XP, ro
les map to names used to identify user groups. Windows defines several built-in
groups, including Administrators, Users, and Guests.To allow or deny access to c
ertain groups

of users, add the element to the authorization list in your Web ap
plication s Web.config file.e.g. < authorization > < allow roles="Domain NameAdm
inistrators" / >< !-- Allow Administrators in domain. -> < deny users="*" / >< !
-- Deny anyone else. -- > < /authorization > How do you register JavaScript for
webcontrols ? You can register javascript for controls using Attribtues.Add(scri
ptname,scripttext) method. When do you set "" ? Identity is a webconfig declarat
ion under System.web, which helps to control the application Identity of the web
applicaton. Which can be at any level(Machine,Site,application,subdirectory,or
page), attribute impersonate with "true" as value specifies that client imperson
ation is used. What are different templates available in Repeater,DataList and D
atagrid ? Templates enable one to apply complicated formatting to each of the it
ems displayed by a control.Repeater control supports five types of templates.Hea
derTemplate controls how the header of the repeater control is formatted.ItemTem
plate controls the formatting of each item displayed.AlternatingItemTemplate con
trols how alternate items are formatted and the SeparatorTemplate displays a sep
arator between each item displyed.FooterTemplate is used for controlling how the
footer of the repeater control is formatted.The DataList and Datagrid supports
two templates in addition to the above five.SelectedItem Template controls how a
selected item is formatted and EditItemTemplate controls how an item selected f
or editing is formatted. What is ViewState ? and how it is managed ? ASP.NET Vie
wState is a new kind of state service that developers can use to track UI state
on a per-user basis. Internally it uses an an old Web programming trickroundtrip
ping state in a hidden form field and bakes it right into the page-processing fr
amework.It needs less code to write and maintain state in your Web-based forms.
What is web.config file ? Web.config file is the configuration file for the Asp.
net web application. There is one web.config file for one asp.net application wh
ich configures the particular application. Web.config file is written in XML wit
h specific tags having specific meanings.It includes databa which includes conne
ctions,Session States,Error Handling,Security etc. For example : < configuration
> < appSettings > < add key="ConnectionString" value="server=localhost;uid=sa;p
wd=;database=MyDB" / > < /appSettings > < /configuration > What is advantage of
viewstate and what are benefits? When a form is submitted in classic ASP, all fo
rm values are cleared. Suppose you have submitted a form with a lot of informati
on and the server comes back with an error. You will have to go back to the form
and correct the information. You click the back button, and what happens.......
ALL form values are CLEARED, and you will have to start all over again! The site
did not maintain your ViewState.With ASP .NET, the form reappears in the browse
r window together with all form values.This is because ASP .NET maintains your V
iewState. The ViewState indicates the status of the page when submitted to the s
erver. What tags do you need to add within the asp:datagrid tags to bind columns
manually? Set AutoGenerateColumns Property to false on the datagrid tag and the
n use Column tag and an ASP:databound tag < asp:DataGrid runat="server" id="Manu
alColumnBinding" AutoGenerateColumns="False"> < Columns > < asp:BoundColumn Head
erText="Column1" DataField="Column1"/ > < asp:BoundColumn HeaderText="Column2" D
ataField="Column2"/ > < /Columns > < /asp:DataGrid > Which property on a Combo B
ox do you set with a column name, prior to setting the DataSource, to display da
ta in the combo box? DataTextField and DataValueField Which control would you us
e if you needed to make sure the values in two different controls matched? Compa
reValidator is used to ensure that two fields are identical. What is validations
ummary server control?where it is used?. The ValidationSummary control allows yo
u to summarize the error messages from all validation controls on a Web page in
a single location. The summary can be displayed as a list, a bulleted list, or a
single paragraph, based on the value of the DisplayMode property. The error mes
sage displayed in the ValidationSummary control for each
validation control on the page is specified by the ErrorMessage property of each
validation control. If the ErrorMessage property of the validation control is n
ot set, no error message is displayed in the ValidationSummary control for that
validation control. You can also specify a custom title in the heading section o
f the ValidationSummary control by setting the HeaderText property. You can cont
rol whether the ValidationSummary control is displayed or hidden by setting the
ShowSummary property. The summary can also be displayed in a message box by sett
ing the ShowMessageBox property to true. What is the sequence of operation takes
place when a page is loaded? BeginTranaction - only if the request is transacte
d Init - every time a page is processed LoadViewState - Only on postback Process
PostData1 - Only on postback Load - every time ProcessData2 - Only on Postback R
aiseChangedEvent - Only on Postback RaisePostBackEvent - Only on Postback PreRen
der - everytime BuildTraceTree - only if tracing is enabled SaveViewState - ever
y time Render - Everytime End Transaction - only if the request is transacted Tr
ace.EndRequest - only when tracing is enabled UnloadRecursive - Every request Di
fference between asp and asp.net?. "ASP (Active Server Pages) and ASP.NET are bo
th server side technologies for building web sites and web applications, ASP.NET
is Managed compiled code - asp is interpreted. and ASP.net is fully Object orie
nted. ASP.NET has been entirely re-architected to provide a highly productive pr
ogramming experience based on the .NET Framework, and a robust infrastructure fo
r building reliable and scalable web applications." Name the validation control
available in asp.net?. RequiredField, RangeValidator,RegularExpression,Custom va
lidator,compare Validator What are the various ways of securing a web site that
could prevent from hacking etc .. ? 1) Authentication/Authorization 2) Encryptio
n/Decryption 3) Maintaining web servers outside the corporate firewall. etc., Wh
at is the difference between in-proc and out-of-proc? An inproc is one which run
s in the same process area as that of the client giving tha advantage of speed b
ut the disadvantage of stability becoz if it crashes it takes the client applica
tion also with it.Outproc is one which works outside the clients memory thus giv
ing stability to the client, but we have to compromise a bit on speed. When you’re
running a component within ASP.NET, what process is it running within on Window
s XP? Windows 2000? Windows 2003?
On Windows 2003 (IIS 6.0) running in native mode, the component is running withi
n the w3wp.exe process associated with the application pool which has been confi
gured for the web application containing

the component. On Windows 2003 in IIS 5
.0 emulation mode, 2000, or XP, it s running within the IIS helper process whose
name I do not remember, it being quite a while since I last used IIS 5.0. What
does aspnet_regiis -i do ? Aspnet_regiis.exe is The ASP.NET IIS Registration too
l allows an administrator or installation program to easily update the script ma
ps for an ASP.NET application to point to the ASP.NET ISAPI version associated w
ith the tool. The tool can also be used to display the status of all installed v
ersions of ASP. NET, register the ASP.NET version coupled with the tool, create
client-script directories, and perform other configuration operations. When mult
iple versions of the .NET Framework are executing side-by-side on a single compu
ter, the ASP.NET ISAPI version mapped to an ASP.NET application determines which
version of the common language runtime is used for the application. The tool ca
n be launched with a set of optional parameters. Option "i" Installs the version
of ASP.NET associated with Aspnet_regiis.exe and updates the script maps at the
IIS metabase root and below. Note that only applications that are currently map
ped to an earlier version of ASP.NET are affected What is a PostBack? The proces
s in which a Web page sends data back to the same page on the server. What is Vi
ewState? How is it encoded? Is it encrypted? Who uses ViewState? ViewState is th


e mechanism ASP.NET uses to keep track of server control state values that don t
otherwise post back as part of the HTTP form. ViewState Maintains the UI State
of a Page ViewState is base64-encoded. It is not encrypted but it can be encrypt
ed by setting EnableViewStatMAC="true"& setting the machineKey validation type t
o 3DES. If you want to NOT maintain the ViewState, include the directive < %@ Pa
ge EnableViewState="false" % > at the top of an .aspx page or add the attribute
EnableViewState="false" to any control. What is the < machinekey > element and w
hat two ASP.NET technologies is it used for? Configures keys to use for encrypti
on and decryption of forms authentication cookie data and view state data, and f
or verification of out-of-process session state identification.There fore 2 ASP.
Net technique in which it is used are Encryption/Decryption & Verification What
three Session State providers are available in ASP.NET 1.1? What are the pros an
d cons of each? ASP.NET provides three distinct ways to store session data for y
our application: inprocess session state, out-of-process session state as a Wind
ows service, and out-ofprocess session state in a SQL Server database. Each has
it advantages. 1.In-process session-state mode Limitations:
* When using the in-process session-state mode, session-state data is lost if as
pnet_wp.exe or the application domain restarts. * If

you enable Web garden mode
in the < processModel > element of the application s Web.config file, do not use
in-process session-state mode. Otherwise, random data loss can occur. Advantage
: * in-process session state is by far the fastest solution. If you are storing
only small amounts of volatile data in session state, it is recommended that you
use the in-process provider. 2. The State Server simply stores session state in
memory when in out-of-proc mode. In this mode the worker process talks directly
to the State Server 3. SQL mode, session states are stored in a SQL Server data
base and the worker process talks directly to SQL. The ASP.NET worker processes
are then able to take advantage of this simple storage service by serializing

an
d saving (using .NET serialization services) all objects within a client s Sessi
on collection at the end of each Web request Both these out-of-process solutions
are useful primarily if you scale your application across multiple processors o
r multiple computers, or where data cannot be lost if a server or process is res
tarted. What is the difference between HTTP-Post and HTTP-Get? As their names im
ply, both HTTP GET and HTTP POST use HTTP as their underlying protocol. Both of
these methods encode request parameters as name/value pairs in the HTTP

request.
The GET method creates a query string and appends it to the script s URL on the
server that handles the request. The POST method creates a name/value pairs tha
t are passed in the body of the HTTP request message. Name and describe some HTT
P Status Codes and what they express to the requesting client. When users try to
access content on a server that is running Internet Information Services (IIS)
through HTTP or File Transfer Protocol (FTP), IIS returns a numeric code that in
dicates the status of the request. This status code is recorded in the IIS log,
and it may also be displayed in the Web browser or FTP client. The status code c
an indicate whether a particular request is successful or unsuccessful and can a
lso reveal the exact reason why a request is unsuccessful. There are 5 groups ra
nging from 1xx - 5xx of http status codes exists. 101 - Switching protocols. 200
- OK. The client request has succeeded 302 - Object moved. 400 - Bad request. 5
00.13 - Web server is too busy. Explain < @OutputCache% > and the usage of VaryB
yParam, VaryByHeader. OutputCache is used to control the caching policies of an
ASP.NET page or user control. To cache a page @OutputCache directive should be d
efined as follows < %@ OutputCache Duration="100" VaryByParam="none" % > VaryByP
aram: A semicolon-separated list of strings used to vary the output cache. By de
fault, these strings correspond to a query string value sent with GET method att
ributes,
or a parameter sent using the POST method. When this attribute is set to multipl
e parameters, the output cache contains a different version of the requested doc
ument for each specified parameter. Possible values include none, *, and any val
id query string or POST parameter name. VaryByHeader: A semicolon-separated list
of HTTP headers used to vary the output cache. When this attribute is set to mu
ltiple headers, the output cache contains a different version of the requested d
ocument for each specified header. What is the difference between repeater over
datalist and datagrid? The Repeater class is not derived from the WebControl cla
ss, like the DataGrid and DataList. Therefore, the Repeater lacks the stylistic
properties common to both the DataGrid and DataList. What this boils down to is
that if you want to format the data displayed in the Repeater, you must do so in
the HTML markup. The Repeater control provides the maximum amount of flexibilit
y over the HTML produced. Whereas the DataGrid wraps the DataSource contents in
an HTML < table >, and the DataList wraps the contents

in either an HTML < table
> or < span > tags (depending on the DataList s RepeatLayout property), the Rep
eater adds absolutely no HTML content other than what you explicitly specify in
the templates. While using
Repeater control, If we wanted to display the employe
e names in a bold font we d have to alter the "ItemTemplate" to include an HTML
bold tag, Whereas with the DataGrid or DataList,

we could have made the text app
ear in a bold font

by setting the control s ItemStyle-Font-Bold property to True
. The Repeater s lack of stylistic properties can drastically add to the develop
ment time metric. For example, imagine that you decide to use the Repeater to di
splay data that needs to be bold, centered, and displayed in a particular font-f
ace with a particular background color. While all this can be
specified using a
few HTML tags, these tags will quickly clutter the Repeater s templates. Such cl
utter makes it much harder to change the look at a later date. Along with its in
creased development time, the Repeater also lacks any built-in functionality to
assist in supporting paging, editing, or editing of data. Due to this lack of fe
ature-support,

the Repeater scores poorly on the usability scale. However,

The R
epeater s performance is slightly better than
that of the DataList s, and is mor
e noticeably better than that of the DataGrid s. Following figure shows the numb
er of requests per second the Repeater could handle versus the DataGrid and Data
List Can we handle the error and redirect to some pages using web.config? Yes, w
e can do this, but to handle errors, we must know the error codes; only then we
can take the user to a proper error message page, else it may confuse the user.
CustomErrors Configuration section in web.config file: The default configuration
is: < customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="Customerror.aspx"> < erro
r statusCode="404" redirect="Notfound.aspx" / > < /customErrors > If mode is set
to Off, custom error messages will be disabled. Users will receive detailed exc
eption error messages. If mode is set to On, custom error messages will be enabl
ed. If mode is set to RemoteOnly, then users will receive custom errors, but use
rs accessing the site locally will receive detailed error messages.
Add an < error > tag for each error you want to handle. The error tag will redir
ect the user to the Notfound.aspx page when the site returns the 404 (Page not f
ound) error. [Example] There is a page MainForm.aspx Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal


sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load Put
user code to
initialize the page here Dim str As System.Text.StringBuilder str.A
ppend("hi") Error Line as str is not instantiated Response.Write(str.ToString)

End Sub [Web.Config] < customErrors mode="On" defaultRedirect="Error.aspx"/ >
a simple redirect will take the user to Error.aspx [user defined] error file. <
customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="Customerror.aspx">

< error stat
usCode="404" redirect="Notfound.aspx" / > < /customErrors > This will take the
user to NotFound.aspx defined in IIS. How do you implement Paging in .Net? The D
ataGrid provides the means to display a group of records from the data source (f
or example, the first 10), and then navigate to the "page" containing the next 1
0 records, and so on through the data. Using Ado.Net we can explicit control ove
r the number of records returned from the data source, as well as how much data
is to be cached

locally

in the DataSet. 1.Using

DataAdapter.fill method give the
value of Maxrecords parameter (Note: - Don t use it
because query

will return
all records but fill the dataset based on value of maxrecords parameter). 2.F
or SQL server database, combines a WHERE clause and a ORDER BY clause with TOP p
redicate. 3.If Data does not change often just cache records locally in DataSet
and just take some records from the DataSet to display. What is the difference b
etween Server.Transfer and Response.Redirect? Server.Transfer() : client is show
n as it is on the requesting page only, but the all the content is of the reques
ted page. Data can be persist across the pages using Context.Item collection, wh
ich is one of the best way to transfer data from one page to another keeping the
page state alive. Response.Dedirect() :client knows the physical location (page
name and query string as well). Context.Items loses the persistence when naviga
te to destination page. In earlier versions of IIS, if we wanted to send a user
to a new Web page, the only option we had was Response.Redirect. While this meth
od does accomplish our goal, it has several important drawbacks. The biggest pro
blem is that this method causes each page to be treated as a separate transactio
n. Besides making it difficult to maintain your transactional integrity, Respons
e.Redirect introduces some additional headaches. First, it prevents good encapsu
lation of code. Second, you lose access to all
of the properties in the Request
object. Sure, there are workarounds, but they re difficult. Finally, Response.Re
direct
necessitates a round trip to the client, which, on high-volume sites, causes sca
lability problems. As you might suspect, Server.Transfer fixes all of these prob
lems. It does this by performing the transfer on the server without requiring a
roundtrip to the client. Response.Redirect sends a response to the client browse
r instructing it to request the second page. This requires a round-trip to the c
lient, and the client initiates the Request for the second page. Server.Transfer
transfers the process to the second page without making a round-trip to the cli
ent. It also transfers the HttpContext to the second page, enabling the second p
age access to all the values in the HttpContext of the first page. Can you creat
e an app domain? Yes, We can create user app domain by calling on of the followi
ng overload static methods of the System.AppDomain class 1. Public static AppDom
ain CreateDomain(String friendlyName) 2. Public static AppDomain CreateDomain(St
ring friendlyName, Evidence securityInfo) 3. Public static AppDomain CreateDomai
n(String friendlyName, Evidence securityInfo, AppDomainSetup info) 4. Public sta
tic AppDomain CreateDomain(String friendlyName, Evidence securityInfo, String ap
pBasePath, String appRelativeSearchPath, bool shadowCopyFiles) What are the vari
ous security methods which IIS Provides apart from .NET ? The various security m
ethods which IIS provides are a) Authentication Modes b) IP Address and Domain N
ame Restriction c) DNS Lookups DNS Lookups d) The Network ID and Subnet Mask e)
SSL What is Web Gardening? How would using it affect a design? The Web Garden Mo
del The Web garden model is configurable through the section of the machine.conf
ig file. Notice that the section is the only configuration section that cannot b
e placed in an application-specific web.config file. This means that the Web gar
den mode applies to all applications running on the machine. However, by using t
he node in the machine.config source, you can adapt machine-wide settings on a p
er-application basis. Two attributes in the section affect the Web garden model.
They are webGarden and cpuMask. The webGarden attribute takes a Boolean value t
hat indicates whether or not multiple worker processes (one per each affinitized
CPU) have to be used. The attribute is set to false by default. The cpuMask att
ribute stores a DWORD value whose binary representation provides a bit mask for
the CPUs that are eligible to run the ASP.NET worker process. The default value
is -1 (0xFFFFFF), which means that all available CPUs can be used. The contents
of the cpuMask attribute is ignored when the webGarden attribute is false. The c
puMask attribute also sets an upper bound to the number of copies of aspnet_wp.e
xe that are running. Web gardening enables multiple worker processes to run at t
he same time. However, you should note that all processes will have their own co
py of application state, in-process session state, ASP.NET cache, static data, a
nd all that is needed to run applications. When the Web garden mode is enabled,
the ASP.NET ISAPI launches as many worker
processes as there are CPUs, each a full clone of the next (and each affinitized
with the corresponding CPU). To balance the workload, incoming requests are par
titioned among running processes in a round-robin manner. Worker processes get r
ecycled as in the single processor case. Note that
ASP.NET inherits any CPU usag
e restriction from the operating system and doesn t include any custom semantics
for doing this. All in all, the Web garden model is not necessarily a big win f
or all applications. The more stateful applications are, the more they risk to p
ay in terms of real performance. Working data is stored in blocks of shared memo
ry so that any changes entered by a process are immediately visible to others. H
owever, for the time it takes to service a request, working data is copied in th
e context of the process. Each worker process, therefore, will handle its own co
py of working data, and the more stateful the application, the higher the cost i
n performance. In this context, careful and savvy application benchmarking is an
absolute must. Changes made to the section of the configuration file are effect
ive only after IIS is restarted. In IIS 6, Web gardening parameters are stored i
n the IIS metabase; the webGarden and cpuMask attributes are ignored. What is vi
ew state?.where it stored?.can we disable it? The web is state-less protocol, so
the page gets instantiated, executed, rendered and then disposed on every round
trip to the server. The developers code to add "statefulness" to the page by us
ing Server-side storage for the state or posting the page to itself. When requir
e to persist and read the data in control on webform, developer had to read the
values and store them in hidden variable (in the form), which were then used to
restore the values. With advent of .NET framework, ASP.NET came up with ViewStat
e mechanism, which tracks the data values of server controls on ASP.NET webform.
In effect,ViewState can be viewed as "hidden variable managed by ASP.NET framew
ork!". When ASP.NET page is executed, data values from all server controls
on pa
ge are collected and encoded as single string, which then assigned to page s hid
den atrribute "< input type=hidden >", that is part
of page sent to the client.
ViewState value is temporarily saved in the client s browser.ViewState can be di
sabled for a single control, for an entire page orfor an entire web application.
The syntax is: Disable ViewState for control (Datagrid in this example) < asp:d
atagrid EnableViewState="false" ... / > Disable ViewState for a page, using Page
directive < %@ Page EnableViewState="False" ... % > Disable ViewState for appli
cation through

entry in web.config < Pages EnableViewState="false" ... / > NET F
rameWork FAQ s Next >> When was .NET announced? Bill Gates

delivered

a keynote a
t Forum 2000, held June 22, 2000, outlining the .NET vision . The July 2000 PDC
had a number of sessions on .NET technology, and delegates were given CDs conta
ining a pre-release version of the .NET framework/SDK and Visual Studio.NET.
When was the first version of .NET released? The final version of the 1.0 SDK an
d runtime was made publicly available around 6pm PST on 15-Jan-2002. At the same
time, the final version of Visual Studio.NET was made available to MSDN subscri
bers. What platforms does the .NET Framework run on? The runtime supports Window
s XP, Windows 2000, NT4 SP6a and Windows ME/98. Windows 95 is not supported. Som
e parts of the framework do not work on all platforms - for example, ASP.NET is
only supported on Windows XP and Windows 2000. Windows 98/ME cannot be used for
development. IIS is not supported on Windows XP Home Edition, and so cannot be u
sed to host ASP.NET. However, the ASP.NET Web Matrix web server does run on XP H
ome. The Mono project is attempting to implement the .NET framework on Linux. Wh
at is the CLR? CLR = Common Language Runtime. The CLR is a set of standard resou
rces that (in theory) any .NET program can take advantage of, regardless of prog
ramming language. Robert Schmidt (Microsoft) lists the following CLR resources i
n his MSDN PDC# article: Object-oriented programming model (inheritance, polymor
phism, exception handling, garbage collection) Security model Type system All .N
ET base classes Many .NET framework classes Development, debugging, and profilin
g tools Execution and code management IL-to-native translators and optimizers Wh
at this means is that in the .NET world, different programming languages will be
more equal in capability than they have ever been before, although clearly not
all languages will support all CLR services. What is the CTS? CTS = Common Type
System. This is the range of types that the .NET runtime understands, and theref
ore that .NET applications can use. However note that not all .NET languages wil
l support all the types in the CTS. The CTS is a superset of the CLS. What is th
e CLS? CLS = Common Language Specification. This is a subset of the CTS which al
l .NET languages are expected to support. The idea is that any program which use
s CLScompliant types can interoperate with any .NET program written in any langu
age. In theory this allows very tight interop between different .NET languages -
for example allowing a C# class to inherit from a VB class. What is IL?
IL = Intermediate Language. Also known as MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language)
or CIL (Common Intermediate Language). All .NET source code (of any language) i
s compiled to IL. The IL is then converted to machine code at the point where th
e software

is
installed, or at run-time by a Just-In-Time


(JIT) compiler. What d
oes managed mean in the .NET context? The term managed is the cause of much
confusion. It is used in various places within .NET, meaning slightly different
things.Managed code: The .NET framework provides several core run-time services
to the programs that run within it - for example exception handling and security
. For these services to work, the code must provide a minimum level of informati
on to the runtime. Such code is called managed code. All C# and Visual Basic.NET
code is managed by default. VS7 C++ code is not managed by default, but the com
piler can produce managed code by specifying a command-line switch (/com+). Mana


ged data: This is data that is allocated and de-allocated by the .NET runtime s
garbage collector. C# and VB.NET data is always managed. VS7 C++ data is unmanag
ed by default, even when using the /com+ switch, but it can be marked as managed
using the __gc keyword.Managed classes: This is usually referred to in the cont
ext of Managed Extensions (ME) for C++. When using ME C++, a class can be marked
with the __gc keyword. As the name suggests, this means that the memory for ins
tances of the class is managed by the garbage collector, but it also means more
than that. The class becomes a fully paid-up member of the .NET community with t
he benefits and restrictions that brings. An example of a benefit is proper inte
rop with classes written in other languages for example, a managed C++ class can
inherit from a VB class. An example of a restriction is that a managed class ca
n only inherit from one base class. What is reflection? All .NET compilers produ
ce metadata about the types defined in the modules they produce. This metadata i
s packaged along with the module (modules in turn are packaged together in assem
blies), and can be accessed by a mechanism called reflection. The System.Reflect
ion namespace contains classes that can be used to interrogate the types for a m
odule/assembly. Using reflection to access .NET metadata is very similar to usin
g ITypeLib/ITypeInfo to access type library data in COM, and it is used for simi
lar purposes - e.g. determining data type sizes for marshaling data across conte
xt/process/machine boundaries. Reflection can also be used to dynamically invoke
methods (see System.Type.InvokeMember ) , or even create types dynamically at r
un-time (see System.Reflection.Emit.TypeBuilder). What is the difference between
Finalize and Dispose (Garbage collection) ? Class instances often encapsulate c
ontrol over resources that are not managed by the runtime, such as window handle
s (HWND), database connections, and so on. Therefore, you should provide both an
explicit and an implicit way to free those resources. Provide implicit control
by implementing the protected Finalize Method on an object (destructor syntax in
C# and the Managed Extensions for C++). The garbage collector calls this method
at some point after there are no longer any valid references to the object. In
some
cases, you might want to provide programmers using an object with the ability to
explicitly release these external resources before the garbage collector frees
the object. If an external resource is scarce or expensive, better performance c
an be achieved if the programmer explicitly releases resources when they are no
longer being used. To provide explicit control, implement the Dispose method pro
vided by the IDisposable Interface. The consumer of the object should call this
method when it is done using the object. Dispose can be called even if other ref
erences to the object are alive. Note that even when you provide explicit contro
l by way of Dispose, you should provide implicit cleanup using the Finalize meth
od. Finalize provides a backup to prevent resources from permanently leaking if
the programmer fails to call Dispose. What is Partial Assembly References?

Full
Assembly reference: A full assembly reference includes the assembly s text name,
version, culture, and public key token (if the assembly has a strong name). A f
ull assembly reference is required if you reference any assembly that is part of
the common language runtime or any assembly located in the global assembly cach
e. Partial Assembly reference: We can dynamically reference an assembly by provi
ding only partial information, such as specifying only the assembly name. When y
ou specify a partial assembly reference, the runtime looks for the assembly only
in the application directory. We can make partial references to an assembly in
your code one of the following ways: -> Use a method such as System.Reflection.A
ssembly.Load and specify only a partial reference. The runtime checks for the as
sembly in the application directory. -> Use the System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadW
ithPartialName method and specify only a partial reference. The runtime checks f
or the assembly in the application directory and in the global assembly cache Ch
anges to which portion of version number indicates an incompatible change? Major
or minor. Changes to the major or minor portion of the version number indicate
an incompatible change. Under this convention then, version 2.0.0.0 would be con
sidered incompatible with version 1.0.0.0. Examples of an incompatible change wo
uld be a change to the types of some method parameters or the removal of a type
or method altogether. Build. The Build number is typically used to distinguish b
etween daily builds or smaller compatible releases. Revision. Changes to the rev
ision number are
typically reserved for an incremental build needed to fix a par
ticular bug. You ll sometimes hear this referred to as the "emergency bug fix" n
umber in that the revision is what is often changed when a fix to a specific bug
is shipped to a customer. What is side-by-side execution? Can two application o
ne using private assembly and other using Shared assembly be stated as a side-by
-side executables? Side-by-side execution is the ability to run multiple version
s of an application or component on the same computer. You can have multiple ver
sions of the common language runtime, and multiple versions of applications and
components that use a version of the runtime, on the same computer at the same t
ime. Since versioning is only
applied to shared assemblies, and not to private assemblies, two application one
using private assembly and one using shared assembly cannot be stated as side-b
y-side executables. Why string are called Immutable data Type ? The memory repre
sentation of string is an Array of Characters, So on re-assigning the new array
of Char is formed & the start address is changed . Thus keeping the Old string i
n Memory for Garbage Collector to be disposed. What does assert() method do? In
debug compilation, assert takes in a Boolean condition as a parameter, and shows
the error dialog if the condition is false.

The program proceeds without any in
terruption if the condition is true. What s the difference between the Debug cla
ss and Trace class? Documentation looks the same. Use Debug class for debug buil
ds, use Trace class for both debug and release builds. Why are there five tracin
g levels in System.Diagnostics.TraceSwitcher? The tracing dumps can be quite ver
bose. For applications that are constantly running you run the risk of overloadi
ng the machine and the hard drive. Five levels range from None to Verbose, allow
ing you to fine-tune the tracing activities. Where is the output of TextWriterTr
aceListener redirected? To the Console or a text file depending on the parameter
passed to the constructor. How do assemblies find each other? By searching dire
ctory paths. There are several factors which can affect the path (such as the Ap
pDomain host, and application configuration
files), but for private assemblies t
he search path is normally the application s directory and its sub-directories.
For shared assemblies, the search path is normally same as the private assembly
path plus the shared assembly cache. How does assembly versioning work? Each ass
embly has a version number called the compatibility version. Also each reference
to an assembly (from another assembly) includes both the name and version of th
e referenced assembly.The version number has four numeric parts (e.g. 5.5.2.33).
Assemblies with either of the first two parts different are normally viewed as
incompatible. If the first two

parts are the same,

but the third is different, t
he assemblies are deemed as maybe compatible . If only the fourth part is diffe
rent, the assemblies are deemed compatible. However, this is just the default gu
ideline - it is the version policy that decides to what extent these rules are e
nforced. The version policy can be specified via the application configuration f
ile. What is garbage collection?
Garbage collection is a system whereby a run-time component takes responsibility
for managing the lifetime of objects and the heap memory that they occupy. This
concept is not new to .NET - Java and many
other languages/runtimes have used g
arbage collection for some time. Why doesn t the .NET runtime offer deterministi
c destruction? Because of the garbage collection algorithm. The .NET garbage col
lector works by periodically running through a list of all the objects that
are
currently being referenced by an application. All the objects that it doesn t fi
nd during this search are ready to be destroyed and the

memory reclaimed. The im
plication of this algorithm is that the runtime doesn t get notified immediately
when the final reference on an object goes away - it only finds out during the
next sweep of the heap. Futhermore, this type of algorithm works best by perform
ing the garbage collection sweep as rarely as possible. Normally heap exhaustion
is the trigger for a collection

sweep. Is the lack of deterministic destruction
in .NET a problem? It s certainly an issue that affects component design. If yo
u have objects that maintain expensive or scarce resources (e.g. database locks)
, you need to provide some way for the client to tell the object to release the
resource when it is done. Microsoft recommend that you provide a method called D
ispose() for this purpose. However, this causes problems for distributed objects
- in a distributed system who calls the Dispose() method? Some form of referenc
e-counting or ownership-management mechanism is needed to handle distributed obj
ects - unfortunately the runtime offers no help with this. What is serialization
? Serialization is the process of converting an object into a stream of bytes. D
eserialization is the opposite process of creating an object from a stream of by
tes. Serialization / Deserialization is mostly used to transport objects (e.g. d
uring remoting), or to persist objects (e.g. to a file or database). Does the .N
ET Framework have in-built support for serialization? There are two separate mec
hanisms provided by the .NET class library - XmlSerializer and SoapFormatter/Bin
aryFormatter. Microsoft uses XmlSerializer for Web Services, and uses SoapFormat
ter/BinaryFormatter for remoting. Both are available for use in your own code. C
an I customise the serialization process? Yes. XmlSerializer supports a range of
attributes that can be used to configure serialization for a particular class.
For example, a field or property can be marked with the [XmlIgnore] attribute to
exclude it from serialization. Another example is the [XmlElement] attribute, w
hich can be used to specify the XML element name to be used for a particular pro
perty or field. Serialization via SoapFormatter/BinaryFormatter can also be cont
rolled to some extent by attributes.

For example, the [NonSerialized] attribute
is the equivalent of XmlSerializer s
[XmlIgnore] attribute. Ultimate control of the serialization process can be ache
ived by implementing the the ISerializable interface on the class whose instance
s are to be serialized. Why is XmlSerializer so slow? There is a once-per-proces
s-per-type overhead with XmlSerializer. So the first time you serialize or deser
ialize an object of a
given type in an application, there is a significant delay
. This normally doesn t matter, but it may mean, for example, that XmlSerializer
is a poor choice for loading configuration settings during startup of a GUI app
lication. Why do I get errors when I try to serialize a Hashtable? XmlSerializer
will refuse to serialize instances of any class that implements IDictionary, e.
g. Hashtable. SoapFormatter and BinaryFormatter do not have this restriction. Wh
at are attributes? There are at least two types of .NET attribute. The first typ
e I will refer to as a metadata attribute - it allows some data to be attached t
o a class or method. This data becomes part of the metadata for the class, and (
like other class metadata) can be accessed via reflection. The other type of att
ribute is a context attribute. Context attributes use a similar syntax to metada
ta attributes but they are fundamentally different. Context attributes provide a
n interception mechanism whereby instance activation and method calls can be pre
- and/or post-processed. How does CAS work? The CAS security policy revolves aro
und two key concepts - code groups and permissions. Each .NET assembly is a memb
er of a particular code group, and each code group is granted the permissions sp
ecified in a named permission set. For example, using the

default security

polic
y, a control downloaded from a web site belongs to the
Zone -
Internet code gr
oup, which adheres to
the permissions

defined by the Internet named permission
set. (Naturally the Internet named permission set represents a very restricti
ve range of permissions.) Who defines the CAS code groups? Microsoft defines som
e default ones, but you can modify these

and even
create your own. To see the co
de groups defined on your system, run caspol -lg from the command-line. On my
system it looks like this: Level = Machine Code Groups: 1. All code: Nothing 1.1
. Zone - MyComputer: FullTrust 1.1.1. Honor SkipVerification requests: SkipVerif
ication 1.2. Zone - Intranet: LocalIntranet 1.3. Zone - Internet: Internet 1.4.
Zone - Untrusted: Nothing 1.5. Zone - Trusted: Internet
1.6. StrongName 0024000004800000940000000602000000240000525341310004000003 00000
0CFCB3291AA715FE99D40D49040336F9056D7886FED46775BC7BB5430BA4 444FEF8348EBD06 F96
2F39776AE4DC3B7B04A7FE6F49F25F740423EBF2C0B89698D8D08AC48D69C ED0FC8F83B465E08 0
7AC11EC1DCC7D054E807A43336DDE408A5393A48556123272CEEEE72F1660B7 1927D38561AABF5C
AC1DF1734633C602F8F2D5: Note

the hierarchy

of code groups - the top of the hier
archy is the most general ( All code ), which is then sub-divided into several g
roups, each of which in turn can be sub-divided. Also note that (somewhat counte
rintuitively) a sub-group can be associated with a more permissive permission se
t than its parent. How do I define my own code group? Use caspol. For example, s
uppose you trust code from www.mydomain.com and you want it have full access to
your system, but you want to keep the default restrictions for all other interne

t sites. To achieve

this, you would add a new code group as a sub-group of the
Zone - Internet group, like this: caspol -ag 1.3 -site www.mydomain.com FullTru
st Now if you run caspol -lg you will see that the new group has been added as g
roup 1.3.1: 1.3. Zone - Internet: Internet 1.3.1. Site - www.mydomain.com: FullT
rust Note that the numeric label (1.3.1) is just a caspol invention to make the
code groups easy to manipulate from the command-line. The underlying runtime nev
er sees it. How do I change the permission set for a code group?

Use

caspol. If
you are the machine administrator, you can operate at the machine level which
means not only that the changes you make become the default for the machine, but
also that users cannot change the permissions to be more permissive. If you are
a normal (non-admin) user you can still modify the permissions, but only to mak
e them more restrictive. For example, to allow intranet code to do what it likes
you might do this: caspol -cg 1.2 FullTrust Note that because this is more perm
issive than the default policy (on a standard system), you should only do this

a
t the machine level - doing it at the user level will have no effect. I can t be
bothered with all this CAS stuff. Can I turn it off? Yes, as long as you are an
administrator. Just run: caspol -s off Can I look at the IL for an assembly?
Yes. MS supply a tool called Ildasm which can be used to view the metadata and I
L for an assembly. Can source code be reverse-engineered from IL? Yes, it is oft
en relatively straightforward to regenerate high-level source (e.g. C#) from IL.
How can I stop my code being reverse-engineered from IL? There is currently no
simple way to stop code being reverse-engineered from IL. In future it is likely
that IL obfuscation tools will

become available,

either from MS or from third p
arties. These tools work by optimising the IL in such a way that reverse-engin
eering becomes much more difficult. Of course if you are writing web services th
en reverse-engineering is not a problem as clients do not have access to your IL
. Is there built-in support for tracing/logging? Yes, in the System.Diagnostics
namespace. There are two main classes that deal with tracing - Debug and Trace.
They both work in a similar way - the difference is that tracing from the Debug
class only works in builds that have the DEBUG symbol defined, whereas tracing f
rom the Trace class only works in builds that have the TRACE symbol defined. Typ
ically this means that you should use System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine for tra
cing that you want to work in debug and release builds, and System.Diagnostics.D
ebug.WriteLine for tracing that you want to work only in debug builds. Can I red
irect tracing to a file? Yes. The Debug and Trace classes both have a Listeners
property, which is a collection of sinks that receive the tracing that you send
via Debug.WriteLine and Trace.WriteLine respectively. By default the Listeners c
ollection contains a single sink, which is an instance of the DefaultTraceListen
er class. This sends output to the Win32 OutputDebugString() function and also t
he System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Log()

method. This is useful when debugging, but
if you re trying to trace a problem at a customer site, redirecting the output t
o a file is more appropriate. Fortunately, the TextWriterTraceListener class is
provided for this purpose. What are the contents of assembly? In general, a stat
ic assembly can consist of four elements: The assembly manifest, which contains
assembly metadata. Type metadata. Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) code th
at implements the types. A set of resources. What is GC (Garbage Collection) and
how it works One of the good features of the CLR is Garbage Collection, which r
uns in the background collecting unused object references, freeing us from havin
g to ensure we always destroy
them. In reality the time difference between you releasing the object instance a
nd it being garbage collected is likely to be very small, since the GC is always
running. [The process of transitively tracing through all pointers to actively
used objects in order to locate all objects that can be referenced, and then arr
anging to reuse any heap memory that was not found during this trace. The common
language runtime garbage collector also compacts the memory that is in use to r
educe the working space needed for the heap.] Heap: A portion of memory reserved
for a program to use for the temporary storage of data structures whose existen
ce or size cannot be determined until the program is running. Differnce between
Managed code and unmanaged code ? Managed Code: Code that runs under a "contract
of cooperation" with the common language runtime. Managed code must supply the
metadata necessary for the runtime to provide services such as memory management
, cross-language integration, code access security, and automatic lifetime contr
ol of objects. All code based on Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) executes
as managed code. Un-Managed Code: Code that is created without regard for the c
onventions and requirements of the common language runtime. Unmanaged code execu
tes in the common language runtime environment with minimal services (for exampl
e, no garbage collection, limited debugging, and so on). What is MSIL, IL, CTS a
nd, CLR ? MSIL: (Microsoft intermediate language) When compiling to managed code
, the compiler translates your source code into Microsoft intermediate language
(MSIL), which is a CPU-independent set of instructions that can be efficiently c
onverted to native code. MSIL includes instructions for loading, storing, initia
lizing, and calling methods on objects, as well as instructions for arithmetic a
nd logical operations, control flow, direct memory access, exception handling, a
nd other operations. Before code can be executed, MSIL must be converted to CPU-
specific code, usually by a just-in-time (JIT) compiler. Because the common lang
uage runtime supplies one or more JIT compilers for each computer architecture i
t supports, the same set of MSIL can be JIT-compiled and executed on any support
ed architecture. When a compiler produces MSIL, it also produces metadata. Metad
ata describes the types in

your code, including the definition of each type, the
signatures of each type s members, the members that your code references, and o
ther data that the runtime uses at execution time. The MSIL and metadata are con
tained in a portable executable (PE) file that is based on and extends the publi
shed Microsoft PE and Common Object File Format (COFF) used historically for exe
cutable content. This file format, which accommodates
MSIL or native code as well as metadata, enables the operating system to recogni
ze common language runtime images. The presence of metadata in the file along wi
th the MSIL enables your code to describe itself, which means that there is no n
eed for type libraries or Interface Definition Language (IDL). The runtime locat
es and extracts the metadata from the file as needed during execution. IL: (Inte
rmediate Language) A language used as the output of a number of compilers and as
the input to a just-in-time (JIT) compiler. The common language runtime include
s a JIT compiler for converting MSIL to native code. CTS: (Common Type System) T
he specification that determines how the common language runtime defines, uses,
and manages types CLR: (Common Language Runtime) The engine at the core of manag
ed code execution. The runtime supplies managed code with services such as cross
-language integration, code access security, object lifetime management, and deb
ugging and profiling support. What is Reference type and value type ? Reference
Type: Reference types are allocated on the managed CLR heap,
just like object ty
pes. A data type that is stored as a reference to the value s location. The valu
e of a
reference type is the location of the sequence of bits that represent the
type s data. Reference types can be self-describing types, pointer types, or in
terface types Value Type: Value types are allocated on the stack just like primi
tive types in VBScript, VB6 and C/C++. Value types are not instantiated using ne
w go out of scope when the function they are defined within returns. Value types
in the CLR are defined as types that derive from system.valueType. A data type
that fully
describes a value by specifying the sequence of bits that constitutes
the value s representation. Type information for a value type instance is not s
tored with the instance at run time, but it is available in metadata. Value type
instances can be treated as objects using boxing. What is Boxing and unboxing ?
Boxing: The conversion of a value type instance to an object, which implies tha
t the instance will carry full type information at run time and will be allocate
d in the heap. The Microsoft


intermediate language (MSIL) instruction set s box instruction converts a value
type to an object by making a copy of the value type and embedding it in a newly
allocated object. Un-Boxing: The conversion of an object instance to a value ty
pe. What is JIT and how is works ? An acronym for "just-in-time," a phrase that
describes an action that is taken only when it becomes necessary, such as just-i
n-time compilation or just-in-time object activation What is portable executable
(PE) ? The file format used for executable programs and for files to be linked
together to form

executable programs What is strong name? A name that consists o
f an assembly s identity—its simple text name, version number, and culture informa
tion (if provided)—strengthened by a public key and a digital signature generated
over the assembly. Because the assembly manifest contains file hashes for all th
e files that constitute the assembly implementation, it is sufficient to generat
e the digital signature over just the one file in the assembly that contains the
assembly manifest. Assemblies with the same strong name are expected to be iden
tical What is global assembly cache? A machine-wide code cache that stores assem
blies specifically installed to be shared by many applications on the computer.
Applications deployed in the global assembly cache must have a strong name. What
is difference between constants, readonly and, static ? Constants: The value ca
n’t be changed Read-only: The value will be initialized only once from the constru
ctor of the class. Static: Value can be initialized once. What is difference bet
ween shared and public? An assembly that can be referenced by more than one appl
ication. An assembly must be explicitly built to be shared by giving it a crypto
graphically strong name. What is namespace used for loading assemblies at run ti
me and name the methods? System.Reflection What are the types of authentication
in .net? We have three types of authentication: 1. Form authentication 2. Window
s authentication 3. Passport This has to be declared in web.config file.
What is the difference between a Struct and a Class ? The struct type is suitabl
e for representing lightweight objects such as Point, Rectangle, and Color. Alth
ough it is possible to represent a point as a class, a struct is more efficient
in some scenarios. For example, if you declare an array of 1000 Point objects, y
ou will allocate additional memory for referencing each object. In this case, th
e struct is less expensive. When you create a struct object using the new operat
or, it gets created and the appropriate constructor is called. Unlike classes, s
tructs can be instantiated without using the new operator. If you do not use new
, the fields will remain unassigned and the object cannot be used until all of t
he fields are initialized. It is an error to declare a default (parameterless) c
onstructor for a struct. A default constructor is always provided to initialize
the struct members to their default values. It is an error to initialize an inst
ance field in a struct. There is no inheritance for structs as there is for clas
ses. A struct cannot inherit from another struct or class, and it cannot be the
base of a class. Structs, however, inherit from the base class Object. A struct
can implement interfaces, and it does that exactly as classes do. A struct is a
value type, while a class is a reference type. How big is the datatype int in .N
ET? 32 bits. How big is the char? 16 bits (Unicode). How do you initiate a strin
g without escaping

each backslash? Put an @ sign in front of the double-quoted s
tring. What s the access level of the visibility type internal? Current applicat
ion. Explain encapsulation ? The implementation is hidden, the interface

is expo
sed. What data type should you use if you
want an 8-bit value that s signed? sby
te.

Speaking of Boolean data types, what s different between C# and C/C++? There
s no conversion between 0 and false, as well as any other number and true, like
in C/C++. Where are the value-type variables allocated in the computer RAM? Sta
ck. Where do the reference-type variables go in the RAM? The references go on th
e stack, while the objects themselves go on the heap.
What is the difference between the value-type variables and reference-type varia
bles in terms of garbage collection? The value-type variables are not garbage-co
llected, they just fall off the stack when they fall out of scope, the reference
-type objects are picked up by GC when their references go null. How do you conv
ert a string into an integer in .NET? Int32.Parse(string) How do you box a primi
tive data type variable? Assign it to the object, pass an object.

Why do you nee
d to box a primitive variable? To pass it by reference. What s the difference be
tween Java and .NET garbage collectors? Sun left the implementation of a specifi
c garbage collector up to the

JRE developer, so their performance varies widely,
depending on whose JRE you re using. Microsoft standardized on their garbage co
llection.

How do you enforce garbage collection in .NET? System.GC.Collect(); Wh
at s different about namespace declaration

when comparing that to package declar
ation in Java? No semicolon. What s the difference between const
and readonly? Y
ou can initialize readonly variables to some runtime values.
Let s say your prog
ram uses current date and time as one of the values that won t change. This way
you declare public readonly string DateT = new DateTime().ToString(). What happe
ns when you encounter a continue statement inside the for loop? The code for the
rest of the loop
is ignored, the control is transferred back to the beginning o
f the loop. What s the advantage of using System.Text.StringBuilder over System.
String? StringBuilder is more efficient in the cases, where a
lot of manipulatio
n is done to the text. Strings are immutable, so each time it s being operated o
n, a new instance

is created. Can you store multiple data types in System.Array?
No. What s the difference between the System.Array.CopyTo() and System.Array.Cl
one()? The first one performs a deep copy of the array, the second one is shallo
w.
How can you sort the elements of the

array in descending order? By calling Sort(
) and then Reverse() methods. What s the .NET

datatype that allows the retrieval
of data by a unique key? HashTable. What s class SortedList underneath? A sorte
d HashTable. Will finally block get executed if the exception had not occurred?
Yes. Can multiple catch blocks be executed? No, once the proper catch code fires
off, the control is transferred to the finally block (if there are any), and th
en whatever follows the finally block. Why is it a bad idea to throw your own ex
ceptions? Well, if at that point you know that an error has occurred, then why n
ot write the proper code to handle that error instead of passing a new Exception
object to the catch block?

Throwing your own exceptions signifies some design f
laws in the project. What s a delegate? A delegate object encapsulates a
referen
ce to a method. In
C++ they were referred to as function pointers. What s a mult
icast delegate?

It s a delegate that points to and eventually fires off several
methods. How s the DLL Hell problem solved in .NET? Assembly versioning allows t
he application to specify not only the library it needs to run (which was availa
ble under Win32), but also the version of the assembly. What are the ways
to dep
loy an assembly? An MSI installer, a CAB archive, and XCOPY command. What s a sa
tellite assembly? When you write a multilingual or multi-cultural application in
.NET, and want to distribute the core application separately from the localized
modules, the localized assemblies that modify the core application are called s
atellite assemblies. What namespaces are necessary to create a localized applica
tion? System.Globalization, System.Resources. What does assert() do?
In debug compilation, assert takes in a Boolean condition as a parameter, and sh
ows the error dialog if the condition is false.

The program proceeds without any
interruption if the condition is true. What s the difference between the Debug
class and Trace class? Documentation looks the same. Use Debug class for debug b
uilds, use Trace class for both debug and release builds. Why are there five tra
cing levels in System.Diagnostics.TraceSwitcher? The tracing dumps can be quite
verbose and for some applications that are constantly running you run the risk o
f overloading the machine and the hard drive there. Five levels range from None
to Verbose, allowing to fine-tune the tracing activities. Where is the output of
TextWriterTraceListener redirected? To the Console or a text file depending on
the parameter passed to the constructor. What namespaces are necessary to create
a localized application? System.Globalization, System.Resources. What are three
test cases you should go through in unit testing? Positive test cases (correct
data, correct output), negative test cases (broken or missing data, proper handl
ing), exception test cases (exceptions are thrown and caught properly). Can you
change the value of a variable while debugging a C# application? Yes,
if you are
debugging via Visual Studio.NET, just go to Immediate window.

What s the implic
it name

of the parameter that gets passed into
the class set method? Value, and
it s datatype depends on whatever variable we re changing. How do you inherit f
rom a
class in C#? Place a colon and then the name of the base class. Notice tha
t it s double colon in C++. Does C# support multiple inheritance? No, use interf
aces instead. When you inherit
a protected class-level variable, who is it avail
able to? Derived Classes.

What s the top .NET class that everything is derived f
rom? System.Object. How s method overriding different from overloading? When ove
rriding, you change the method behavior for a derived class. Overloading simply
involves having a method with the same name within the class.
What does the keyword virtual mean in the method definition? The method can be o
ver-ridden. Can you declare
the override method static while the original method
is non-static? No, you can t, the signature of the virtual method must remain t
he same, only the keyword virtual is changed to keyword override. Can you overri
de private virtual methods? No, moreover, you cannot access private methods in i
nherited classes, have to be protected in the base class to allow any sort of ac
cess. Can you prevent your class from

being inherited and becoming a base class
for some other classes? Yes, that s what keyword sealed in the class definition
is for. The developer trying to derive from your class
will get a message: canno
t inherit from Sealed class WhateverBaseClassName. It s the same concept as fina
l class in Java. Can you allow class to be inherited, but prevent the method fro
m being over-ridden?

Yes, just leave the class public and make the method sealed
. Why can t you specify the accessibility modifier for methods inside the interf
ace? They all must be public. Therefore, to prevent you from getting the false i
mpression that you have

any freedom of choice, you are not allowed to specify an
y accessibility, it s public by default. Can you inherit multiple

interfaces? Ye
s, why not. And if they have conflicting method names? It s up to you to impleme
nt the method inside your own class, so implementation is left entirely up to yo
u. This might cause a problem on a higher-level scale if similarly named methods
from

different interfaces

expect different data, but as far as compiler cares y
ou re okay. What s the difference between an interface and abstract class? In th
e interface all methods must be abstract, in the abstract class some methods can
be concrete. In the interface no accessibility modifiers are allowed, which is
ok in abstract classes. How can you overload a method? Different parameter data
types, different number of parameters, different order of parameters. If a base
class has a bunch of overloaded constructors, and an inherited class has another
bunch of overloaded constructors, can you enforce a call from an inherited cons
tructor to an arbitrary base constructor?
Yes, just place a colon, and then keyword base (parameter list to invoke the app
ropriate constructor)

in the overloaded constructor definition inside the inheri
ted class. What s the difference between System.String and System.StringBuilder
classes? System.String is immutable, System.StringBuilder was designed with the
purpose of having a mutable string where a variety of operations can be performe
d. Does C# support multiple-inheritance? No, use interfaces instead. When you in
herit a protected class-level variable, who is it available to? The derived clas
s. Are private class-level variables inherited? Yes, but they are not accessible
. Although they are not visible or accessible via the class interface, they are
inherited. Describe the accessibility modifier "protected internal". It is avail
able to derived classes

and classes within

the same Assembly (and naturally from
the base class it s declared in).
What s the top .NET class that everything is
derived from? System.Object. What s the advantage of using System.Text.StringBui
lder over System.String? StringBuilder is more efficient in cases where there is


a large amount of string manipulation. Strings are immutable, so each time it s
being operated on, a new instance

is created. Can you store multiple data types
in System.Array? No. What s the .NET class that allows the retrieval of a data
element using a unique key? HashTable.
Will the finally block get executed if an
exception has not occurred? Yes. What s an abstract class? A class that cannot
be instantiated. An abstract class is a class that must be inherited and have th
e methods overridden. An abstract class is essentially a blueprint for a class w
ithout any implementation. When do you absolutely have to declare a class as abs
tract? 1. When at least one of the methods in the class is abstract.
2. When the class itself is inherited from
an abstract class,
but not all base a
bstract methods have been overridden. What s an interface? It s an abstract clas
s with public abstract

methods all of which must be implemented in the inherited
classes. Why can t you specify the accessibility modifier for methods inside th
e interface? They all must be public. Therefore, to prevent you from getting the
false impression that you have

any freedom of choice,
you are not allowed to sp
ecify any accessibility, it s public by default. What s the difference between a
n interface and abstract class? In an interface class, all methods must be abstr
act. In an abstract class some methods can be concrete. In an interface class, n
o accessibility modifiers are allowed, which is ok in an abstract class. How is
method overriding different from method overloading? When overriding a method, y
ou change the behavior of the method for the derived class. Overloading a method
simply involves having another method with the same name within the class. Can
you declare an override method to be static if the original method is non-static
? No. The signature of the virtual method must remain the same, only the keyword
virtual is changed to keyword override. Can you override private virtual method
s? No. Private methods are not accessible outside the class. Can you write a cla
ss without specifying namespace? Which namespace does it belong to by default? Y
es, you can, then the class belongs to global

namespace which has no name. For c
ommercial products, naturally, you wouldn t want global namespace. What is a for
matter? A formatter is an object that is responsible for encoding and serializin
g data into messages on one end, and deserializing and decoding messages into da
ta on the other end. Different b/w .NET & J2EE ? Differences between J2EE and th
e .NET Platform Vendor Neutrality The .NET platform is not vendor neutral, it is
tied to the Microsoft operating systems. But neither are any of the J2EE implem
entations Many companies buy into J2EE believing that
it will give them vendor n
eutrality. And, in fact, this is a stated goal of Sun s vision: A wide variety o
f J2EE product configurations and implementations, all of which meet the require
ments of this specification, are possible. A portable J2EE application will
function correctly when successfully deployed in any of these products. (ref : J
ava 2 Platform Enterprise Edition Specification, v1.3, page 2-7 available at htt
p://java.sun.com/j2ee/) Overall Maturity Given that the .NET platform has a thre
e year lead over J2EE, it should be no surprise to learn that the .NET platform
is far more mature than the J2EE platform. Whereas we have high volume highly re
liable web sites using .NET technologies (NASDAQ and Dell being among many examp
les) Interoperability and Web Services The .NET platform eCollaboration model is
, as I have discussed at length, based on the UDDI and SOAP standards. These sta
ndards are widely supported by more than 100 companies. Microsoft, along with IB
M and Ariba, are the leaders in this area. Sun is a member of the UDDI consortiu
m and
recognizes the importance of the UDDI standards. In a recent press release
, Sun s George Paolini, Vice President for the Java Community Development, says:
"Sun has always worked to help establish and support open, standards-based tech
nologies that facilitate the growth of network-based applications, and we see UD
DI as an important project to establish a registry framework for business-to-bus
iness e-commerce But while Sun publicly says it believes in the UDDI standards,
in reality, Sun has done nothing whatsoever to incorporate any of the UDDI stand
ards into J2EE. Scalability Typical Comparision w.r.t Systems and their costs J2
EE Company System Total Sys. Cost Bull Escala T610 c/s 16,785 $1,980,179 IBM RS/
6000 Enterprise Server F80 16,785 $2,026,681 Bull Escala EPC810 c/s 33,375 $3,03
7,499 IBM RS/6000 Enterprise Server M80 33,375 $3,097,055 Bull Escala EPC2450 11
0,403 $9,563,263 IBM IBM eServer pSeries 680 Model 7017-S85 110,403 $9,560,594 .
NET platform systems Company System Total Sys. Cost Dell PowerEdge 4400 16,263 $
273,487 Compaq ProLiant ML-570-6/700-3P 20,207 $201,717 Dell PowerEdge 6400 30,2
31 $334,626 IBM Netfinity 7600 c/s 32,377 $443,463 Compaq ProLiant 8500-X550-64P
161,720 $3,534,272 Compaq ProLiant 8500-X700-64P 179,658 $3,546,582 Compaq ProL
iant 8500-X550-96P 229,914 $5,305,571 Compaq ProLiant 8500-X700-96P 262,244 $5,3
05,571 Compaq ProLiant 8500-700-192P 505,303 $10,003,826 Framework Support
The .NET platform includes such an eCommerce framework called Commerce Server. A
t this point, there is no equivalent vendor-neutral framework in the J2EE space.
With J2EE, you should assume that you will be building your new eCommerce solut
ion from scratch Moreover, no matter what [J2EE] vendor you choose, if you expec
t a component framework that will allow you to quickly field complete e-business
applications, you are in for a frustrating experience Language In the language
arena, the choice is about as simple as it gets. J2EE supports Java, and only Ja
va. It will not support any other language in the foreseeable future. The .NET p
latform supports every language except Java (although it does support a language
that is syntactically and functionally equivalent to Java, C#). In fact, given
the importance of the .NET platform as a language independent vehicle, it is lik
ely that any language that comes out in the near future will include support for
the .NET platform. Some companies
are under the impression

that J2EE supports o
ther languages. Although both IBM s WebSphere and BEA s WebLogic support other l
anguages, neither does it through their J2EE technology. There are only two offi
cial ways in the J2EE platform to access other languages, one through the Java N
ative Interface and the
other through CORBA interoperability. Sun recommends the
later approach. As Sun s Distinguished Scientist and Java Architect Rick Cattel
l said in a recent interview. Portability The reason that operating system porta
bility is a possibility with J2EE is not so much because of any inherent portabi
lity of J2EE, as it is that most of the J2EE vendors support multiple operating
systems. Therefore as long as one sticks with a given J2EE vendor and a given da
tabase vendor, moving from one operating system to another should be possible. T
his is probably the single most important benefit in favor of J2EE over the .NET
platform, which is limited to the Windows operating system. It is worth noting,
however, that Microsoft has submitted the specifications for C# and a subset of
the .NET Framework (called the common language infrastructure) to ECMA, the gro
up that standardizes JavaScript. J2EE offers an acceptable solution to ISVs when
the product must be marketed to nonWindows customers,

particularly when the J2E
E platform itself can be bundled with the ISV s product as an integrated offerin
g. If the primary customer base for the ISV is Windows customers, then the .NET
platform should be chosen. It will provide much better performance at a much low
er cost. Client device independence The major difference being that with Java, i
t is the presentation tier programmer that determines the ultimate HTML that wil
l be delivered to the client, and with .NET, it is a Visual Studio.NET control.
This Java approach has three problems. First, it requires a lot of code on the p
resentation tier, since every possible thin client system requires a different c
ode path. Second, it is very difficult to test the code with every possible thin
client system. Third, it is very difficult to add new thin clients to an existi
ng application, since to do so involves searching through, and modifying a treme
ndous amount of presentation tier logic. The .NET Framework approach is to write
device independent code that interacts with visual controls. It is the control,
not the programmer, that is responsible for determining
what HTML to deliver, based on the capabilities of the client device.. In the .N
ET Framework model,
one can forget that such a thing as HTML even exists! Contd
.... Conclusion Sun s J2EE vision is based on a family of specifications that ca
n be implemented by many vendors. It is open in the sense that any company can l
icense and implement the technology, but closed in the sense that it is controll
ed by a single vendor, and a self contained architectural

island with very limit
ed ability to interact outside of itself. One of J2EE s major disadvantages is t
hat the choice of the platform dictates the use of a single programming language
, and
a programming language that is not well suited for most businesses. One of
J2EE s major advantages is
that most of the J2EE vendors do offer operating sys
tem portability. Microsoft s .NET platform vision is a family of products rather
than specifications, with specifications used primarily to define points of int
eroperability. The major disadvantage of this approach is that if is limited to
the Windows platform, so applications written for the .NET platform can only be
run on .NET platforms. Their are several important advantages to the .NET platfo
rm: * The cost of developing applications is much lower, since standard business
languages can be used and device independent presentation tier logic can be wri
tten. * The cost of running applications is much lower, since commodity hardware
platforms (at 1/5 the cost of their Unix counterparts) can be used. * The abili
ty to scale up is much greater, with the proved ability to support at least ten
times the number of clients any J2EE platform has shown itself able to support.
* Interoperability is much stronger, with industry standard eCollaboration built
into the platform. What are the Main Features of .NET platform? Features of .NE
T Platform are :Common Language Runtime Explains the features and benefits of th
e common language runtime, a run-time environment that manages the execution of
code and provides services that simplify the development process. Assemblies Def
ines the concept of assemblies, which are collections of types and resources tha
t form logical units of functionality. Assemblies are the fundamental units of d
eployment, version control, reuse, activation scoping, and security permissions.
Application Domains Explains how to use application domains to provide isolatio
n between applications. Runtime Hosts Describes the runtime hosts supported by t
he .NET Framework, including ASP.NET, Internet Explorer, and shell executables.
Common Type System Identifies the types supported by the common language runtime
. Metadata and Self-Describing Components Explains how the .NET Framework simpli
fies component interoperation by allowing compilers to emit additional declarati
ve information, or metadata, into all modules and assemblies.
Cross-Language Interoperability Explains how managed objects created in differen
t programming languages can interact with one another. .NET Framework Security D
escribes mechanisms for protecting resources and code from unauthorized code and
unauthorized users. .NET Framework Class Library Introduces the library of type
s provided by the .NET Framework, which expedites and optimizes the development
process and gives you access to system functionality. What is the use of JIT ? J
IT (Just - In - Time) is a compiler which converts MSIL code to Native Code (ie.
. CPUspecific code that runs on the same computer architecture). Because the com
mon language runtime supplies a JIT compiler for each supported CPU architecture
, developers can write a set of MSIL that can be JIT-compiled and run on compute
rs with different architectures. However, your managed code will run only on a s
pecific operating system if it calls platform-specific native APIs, or a platfor
m-specific class library. JIT compilation takes into account the fact that some
code might never get called during execution. Rather than using time and memory
to convert all the MSIL in a portable executable (PE) file to native code, it co
nverts the MSIL as needed during execution and stores the resulting native code
so that it is accessible
for subsequent calls. The loader creates and attaches a
stub to each of a type s methods when the type is loaded. On the initial call t
o the method, the stub passes control to the JIT compiler, which converts the MS
IL for that method into native code and modifies the stub to direct execution to
the location of the native code. Subsequent calls of the JIT-compiled method pr
oceed directly to the native code that was previously generated, reducing the ti
me it takes to JIT-compile and run the code. What meant of assembly & global ass
embly cache (gac) & Meta data. Assembly :-- An assembly is the primary building
block of a .NET based application. It is a collection of functionality that is b
uilt, versioned, and deployed as a single implementation unit (as one or more fi
les). All managed types and resources are marked either as accessible only withi
n their implementation
unit, or
as accessible by code outside that unit. It over
comes the problem of dll Hell .The .NET Framework uses assemblies as the fundam
ental unit for several purposes: · Security · Type Identity · Reference Scope · Versioni
ng · Deployment Global Assembly Cache :-- Assemblies can be shared among multiple
applications on the machine by registering them in global Assembly cache(GAC). G
AC is a machine wide a local cache of assemblies maintained by the .NET Framewor
k. We can register the assembly to global assembly cache by using gacutil comman
d. We can Navigate to the GAC directory, C:winntAssembly in explore. In the tool
s menu select the cache properties; in the windows displayed you can set the mem
ory limit in MB used by the GAC
MetaData :--Assemblies have Manifests. This Manifest contains Metadata informati
on of the Module/Assembly as well as it contains

detailed Metadata of other asse
mblies/modules references (exported). It s the Assembly Manifest which different
iates between an Assembly and a Module. What are the mobile devices supported by
.net platform The Microsoft .NET Compact Framework is designed to run on mobile
devices such as mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and embedded
devices. The easiest way to develop and test a Smart Device Application is to u
se an emulator. These devices are divided into two main divisions: 1) Those that
are directly supported by .NET (Pocket PCs, i-Mode phones, and WAP devices) 2)
Those that are not (Palm OS and J2ME-powered devices). What is GUID , why we use
it and where? GUID :-- GUID is Short form of Globally Unique Identifier, a uniq
ue 128-bit number that is produced by the Windows OS or by some Windows applicat
ions to identify a particular component, application, file, database entry, and/


or user. For instance, a Web site may generate a GUID and assign it to a user s
browser to record and track the session. A GUID is also used in a Windows regist
ry to identify COM DLLs. Knowing where to look in the registry and having the co
rrect GUID yields a lot information about a COM object (i.e., information in the
type library, its physical location, etc.). Windows also identifies user accoun
ts by a username (computer/domain and username) and assigns it a GUID. Some data
base administrators even will use GUIDs as primary key values in databases. GUID
s can be created in a number of ways, but usually they are a combination of a fe
w unique settings based on specific point in time (e.g., an IP address, network
MAC address, clock date/time, etc.). Describe the difference between inline and
code behind - which is best in a loosely coupled solution ASP.NET supports two m
odes of page development: Page logic code that is written inside runat="server">
blocks within an .aspx file and dynamically compiled the first time the page is
requested on the server. Page logic code that is written within an external cla
ss that is compiled prior to deployment on a server and linked ""behind"" the .a
spx file at run time. Whats MSIL, and why should my developers need an appreciat
ion of it if at all? When compiling the source code to managed code, the compile
r translates the source into Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL). This is a C
PU-independent set of instructions that can efficiently be converted to native c
ode. Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) is a translation used as the output
of a number of compilers. It is the input to a just-intime (JIT) compiler. The C
ommon Language Runtime includes a JIT compiler for the conversion of MSIL to nat
ive code. Before Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) can be executed it, must
be converted by the .NET Framework just-in-time (JIT) compiler to native code.
This is CPU-specific code that runs on the same computer architecture as the JIT
compiler. Rather than using time and memory to convert all of the MSIL in a por
table executable (PE) file to native code. It converts the MSIL as needed whilst
executing, then caches the resulting native code so its accessible for any subs
equent calls.
How many .NET languages can a single .NET DLL contain? One What type of code (se
rver or client) is found in a Code-Behind class? Server Whats an assembly? Assem
blies are the building blocks of .NET Framework applications; they form the fund
amental unit of deployment, version control, reuse, activation scoping, and secu
rity permissions. An assembly is a collection of types and resources that are bu
ilt to work together and form a logical unit of functionality. An assembly provi
des the common language runtime with the information it needs to be aware of typ
e implementations. To the runtime, a type does not exist outside the context of
an assembly. How many classes can a single .NET DLL contain? Unlimited. What is
the difference between string and String ? No difference What is manifest? It is
the metadata that describes the assemblies. What is metadata? Metadata is machi
ne-readable information about a resource, or ""data about data."" Such informati
on might include details on content, format, size, or other characteristics of a
data source. In .NET, metadata includes type definitions, version information,
external assembly references, and other standardized information. What are the t
ypes of assemblies? There are four types of assemblies in .NET: Static assemblie
s These are the .NET PE files that you create at compile time. Dynamic assemblie
s These are PE-formatted, in-memory assemblies that you dynamically create at ru
ntime using the classes in the System.Reflection.Emit namespace. Private assembl
ies These are static assemblies used by a specific application. Public or shared
assemblies These are static assemblies that must have a unique shared name and
can be used by any application. An application uses a private assembly by referr
ing to the assembly using a static path

or through an XML-based application conf
iguration file. While the CLR doesn t enforce versioning policies-checking wheth
er the correct version is used-for private assemblies, it ensures that an applic
ation uses the correct shared assemblies with which the application was built. T
hus, an application uses a specific shared assembly by referring to the specific
shared assembly, and the CLR ensures that the correct version is loaded at runt
ime. In .NET, an assembly is the smallest unit to which you can associate a vers
ion number; What are delegates?where are they used ?
A delegate defines a reference type that can be used to encapsulate a method wit
h a specific signature. A delegate instance encapsulates a static or an instance
method. Delegates are roughly similar to function pointers in C++; however, del
egates are typesafe and secure. When do you use virutal keyword?. When we need t
o override a method of the base class in the sub class, then we give the virtual
keyword in the base class method. This makes the method in the base class to be
overridable. Methods, properties, and indexers can be virtual, which means that
their implementation can be overridden in derived classes. What are class acces
s modifiers ? Access modifiers are keywords used to specify the declared accessi
bility of a member or a type. This section introduces the four access modifiers:
· Public - Access is not restricted. · Protected - Access is limited to the contain
ing class or types derived from the containing class. · Internal - Access is limit
ed to the current assembly. · Protected inertnal - Access is limited to the curren
t assembly or types derived · from the containing class. · Private - Access is limit
ed to the containing type. What Is Boxing And Unboxing? Boxing :- Boxing is an i
mplicit conversion of a value type to the type object type Eg:Consider the follo
wing declaration of a value-type variable: int i = 123; object o = (object) i; B
oxing Conversion UnBoxing :- Unboxing is an explicit conversion from the type ob
ject to a value type Eg: int i = 123; // A value type object box = i; // Boxing
int j = (int)box; // Unboxing What is Value type and refernce type in .Net?. Val
ue Type : A variable of a value type always contains a value of that type. The a
ssignment to a variable of a value type creates a copy of the assigned value, wh
ile the assignment to a variable of a reference type creates a copy of the refer
ence but not of the referenced object. The value types consist of two main categ
ories: * Stuct Type * Enumeration Type Reference Type :Variables of reference ty
pes, referred to as objects, store references to the actual data. This section i
ntroduces the following keywords used to declare reference types: * Class * Inte
rface * Delegate This section also introduces the following built-in reference t
ypes:
* object * string What is the difference between structures and enumeration?. Un
like classes, structs are value types and do not require heap allocation. A vari
able of a struct type directly contains the data of the struct, whereas a variab
le of a class type contains a reference to the data. They are derived from Syste
m.ValueType class. Enum->An enum type is a distinct type that declares a set of
named constants.They are strongly typed constants. They are unique types that al
low to declare symbolic names to integral

values. Enums are value types, which m
eans they contain their own value, can t inherit or be inherited from and assign
ment copies the value of one enum to another. public enum Grade { A, B, C } What
is namespaces?. Namespace is a logical naming scheme for group related types.So
me class types that logically belong together they can be put into a common name
space. They prevent namespace collisions and they provide scoping. They are impo
rted as "using" in C# or "Imports" in Visual Basic.

It seems as if these directi
ves specify a particular assembly, but they don t. A namespace can span multiple
assemblies, and an assembly can define multiple namespaces. When the compiler n
eeds the definition for a class type, it tracks through each of the different im
ported namespaces to the type name and searches each referenced assembly until i
t is found. Namespaces can be nested. This is very similar to packages in Java a
s far as scoping is concerned. How do you create shared assemblies?. Just look t
hrough the definition of Assemblies.. * An Assembly is a logical unit of code *
Assembly physically exist as DLLs or EXEs * One assembly can contain one or more
files * The constituent files can include any file types like image files, text
files etc. along with DLLs or EXEs * When you compile your source code by defau
lt the exe/dll generated is actually an assembly * Unless your code is bundled a
s assembly it can not be used in any other application * When you talk about ver
sion of a component you are actually talking about version of the assembly to wh
ich the component belongs. * Every assembly file contains information about itse
lf. This information is called as Assembly Manifest. Following steps are involve
d in creating shared assemblies : * Create your DLL/EXE source code * Generate u
nique assembly name using SN utility
* Sign your DLL/EXE with the private key by modifying AssemblyInfo file * Compil
e your DLL/EXE * Place the resultant DLL/EXE in global assembly cache using AL u
tility What is global assembly cache? Each computer where the common language ru
ntime is installed has a machine-wide code cache called the global assembly cach
e. The global assembly cache stores assemblies specifically designated to be sha
red by several applications on the computer. There are several ways to deploy an
assembly into the global assembly cache: · Use an installer designed to work with
the global assembly cache. This is the preferred option for installing assembli
es into the global assembly cache. · Use a developer tool called the Global Assemb
ly Cache tool (Gacutil.exe), provided by the .NET Framework SDK. · Use Windows Exp
lorer to drag assemblies into the cache. What is MSIL?. When compiling to manage
d code, the compiler translates your source code into Microsoft intermediate lan
guage (MSIL), which is a CPU-independent set of instructions that can be efficie
ntly converted to native code. MSIL includes instructions for loading, storing,
initializing, and calling methods on objects, as well as instructions for arithm
etic and logical operations, control flow, direct memory access, exception handl
ing, and other operations. Before code can be run, MSIL must be converted to CPU
-specific code, usually by a just-in-time (JIT) compiler. Because the common lan
guage runtime supplies one or more JIT compilers for each computer architecture
it supports, the same set of MSIL can be JIT-compiled and run on any supported a
rchitecture. When a compiler produces MSIL, it also produces metadata. Metadata
describes the types in

your code, including the definition of each type, the sig
natures of each type s members, the members that your code references, and other
data that the runtime uses at execution time. The MSIL and metadata are contain
ed in a portable executable (PE) file that is based on and extends the published
Microsoft PE and common object file format (COFF) used historically for executa
ble content. This file format, which accommodates MSIL or native code as well as
metadata, enables the operating system to recognize common language runtime ima
ges. The presence of metadata in the file along with the MSIL enables your code
to describe itself, which means that there is no need for type libraries or Inte
rface Definition Language (IDL). The runtime locates and extracts the metadata f
rom the file as needed during execution. What is Jit compilers?.how many are ava
ilable in clr? Just-In-Time compiler- it converts the language that you write in
.Net into machine language that a computer can understand. there are tqo types
of JITs one is memory optimized & other is performace optimized. What is tracing
?Where it used.Explain few methods available Tracing refers to collecting inform
ation about the application while it is running. You use tracing information to
troubleshoot an application. Tracing allows us to observe and correct programmin
g errors. Tracing enables you to record information in various log files about t
he errors that might occur at run time. You can analyze these log files to find
the cause of the errors.
In .NET we have objects called Trace Listeners. A listener is an object that rec
eives the trace output and outputs it somewhere; that somewhere could be a windo
w in your development environment, a file on your hard drive, a Windows Event lo
g, a SQL Server or Oracle database, or any other customized data store. The Syst
em.Diagnostics namespace provides the interfaces, classes, enumerations and stru
ctures that are used for tracing The System.Diagnostics namespace provides two c
lasses named Trace and Debug that are used for writing errors and application ex
ecution information in logs. All Trace Listeners have the following functions. F
unctionality of these functions is same except that the target media for the tra
cing output is determined by the Trace Listener. Method Name Result Fail Outputs
the specified text with the Call Stack. Write Outputs the specified text. Write
Line Outputs the specified text and a carriage return. Flush Flushes the output
buffer to the target media. Close Closes the output stream in order to not recei
ve the tracing/debugging output. How to set the debug mode? Debug Mode for ASP.N
ET applications

- To set ASP.NET appplication in debugging mode, edit the applic
ation s web.config and assign the "debug" attribute in < compilation > section t
o "true" as show below: < configuration > < system.web > < compilation defaultLa
nguage="vb"
debug="true" / > .... ... .. < / configuration > This case-sensitive
attribute debug tells ASP.NET to generate symbols for dynamically generated fi
les and enables the debugger to attach to the ASP.NET application. ASP.NET will
detect this change automatically, without the need to restart the server. Debug
Mode for ASP.NET Webservices - Debugging an XML Web service created with ASP.NET
is similar to the debugging an ASP.NET Web application. What is the property av
ailable to check if the page posted or not? The Page_Load event handler in the p
age checks for IsPostBack property value, to ascertain whether the page is poste
d. The Page.IsPostBack gets a value indicating whether the page is being loaded
in response to the client postback, or it is for the first time. The value of Pa
ge.IsPostBack is True, if the page is being loaded in response to the client pos
tback; while its value is False, when the page is loaded for the first time. The
Page.IsPostBack property facilitates execution of certain routine in Page_Load,
only once (for e.g. in Page load, we need to set default value in controls, whe
n page is loaded for the first time. On post back, we check for true value for I
sPostback value and then invoke server-side code to update data). Which are the
abstract classes available under system.xml namespace?
The System.XML namespace provides XML related processing ability in .NET framewo
rk. XmlReader and XMLWriter are the two abstract classes at the core of .NET Fra
mework XML classes: 1. XmlReader provides a fast, forward-only, read-only cursor
for processing an XML document stream. 2. XmlWriter provides

an interface for p
roducing XML document streams that conform to the W3C s XML standards. Both XmlR
eader and XmlWriter are abstract base classes, which define the functionality th
at all derived classes must support. Is it possible to use multipe inheritance i
n .net? Multiple Inheritance is an ability to inherit from more than one base cl
ass i.e. ability of a class to have more than one superclass, by inheriting from
different sources and thus combine separately-defined behaviors in a single cla
ss. There are two types of multiple inheritance: multiple type/interface inherit
ance and multiple implementation inheritance. C# & VB.NET supports only multiple
type/interface inheritance, i.e. you can derive an class/interface from multipl
e interfaces. There is no support for multiple implementation inheritance in .NE
T. That means a class can only derived from one class. What are the derived clas
ses from xmlReader and xmlWriter? Both XmlReader and XmlWriter are abstract base
classes, which define the functionality that all derived classes must support.
There are three concrete implementations of XmlReader: 1.XmlTextReader 2.XmlNode
Reader 3.XmlValidatingReader There are two concrete implementations of XmlWriter
: 1.XmlTextWriter 2.XmlNodeWriter XmlTextReader and XmlTextWriter support readin
g data to/from text-based stream, while XmlNodeReader and XmlNodeWriter are desi
gned for working with in-memory DOM tree structure. The custom readers and write
rs can also be developed to extend the built-in functionality of XmlReader and X
mlWriter. What is managed and unmanaged code? The .NET framework provides severa
l core run-time services to the programs that run within it - for example except
ion handling and security. For these services to work, the code must provide a m
inimum level of information to the runtime. i.e., code executing under the contr
ol of the CLR is called managed code. For example, any code written in C# or Vis
ual Basic .NET is managed code. Code that runs outside the CLR is referred to as
"unmanaged code." COM components, ActiveX components, and Win32 API functions a
re examples of unmanaged code. How you deploy .NET assemblies? One way is simply
use xcopy. others are use and the setup projects in .net. and one more way is u
se of nontuch deployment. What is Globalizationa and Localization ? Globalizatio
n is the process of creating an application that meets the needs of users from m
ultiple cultures. It includes using the correct
currency, date and time format, calendar, writing direction, sorting rules, and
other issues. Accommodating these cultural differences in an application is call
ed localization.Using

classes of System.Globalization namespace, you can set app
lication s current culture. This can be achieved by using any of the following 3
approaches. 1. Detect and redirect 2. Run-time adjustment 3. Using Satellite as
semblies. Whate are Resource Files ? How are they used in .NET? Resource files a
re the files containing data that is logically deployed with an application.Thes
e files can contain data in a number of formats including strings, images and pe
rsisted objects.

It has the main advantage of If we store data in these files th
en we don t need to compile these if the data get changed. In .NET we basically


require them storing culture specific informations by localizing application s r
esources. You can deploy your resources using satellite assemblies. Difference b
etween Dispose and Finallize method? Finalize method is used to
free the memory
used by some unmanaged resources like window handles (HWND). It s similar to the
destructor syntax in C#. The GC calls this method when it founds no more refere
nces to the object. But, In some cases we may need release the memory used by th
e resources explicitely.To release the memory explicitly we need to implement th
e Dispose method of IDisposable interface. What is encapsulation

? Encapsulation
is the ability to hide

the internal workings of an object s behavior and its da
ta. For instance, let s say you have a object named Bike and this object has a m
ethod named start(). When you create an instance of a Bike object and call its s
tart() method you are not worried about what happens to accomplish


this, you jus
t want to make sure the state of the bike is changed to running afterwards. Th
is kind of behavior hiding is encapsulation and it makes programming much easier
. How can you prevent your class to be inherated further? By setting Sealed - Ke
y word public sealed class Planet { //code goes here } class Moon:Planet { //Not
allowed as base class is sealed } What is GUID and why we need to use it and in
what condition? How this is created. A GUID is a 128-bit integer (16 bytes) tha
t can be used across all computers and networks wherever a unique identifier is
required. Such an identifier has a very low probability of being duplicated. Vis
ual Studio .NET IDE has a utility under the tools menu to generate GUIDs. Why do
you need to serialize.?
We need to serialize the object,if you want to pass object from one computer/app
lication domain to another.Process of converting complex objects into stream of
bytes that can be persisted or transported.Namespace for serialization is System
.Runtime.Serialization.The ISerializable interface allows you to make any class
Serializable..NET framework features 2 serializing method. 1.Binary Serializatio
n 2.XML Serialization What is inline schema, how does it works? Schemas can be i
ncluded inside of XML file is called Inline Schemas.This is useful when it is in
convenient to physically seprate the schema and the XML document.A schema is an
XML document that defines the structure, constraints, data types, and relationsh
ips of the elements that constitute the data contained inside the XML document o
r in another XML document.Schema can be an external file which uses the XSD or X
DR extension called external schema. Inline schema can take place even when vali
dation is turned off. Describe the
advantages of writing a managed code applicat
ion instead of unmanaged one. What s involved in certain piece of code being man
aged? "Advantage includes automatic garbage collection,memory management,securit
y,type checking,versioning Managed code is compiled for the .NET run-time enviro
nment. It runs in the Common Language Runtime (CLR), which is the heart of the .
NET Framework. The CLR provides services such as security, memory management, an
d cross-language integration. Managed applications written to take advantage of
the features of the CLR perform more efficiently and safely, and take better adv
antage of developers existing expertise in languages that support the .NET Frame
work. Unmanaged code includes all code written before the .NET Framework was int
roduced— this includes code written to use COM, native Win32, and Visual Basic 6.
Because it does not run inside the .NET environment, unmanaged code cannot make
use of any .NET managed facilities." What are multicast delegates ? give me an e
xample ? Delegate that can have more than one element in its invocation List. us
ing System; namespace SampleMultiCastDelegate { class MultiCast { public delegat
e string strMultiCast(string s); } } MainClass defines the static methods having
same signature as delegate. using System; namespace SampleMultiCastDelegate { p
ublic class MainClass {
public MainClass() { } public static string Jump(string s) { Console.WriteLine("
Jump"); return String.Empty; } public static string Run(string s) { Console.Writ
eLine("Run"); return String.Empty; } public static string Walk(string s) { Conso
le.WriteLine("Walk"); return String.Empty; } } } The Main class: using System; u
sing System.Threading; namespace SampleMultiCastDelegate { public class MainMult
iCastDelegate { public static void Main() { MultiCast.strMultiCast Run,Walk,Jump
; MultiCast.strMultiCast myDelegate; ///here mydelegate used the Combine method
of System.MulticastDelegate ///and the delegates combine myDelegate=(MultiCast.s
trMultiCast)System.Delegate.Combine(Run,Walk); } } } Can a nested object be used
in Serialization ? Yes. If a class that is to be serialized contains references
to objects of other classes, and if those classes have been marked as serializa
ble, then their objects are serialized too. Difference between int and int32 ? B
oth are same. System.Int32 is a .NET class. Int is an alias name for System.Int3
2. Describe the difference between a Thread and a Process?
A Process is an instance of an running application. And a thread is the Executio
n stream of the Process. A process can have multiple Thread. When a process star
ts a specific memory area is allocated to it. When there is multiple thread in a
process, each thread gets a memory for storing the variables in it and plus the
y can access to the global variables which is common for all the thread. Eg.A Mi
crosoft Word is a Application. When you open a word file,an instance of the Word
starts and a process is allocated to this instance which has one thread. What i
s the difference between an EXE and a DLL? You can create an objects of Dll but
not of the EXE. Dll is an In-Process Component whereas EXE is an OUt-Process Com
ponent. Exe is for single use whereas you can use Dll for multiple use. Exe can
be started as standalone where dll cannot be. What is strong-typing versus weak-
typing? Which is preferred? Why? Strong typing implies that the types of variabl
es involved in operations are associated to the variable, checked at compile-tim
e, and require explicit conversion; weak typing implies that they are associated
to the value, checked at run-time, and are implicitly converted as required. (W
hich is preferred is a disputable point, but I personally prefer strong typing b
ecause I like my errors to be found as soon as possible.) What is a PID? How is
it useful when troubleshooting a system? PID is the process Id of the applicatio
n in Windows. Whenever a process starts running in the Windows environment, it i
s associated with an individual process Id or PID. The PID (Process ID) a unique
number for each item on the Process Tab, Image Name list. How do you get the PI
D to appear? In Task Manger, select the View menu, then select columns and check
PID (Process Identifier). In Linux, PID is used to debug a process explicitly.
However we cannot do this in a windows environment. Microsoft has launched a SDK
called as Microsoft Operations Management (MOM). This uses the PID to find out
which dll’s have been loaded by a process in the memory. This is essentially helpf
ul in situations where the Process which has a memory leak is to be traced to a
erring dll. Personally I have never used a PID, our Windows debugger does the th
ings required to find out. NET FrameWork <<>> What is the GAC? What problem does
it solve? Each computer where the common language runtime is installed has a ma
chine-wide code cache called the global assembly cache. The global assembly cach
e stores assemblies that are to be shared by several applications on the compute
r. This area is typically the folder under windows or winnt in the machine. All
the assemblies that need to be shared across applications need to be done throug
h the Global assembly Cache only. However it is not necessary to install assembl
ies into the global assembly cache to make them accessible to COM interop or unm
anaged code. There are several ways to deploy an assembly into the global assemb
ly cache: · Use an installer designed to work with the global assembly cache. This
is the preferred option for installing assemblies into the global assembly cach
e.
· Use a developer tool called the Global Assembly Cache tool (Gacutil.exe), provid
ed by the .NET Framework SDK. · Use Windows Explorer to drag assemblies into the c
ache. GAC solves the problem of DLL Hell and DLL versioning. Unlike earlier situ
ations, GAC can hold two assemblies of the same name but different version. This
ensures that the applications which access a particular assembly continue to ac
cess the same assembly even if another version of that assembly is installed on
that machine. Describe what an Interface is and how it’s different from a Class. A
n interface is a structure of code which is similar to a class. An interface is
a prototype for a class and is useful from a logical design perspective. Interfa
ces provide a means to define the protocols for a class without worrying about t
he implementation details. The syntax for creating interfaces follows: interface
Identifier { InterfaceBody } Identifier is the name of the interface and Interf
aceBody refers to the abstract methods and static final variables that make up t
he interface.
Because it is assumed that all the methods in an interface are abs
tract, it isn t necessary to use the abstract keyword An interface is a descript
ion of some of the members available from a class. In practice,

the syntax typic
ally looks similar to a class definition, except that there s no code defined fo
r the methods — just their name, the arguments passed and the type of the value re
turned. So what good is it? None by itself. But you create an interface so that
classes will implement it. But what does it mean to implement an interface. The
interface acts as a contract or promise. If a class implements an interface, the
n it must have the properties and methods of the interface defined in the class.
This is enforced by the compiler. Broadly the differentiators between classes a
nd interfaces is as follows • Interface should not have any implementation. • Interf
ace can not create any instance. • Interface should provide high level abstraction
from the implementation. • Interface can have multiple inheritances. • Default acce
ss level of the interface is public. What is the difference between XML Web Serv
ices using ASMX and .NET Remoting using SOAP? ASP.NET Web services and .NET Remo
ting provide a full suite of design options for cross-process and cross-plaform
communication in distributed applications. In general, ASP.NET Web services prov
ide the highest levels of interoperability with full support for WSDL and SOAP o
ver HTTP, while .NET Remoting is designed for common language runtime type-syste
m fidelity and supports additional data format and communication channels. Hence
if we looking cross-platform communication than web services is the choice coz
for .NET remoting .Net framework is requried which may or may not present for th
e other platform. Serialization and Metadata ASP.NET Web services rely on the Sy
stem.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer class to marshal data to and from SOAP mess
ages at runtime. For metadata, they generate WSDL
and XSD definitions that describe what their messages contain. The reliance on p
ure WSDL and XSD makes ASP.NET Web services metadata portable; it expresses data
structures in a way that other Web service toolkits on different platforms and
with different programming models can understand. In some cases, this imposes co
nstraints on the types you can expose from a Web service—XmlSerializer will only m
arshal things that can be expressed in XSD. Specifically, XmlSerializer will not
marshal object graphs and it has limited support for container types. .NET Remo
ting relies on the pluggable implementations of the IFormatter interface used by
the System.Runtime.Serialization engine to marshal data to and from messages. T
here are two standard formatters, System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary
.BinaryFormatter and System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter.
The BinaryFormatter and SoapFormatter, as the names suggest, marshal types in b
inary and SOAP format respectively. For metadata, .NET Remoting relies on the co
mmon language runtime assemblies, which contain all the relevant information abo
ut the data types they implement, and expose it via reflection. The reliance on
the assemblies for metadata makes it easy to preserve the full runtime type-syst
em fidelity. As a result, when the .NET Remoting plumbing marshals data, it incl
udes all of a class's public and private members; handles object graphs correctl
y; and supports all container types (e.g., System.Collections.Hashtable). Howeve
r, the reliance on runtime metadata also limits the reach of a .NET Remoting sys
tem—a client has to understand .NET constructs in order to communicate with a .NET
Remoting endpoint. In addition to pluggable formatters, the .NET Remoting layer
supports pluggable channels, which abstract away the details of how messages ar
e sent. There are two standard channels, one for raw TCP and one for HTTP. Messa
ges can be sent over either channel independent of format. Distributed Applicati
on Design: ASP.NET Web Services vs. .NET Remoting ASP.NET Web services favor the
XML Schema type system, and provide a simple programming model with broad cross
-platform reach. .NET Remoting favors the runtime type system, and provides a mo
re complex programming model with much more limited reach. This essential differ
ence is the primary factor in determining which technology to use. However, ther
e are a wide range of other design factors, including transport protocols, host
processes, security, performance, state management, and support for transactions
to consider as well. Security Since ASP.NET Web services rely on HTTP, they int
egrate with the standard Internet security infrastructure. ASP.NET leverages the
security features available with IIS to provide strong support for standard HTT
P authentication schemes including Basic, Digest, digital certificates, and even
Microsoft® .NET Passport. (You can also use Windows Integrated authentication, bu
t only for clients in a trusted domain.) One advantage of using the available HT
TP authentication schemes is that no code change is required in a Web service; I
IS performs authentication before the ASP.NET Web services are called. ASP.NET a
lso provides support for .NET Passport-based authentication and other custom aut
hentication schemes. ASP.NET supports access control based on target URLs, and b
y integrating with the .NET code access security (CAS) infrastructure. SSL can b
e used to ensure private communication over the wire.
Although these standard transport-level techniques to secure Web services are qu
ite effective, they only go so far. In complex scenarios involving multiple Web
services in different trust domains, you have to build custom ad hoc solutions.
Microsoft and others are working on a set of security specifications that build
on the extensibility of SOAP messages to offer message-level security capabiliti
es. One of these is the XML Web Services Security Language (WS-Security), which
defines a framework for message-level credential transfer, message integrity, an
d message confidentiality. As noted in the previous section, the .NET Remoting p
lumbing does not secure crossprocess invocations in the general case. A .NET Rem
oting endpoint hosted in IIS with ASP.NET can leverage all the same security fea
tures available to ASP.NET Web services, including support for secure communicat
ion over the wire using SSL. If you are using the TCP channel or the HTTP channe
l hosted in processes other than aspnet_wp.exe, you have to implement authentica
tion, authorization and privacy mechanisms yourself. One additional security con
cern is the ability to execute code from a semi-trusted environment without havi
ng to change the default security policy. ASP.NET Web Services client proxies wo
rk in these environments, but .NET Remoting proxies do not. In order to use a .N
ET Remoting proxy from a semi-trusted environment, you need a special serializat
ion permission that is not given to code loaded from your intranet or the Intern
et by default. If you want to use a .NET Remoting client from within a semi-trus
ted environment, you have to alter the default security policy for code loaded f
rom those zones. In situations where you are connecting to systems from clients
running in a sandbox—like a downloaded Windows Forms application, for instance—ASP.N
ET Web Services are a simpler choice because security policy changes are not req
uired. Conceptually, what is the difference between early-binding and late-bindi
ng? Early binding – Binding at Compile Time Late Binding – Binding at Run Time Early
binding implies that the class of the called object is known at compile-time; l
atebinding implies that the class is not known until run-time, such as a call th
rough an interface or via Reflection. Early binding is the preferred method. It
is the best performer because your application binds directly to the address of
the function being called and there is no extra overhead in doing a run-time loo
kup. In terms of overall execution speed, it is at least twice as fast as late b
inding. Early binding also provides type safety. When you have a reference set t
o the component's type library, Visual Basic provides IntelliSense support to he
lp you code each function correctly. Visual Basic also warns you if the data typ
e of a parameter or return value is incorrect, saving a lot of time when writing
and debugging code. Late binding is still useful in situations where the exact
interface of an object is not known at design-time. If your application seeks to
talk with multiple unknown servers or needs to invoke functions by name (using
the Visual Basic 6.0 CallByName function for example) then you need to use late
binding. Late binding is also useful to work around compatibility problems betwe
en multiple versions of a component that has improperly modified or adapted its
interface between versions. What is an Asssembly Qualified Name? Is it a filenam
e? How is it different?
An assembly qualified name isn't the filename of the assembly; it's the internal
name of the assembly combined with the assembly version, culture, and public ke
y, thus making it unique. e.g. (""System.Xml.XmlDocument, System.Xml, Version=1.
0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"") How is a strongly-
named assembly different from one that isn’t strongly-named? Strong names are used
to enable the stricter naming requirements associated with shared assemblies. T
hese strong names are created by a .NET utility – sn.exe Strong names have three g
oals: · Name uniqueness. Shared assemblies
must have names that are globally uniqu
e. · Prevent name spoofing. Developers don t want someone else releasing a subsequ
ent version of one of your assemblies and falsely claim it came from you, either
by accident or intentionally. · Provide identity on reference. When resolving a r
eference to an assembly, strong names are used to guarantee the assembly that is
loaded came from the expected publisher. Strong names are implemented using sta
ndard public key cryptography. In general, the process works as follows: The aut
hor of an assembly generates a key pair (or uses an existing one), signs the fil
e containing the manifest with the private key, and makes the public key availab
le to callers. When references are made to the assembly, the caller records the
public key corresponding to the private key used to generate the strong name. We
ak named assemblies are not suitable to be added in GAC and shared. It is essent
ial for an assembly to be strong named. Strong naming prevents tampering and ena
bles assemblies to be placed in the GAC alongside other assemblies of the same n
ame. How does the generational garbage collector in the .NET CLR manage object l
ifetime? What is non-deterministic finalization? The hugely simplistic version i
s that every time it garbage-collects, it starts by assuming everything to be ga
rbage, then goes through and builds
a list of everything reachable. Those become
not-garbage, everything else doesn t, and gets thrown away. What makes it gener
ational is that every time an object goes through this process and survives, it
is noted as being a member of an older generation (up to 2, right now). When the
garbagecollector is trying to free memory, it starts

with the lowest generation
(0) and only works up to higher ones if it can t free up enough space, on the g
rounds that shorter-lived objects are more likely to have been freed than longer
-lived ones. Non-deterministic finalization implies that the destructor (if any)


of an object will not necessarily be run (nor its memory cleaned up, but that s
a relatively minor issue) immediately upon its going out of scope. Instead, it
will wait until first the garbage collector gets around to finding it, and then
the finalisation queue empties down to it; and if the process ends before this h
appens, it may not be finalised at all. (Although the operating system will usua
lly clean up any process-external resources left open - note the usually there,
especially as the exceptions tend to hurt a lot.) What is the difference between
Finalize() and Dispose()? Dispose() is called by the user of an object to indic
ate that he is finished with it, enabling that object to release any unmanaged r
esources it holds. Finalize() is called by the runtime to allow an object which
has not had Dispose() called on it to do the same. However, Dispose() operates d
eterminalistically, whereas there is no guarantee that Finalize() will
be called immediately when an object goes out of scope - or indeed at all, if th
e program ends before that object is GCed - and as such Dispose() is generally p
referred. How is the using() pattern useful? What is IDisposable? How does it su
pport deterministic finalization? The using() pattern is useful because it ensur
es that Dispose() will always be called when a disposable object (defined as one
that implements IDisposable, and thus the Dispose() method) goes out of scope,
even if it does so by an exception being thrown, and thus that resources are alw
ays released. What does this useful command line do? tasklist /m "mscor*" Lists
all the applications and associated tasks/process currently running on the syste
m with a module whose name begins "mscor" loaded into them; which in nearly all
cases means "all the .NET processes". What’s wrong with a line like this? DateTime
.Parse(myString); Therez nothing wrong with this declaration.Converts the specif
ied string representation of a date and time to its DateTime equivalent.But If t
he string is not a valid DateTime,It throws an exception. What are PDBs? Where m
ust they be located for debugging to work? A program database (PDB) files holds
debugging and project state information that allows incremental linking of debug
configuration of your program.There are several different types of symbolic deb
ugging information. The default type for Microsoft compiler is the so-called PDB
file. The compiler setting for creating this file is /Zi, or /ZI for C/C++(whic
h creates a PDB file with additional information that enables a feature called "
"Edit and Continue"") or a Visual Basic/C#/JScript .NET program with /debug. A P
DB file is a separate file, placed by default in the Debug project subdirectory,
that has the same name as the executable file with the extension .pdb. Note tha
t the Visual C++ compiler by default creates an additional PDB file called VC60.
pdb for VisulaC++6.0 and VC70.PDB file for VisulaC++7.0. The compiler
creates th
is file during compilation of the source code, when the compiler isn t aware of
the final name of the executable. The linker can

merge this temporary PDB file i
nto the main one if you tell it to, but it won t do it by default. The PDB file
can be useful to display the detailed stack trace with source files and line num
bers. What is FullTrust? Do GAC’ed assemblies have FullTrust? Before the .NET Fram
ework existed, Windows had two levels of trust for downloaded code. This old mod
el was a binary trust model. You only had two choices: Full Trust,

and No Trust.
The code could either do anything you could do, or it wouldn t run at all. The
permission sets in .NET include FullTrust, SkipVerification, Execution, Nothing,
LocalIntranet, Internet and Everything. Full Trust Grants unrestricted permissi
ons to system resources. Fully trusted code run by a normal, nonprivileged user
cannot do administrative tasks, but can access any resources the user can access
, and do anything the user can do. From a security standpoint, you can think of
fully trusted code as being similar to native, unmanaged code, like a traditiona
l ActiveX control. GAC assemblies are granted FullTrust. In v1.0 and 1.1, the fa
ct that assemblies in the GAC seem to always get a FullTrust grant is actually a
side effect of the fact that the GAC lives on the local machine. If anyone were
to lock down the security policy by
changing the grant set of the local machine to something less than FullTrust, an
d if your assembly did not get extra permission from some other code group, it w
ould no longer have FullTrust even though it lives in the GAC. What does this do
? gacutil /l | find /i "Corillian" The Global Assembly Cache tool allows you to
view and manipulate the contents of the global assembly cache and download cache
.The tool comes with various optional params to do that. ""/l"" option Lists the
contents of the global assembly cache. If you specify the assemblyName paramete
r(/l [assemblyName]), the tool lists only the assemblies matching that name. Wha
t does this do .. sn -t foo.dll ? Sn -t option displays the token for the public
key stored in infile. The contents of infile must be previously generated using
-p. Sn.exe computes the token using a hash function from the public key. To sav
e space, the common language runtime stores public key tokens in the manifest as
part of a reference to another assembly when it records a dependency to an asse
mbly that has a strong name. The -tp option displays the public key in addition
to the token. How do you generate a strong name? .NET provides an utility called
strong name tool. You can run this toolfrom the VS.NET command prompt to genera
te a strong name with an option "-k" and providing the strong key file name. i.e
. sn- -k < file-name > What is the difference between a Debug and Release build?
Is there a significant speed difference? Why or why not? The Debug build is the
program compiled with full symbolic debug information and no optimization. The
Release build is the program compiled employing optimization and contains no sym
bolic debug information. These settings can be changed as per need from Project
Configuration properties. The release runs faster since it does not have any deb
ug symbols and is optimized. Explain the use of virtual, sealed, override, and a
bstract. Abstract: The keyword can be applied for a class or method. 1. Class: I
f we use abstract keyword for a class it makes the class an abstract class, whic
h means it cant be instantiated. Though it is not nessacary to make all the meth
od within the abstract class to be virtual. ie, Abstract class can have concrete
methods 2. Method: If we make a method as abstract, we dont need to provide imp
lementation of the method in the class but the derived class need to implement/o
verride this method. Sealed: It can be applied on a class and methods. It stops
the type from further derivation i.e no one can derive class from a sealed class
,ie A sealed class cannot be inherited.A sealed class cannot be a abstract class
.A compile time error is thrown if you try to specify sealed class as a base cla
ss. When an instance method declaration includes a sealed modifier, that method
is said to be a sealed method. If an instance method declaration includes the se
aled modifier, it must also include the override modifier. Use of the sealed mod
ifier prevents a derived class
from further overriding the method For Egs: sealed override public void Sample()
{ Console.WriteLine("Sealed Method"); } Virtual & Override: Virtual & Override
keywords provides runtime polymorphism. A base class can make some of its method
s as virtual which allows the derived class a chance to override the base class
implementation by using override keyword. For e.g. class Shape { int a public vi
rtual void Display() { Console.WriteLine("Shape"); } } class Rectangle:Shape { p
ublic override void Display() { Console.WriteLine("Derived"); } } Explain the im
portance and use of each, Version, Culture and PublicKeyToken for an assembly. T
his three alongwith name of the assembly provide a strong name or fully qualifie
d name to the assembly. When a assebly is referenced with all three. PublicKeyTo
ken: Each assembly can have a public key embedded in its manifest that identifie
s the developer. This ensures that once the assembly ships, no one can modify th
e code or other resources contained in the assembly. Culture: Specifies which cu
lture the assembly supports Version: The version number of the assembly.It is of
the following form major.minor.build.revision. Explain the differences between
public, protected, private and internal. These all are access modifier and they
governs the access level. They can be applied to class, methods, fields. Public:
Allows class, methods, fields to be accessible from anywhere i.e. within and ou
tside an assembly. Private: When applied to field and method allows to be access
ible within a class. Protected: Similar to private but can be accessed by member
s of derived class also.
Internal: They are public within the assembly i.e. they can be accessed by anyon
e within an assembly but outside assembly they are not visible. What is the diff
erence between typeof(foo) and myFoo.GetType()? Typeof is operator which applied
to a object returns System.Type object. Typeof cannot be overloaded white GetTy
pe has lot of overloads.GetType is a method which also returns System.Type of an
object. GetType is used to get the runtime type of the object. Example from MSD
N showing Gettype used to retrive type at untime:public class MyBaseClass: Objec
t { } public class MyDerivedClass: MyBaseClass { } public class Test { public st
atic void Main() { MyBaseClass myBase = new MyBaseClass(); MyDerivedClass myDeri
ved = new MyDerivedClass(); object o = myDerived; MyBaseClass b = myDerived; Con
sole.WriteLine("mybase: Type is {0}", myBase.GetType()); Console.WriteLine("myDe
rived: Type is {0}", myDerived.GetType()); Console.WriteLine("object o = myDeriv
ed: Type is {0}", o.GetType()); Console.WriteLine("MyBaseClass b = myDerived: Ty
pe is {0}", b.GetType()); } } /* This code produces the following output. mybase
: Type is MyBaseClass myDerived: Type is MyDerivedClass object o = myDerived: Ty
pe is MyDerivedClass MyBaseClass b = myDerived:


Type is MyDerivedClass */ Can "t
his" be used within a static method? No This cannot be used in a static method
. As only static variables/methods can be used in a static method. What is the p
urpose of XML Namespaces? An XML Namespace is a collection of element types and
attribute names. It consists of 2 parts 1) The first part is the URI used to ide
ntify the namespace 2) The second part is the element type or attribute name its
elf. Together they form a unique name. The various purpose of XML Namespace are
1. Combine fragments from different documents without any naming conflicts. (See
example below.) 2. Write reusable code modules that can be invoked for specific
elements and attributes. Universally unique names guarantee that
such modules are invoked only for the correct elements and attributes. 3. Define
elements and attributes that can be reused in other schemas or instance documen
ts without fear of name collisions. For example, you might use XHTML elements in
a parts catalog to provide part descriptions. Or you might use the nil attribut
e defined in XML Schemas to indicate a missing value. < Department > < Name >DVS
1< /Name > < addr:Address xmlns:addr="http://www.tu-darmstadt.de/ito/addresses">
< addr:Street >Wilhelminenstr. 7< /addr:Street > < addr:City >Darmstadt< /addr:
City > < addr:State >Hessen< /addr:State > < addr:Country >Germany< /addr:Countr
y > < addr:PostalCode >D-64285< /addr:PostalCode > < /addr:Address > < serv:Serv
er xmlns:serv="http://www.tu-darmstadt.de/ito/servers"> < serv:Name >OurWebServe
r< /serv:Name > < serv:Address >123.45.67.8< /serv:Address > < /serv:Server > <
/Department > What is difference between MetaData and Manifest ? Metadata and Ma
nifest forms an integral part of an assembly( dll / exe ) in .net framework . Ou
t of which Metadata is a mandatory component , which as the name suggests gives
the details about various components of IL code viz : Methods , properties , fie
lds , class etc. Essentially Metadata maintains details in form of tables like M
ethods Metadata tables , Properties Metadata tables , which maintains the list o
f given type and other details like access specifier , return type etc. Now Mani
fest is a part of metadata only , fully called as “manifest metadata tables” , it co
ntains the details of the references needed by the assembly of any other externa
l assembly / type , it could be a custom assembly or standard System namespace .
Now for an assembly that can independently exists and used in the .Net world bo
th the things ( Metadata with Manifest ) are mandatory , so that it can be fully
described assembly and can be ported anywhere without any system dependency . E
ssentially .Net framework can read all assembly related information from assembl
y itself at runtime . But for .Net modules , that can’t be used independently , un
til they are being packaged as a part of an assembly , they don’t contain Manifest
but their complete structure is defined by their respective metadata . Ultimate
ly . .Net modules use Manifest Metadata tables of parent assembly which contain
them . What is the use of Internal keyword? Internal keyword is one of the acces
s specifier available in .Net framework , that makes a type visible in a given a
ssembly , for e.g : a single dll can contain multiple modules , essentially a mu
lti file assembly , but it forms a single binary component , so any type
with internal keyword will be visible throughout the assembly and can be used in
any of the modules . What actually happes when you add a something to arraylist
collection ? Following things will happen : Arraylist is a dynamic array class i
n c# in System.Collections namespace derived from interfaces – ICollection , IList
, ICloneable , IConvertible . It terms of in memory structure following is the
implementation . a. Check up the total space if there’s any free space on the decl
ared list . b. If yes add the new item and increase count by 1 . c. If No Copy t
he whole thing to a temporary Array of Last Max. Size . d. Create new Array with
size ( Last Array Size + Increase Value ) e. Copy back values from temp and ref
erence this new array as original array . f. Must doing Method updates too , nee
d to check it up . What is Boxing and unboxing? Does it occure automaatically or
u need to write code to box and unbox? Boxing – Process of converting a System.Va
lueType to Reference Type , Mostly base class System.Object type and allocating
it memory on Heap .Reverse is unboxing , but can only be done with prior boxed v
ariables. Boxing is always implicit but Unboxing needs to be explicitly done via
casting , thus ensuring the value type contained inside . How Boxing and unboxi
ng occures in memory? Boxing converts value type to reference type , thus alloca
ting memory on Heap . Unboxing converts already boxed reference types to value t
ypes through explicit casting , thus allocating memory on stack . Why only boxed
types can be unboxed? Unboxing is the process of converting a Reference type va
riable to Value type and thus allocating memory on the stack . It happens only t
o those Reference type variables that have been earlier created by Boxing of a V
alue Type , therefore internally they contain a value type , which can be obtain
ed through explicit casting . For any other Reference type , they don’t internally
contain a Value type to Unboxed via explicit casting . This is why only boxed t
ypes can be unboxed . ADO.NET Next>> Explain what a diffgram is and its usage ?
A DiffGram is an XML format that is used to identify current and original versio
ns of data elements. The DataSet uses the DiffGram format to load and persist it
s contents, and to serialize its contents for transport across a network connect
ion. When a DataSet is written as a DiffGram, it populates the DiffGram with all
the necessary information to accurately recreate the contents, though not the s
chema, of the DataSet, including column values from both the Original and Curren
t row versions, row error information, and row order. When sending and retrievin
g a DataSet from an XML Web service, the DiffGram format is implicitly used. Add
itionally, when loading the contents of a DataSet from XML using
the ReadXml method, or when writing the contents of a DataSet in XML using the W
riteXml method, you can select that the contents be read or written as a DiffGra
m. The DiffGram format is divided into three sections: the current data, the ori
ginal (or "before") data, and an errors section, as shown in the following examp
le. xmlns:msdata="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-msdata" xmlns:diffgr="urn:schema
s-microsoft-com:xml-diffgram-v1" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
The DiffGram format consists of the following blocks of data: The name of this e
lement, DataInstance, is used for explanation purposes in this documentation. A
DataInstance element represents a DataSet or a row of a DataTable. Instead of Da
taInstance, the element would contain the name of the DataSet or DataTable. This
block of the DiffGram format contains the current data, whether it has been mod
ified or not. An element, or row, that has been modified is identified with the
diffgr:hasChanges annotation. This block of the DiffGram format contains the ori
ginal version of a row. Elements in this block are matched to elements in the Da
taInstance block using the diffgr:id annotation. This block of the DiffGram form
at contains error information for a particular row in the DataInstance block. El
ements in this block are matched to elements in the DataInstance block using the
diffgr:id annotation. Which method do you invoke on the DataAdapter control to
load your generated dataset with data? You have to use the Fill method of the Da
taAdapter control and pass the dataset object as an argument to load the generat
ed data. Can you edit data in the Repeater control? NO. Which are the different
IsolationLevels ? Following are the various IsolationLevels: · Serialized Data rea
d by a current transaction cannot be changed by another transaction until the cu
rrent transaction finishes. No new data can be inserted that would affect the cu
rrent transaction. This is the safest isolation level and is the default. · Repeat
able Read Data read by a current transaction cannot be changed by another transa
ction until the current transaction finishes. Any type of new data can be insert
ed during a transaction.
· Read Committed A transaction cannot read data that is being modified by another
transaction that has not committed. This is the default isolation level in Micro
soft® SQL Server. · Read Uncommitted A transaction can read any data, even if it is
being modified by another transaction. This is the least safe isolation level bu
t allows the highest concurrency. · Any Any isolation level is supported. This set
ting is most commonly used by downstream components to avoid conflicts. This set
ting is useful because any downstream component must be configured with an isola
tion level that is equal to or less than the isolation level of its immediate up
stream component. Therefore, a downstream component that has its isolation level
configured as Any always uses the same isolation level that its immediate upstr
eam component uses. If the root object in a transaction has its isolation level
configured to Any, its isolation level becomes Serialized. How xml files and be
read and write using dataset?. DataSet exposes method like ReadXml and WriteXml
to read and write xml What are the different rowversions available? There are fo
ur types of Rowversions. Current: The current values for the row. This row versi
on does not exist for rows with a RowState of Deleted. Default : The row the def
ault version for the current DataRowState. For a DataRowState value of Added, Mo
dified or Current, the default version is Current. For a DataRowState of Deleted
, the version is Original. For a DataRowState value of Detached, the version is
Proposed. Original: The row contains its original values. Proposed: The proposed
values for the row. This row version exists during an edit operation on a row,
or for a row that is not part of a DataRowCollection Explain acid properties?. T
he term ACID conveys the role transactions play in mission-critical applications
. Coined by transaction processing pioneers, ACID stands for atomicity, consiste
ncy, isolation, and durability. These properties ensure predictable behavior, re
inforcing the role of transactions as allor-none propositions designed to reduce
the management load when there are many variables. Atomicity A transaction is a
unit of work in which a series of operations occur between the BEGIN TRANSACTIO
N and END TRANSACTION statements of an application. A transaction executes exact
ly once and is atomic — all the work is done or none of it is. Operations associat
ed with a transaction usually share a common intent and are interdependent. By p
erforming only a subset of these operations, the system could compromise the ove
rall intent of the transaction. Atomicity eliminates the chance of processing a
subset of operations. Consistency
A transaction is a unit of integrity because it preserves the consistency of dat
a, transforming one consistent state of data into another consistent state of da
ta. Consistency requires that data bound by a transaction be semantically preser
ved. Some of the responsibility for maintaining consistency falls to the applica
tion developer who must make sure that all known integrity constraints are enfor
ced by the application. For example, in developing an application that transfers
money, you should avoid arbitrarily moving decimal points during the transfer.
Isolation A transaction is a unit of isolation — allowing concurrent transactions
to behave as though each were the only transaction running in the system. Isolat
ion requires that each transaction appear to be the only transaction manipulatin
g the data store, even though other transactions may be running at the same time
. A transaction should never see the intermediate stages of another transaction.
Transactions attain the highest level of isolation when they are serializable.
At this level, the results obtained from a set of concurrent transactions are id
entical to the results obtained by running each transaction serially. Because a
high degree of isolation can limit the number of concurrent transactions, some a
pplications reduce the isolation level in exchange for better throughput. Durabi
lity A transaction is also a unit of recovery. If a transaction succeeds, the sy
stem guarantees that its updates will persist, even if the computer

crashes imme
diately after the commit. Specialized logging allows the system s restart proced
ure to complete unfinished operations, making the transaction durable. Whate are
different types of Commands available with DataAdapter ? The SqlDataAdapter has
SelectCommand, InsertCommand, DeleteCommand and UpdateCommand What is a Dataset
? Datasets are the result of bringing together ADO and XML. A dataset contains o
ne or more data of tabular XML, known as DataTables, these data can be treated s
eparately, or can have relationships defined between them. Indeed these relation
ships give you ADO data SHAPING without needing to master the SHAPE language, wh
ich many people are not comfortable with. The dataset is a disconnected in-memor
y cache database. The dataset object model looks like this: Dataset DataTableCol
lection DataTable DataView DataRowCollection DataRow DataColumnCollection DataCo
lumn ChildRelations ParentRelations Constraints
PrimaryKey DataRelationCollection Let’s take a look at each of these: DataTableCol
lection: As we say that a DataSet is an in-memory database. So it has this colle
ction, which holds data from multiple tables in a single DataSet object. DataTab
le: In the DataTableCollection, we have DataTable objects, which represents the
individual tables of the dataset. DataView: The way we have views in database, s
ame way we can have DataViews. We can use these DataViews to do Sort, filter dat
a. DataRowCollection: Similar to DataTableCollection, to represent each row in e
ach Table we have DataRowCollection. DataRow: To represent each and every row of
the DataRowCollection, we have DataRows. DataColumnCollection: Similar to DataT
ableCollection, to represent each column in each Table we have DataColumnCollect
ion. DataColumn: To represent each and every Column of the DataColumnCollection,
we have DataColumn. PrimaryKey: Dataset defines Primary key for the table and t
he primary key validation will take place without going to the database. Constra
ints: We can define various constraints on the Tables, and can use Dataset.Table
s(0).enforceConstraints. This will execute all the constraints, whenever we ente
r data in DataTable. DataRelationCollection: as we know that we can have more th
an 1 table in the dataset, we can also define relationship between these tables
using this collection and maintain a parent-child relationship. Explain the ADO
. Net Architecture ( .Net Data Provider) ADO.Net is the data access model for .N
et –based applications. It can be used to access relational database systems such
as SQL SERVER 2000, Oracle, and many other data sources for which there is an OL
D DB or ODBC provider. To a certain extent, ADO.NET represents the latest evolut
ion of ADO technology. However, ADO.NET introduces some major changes and innova
tions that are aimed at the loosely coupled and inherently disconnected – nature o
f web applications. A .Net Framework data provider is used to connecting to a da
tabase, executing commands, and retrieving results. Those results are either pro
cessed directly, or placed in an ADO.NET DataSet in order to be exposed to the u
ser in an ad-hoc manner, combined with data from multiple sources, or remoted be
tween tiers. The .NET Framework data provider is designed to be lightweight, cre
ating a minimal layer between the data source and your code, increasing performa
nce without sacrificing functionality. Following are the 4 core objects of .Net
Framework Data provider: · Connection: Establishes a connection to a specific data
source · Command: Executes a command against a data source. Exposes Parameters an
d can execute within the scope of a Transaction from a Connection. · DataReader: R
eads a forward-only, read-only stream of data from a data source. · DataAdapter: P
opulates a DataSet and resolves updates with the data source.
The .NET Framework includes the .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server (for
Microsoft SQL Server version 7.0 or later), the .NET Framework Data Provider fo
r OLE DB, and the .NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC. The .NET Framework Data
Provider for SQL Server: The .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server uses i
ts own protocol to communicate with SQL Server. It is lightweight and performs w
ell because it is optimized to access a SQL Server directly without adding an OL
E DB or Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) layer. The following illustration cont
rasts the .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server with the .NET Framework Da
ta Provider for OLE DB. The .NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB communicates
to an OLE DB data source through both the OLE DB Service component, which provi
des connection pooling and transaction services, and the OLE DB Provider for the
data source The .NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB: The .NET Framework Dat
a Provider for OLE DB uses native OLE DB through COM interoperability to enable
data access. The .NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB supports both local and
distributed transactions. For distributed transactions, the .NET Framework Data
Provider for OLE DB, by default, automatically enlists in a transaction and obt
ains transaction details from Windows 2000 Component Services. The .NET Framewor
k Data Provider for ODBC: The .NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC uses native
ODBC Driver Manager (DM) through COM interoperability to enable data access. The
ODBC data provider supports both local and distributed transactions. For distri
buted transactions, the ODBC data provider, by default, automatically enlists in
a transaction and obtains transaction details from Windows 2000 Component Servi
ces. The .NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle: The .NET Framework Data Provid
er for Oracle enables data access to Oracle data sources through Oracle client c
onnectivity software. The data provider supports Oracle client software version
8.1.7 and later. The data provider supports both local and distributed transacti
ons (the data provider automatically enlists in existing distributed transaction
s, but does not currently support the EnlistDistributedTransaction method). The
.NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle requires that Oracle client software (ve
rsion 8.1.7 or later) be installed on the system before you can use it to connec
t to an Oracle data source. .NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle classes are
located in the System.Data.OracleClient namespace and are contained in the Syste
m.Data.OracleClient.dll assembly. You will need to reference both the System.Dat
a.dll and the System.Data.OracleClient.dll when compiling an application that us
es the data provider. Choosing a .NET Framework Data Provider .NET Framework Dat
a Provider for SQL Server: Recommended for middle-tier applications using Micros
oft SQL Server 7.0 or later. Recommended for single-tier applications using Micr
osoft Data Engine (MSDE) or Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 or later. Recommended over
use of the OLE DB Provider for SQL Server (SQLOLEDB) with the .NET Framework Dat
a Provider for OLE DB. For Microsoft SQL Server version 6.5 and earlier, you mus
t use the OLE DB Provider for SQL Server with the .NET Framework Data Provider f
or OLE DB.
.NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB: Recommended for middle-tier application
s using Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 or earlier, or any OLE DB provider. For Microso
ft SQL Server 7.0 or later, the .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server is r
ecommended. Recommended for single-tier applications using Microsoft Access data
bases. Use of a Microsoft Access database for a middle-tier application is not r
ecommended. .NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC: Recommended for middle-tier a
pplications using ODBC data sources. Recommended for single-tier applications us
ing ODBC data sources. .NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle: Recommended for
middle-tier applications using Oracle data sources. Recommended for single-tier
applications using Oracle data sources. Supports Oracle client software version
8.1.7 and later. The .NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle classes are located
in the System.Data.OracleClient namespace and are contained in the System.Data.
OracleClient.dll assembly. You need to reference both the System.Data.dll and th
e System.Data.OracleClient.dll when compiling an application that uses the data
provider. Can you explain the difference between an ADO.NET Dataset and an ADO R
ecordset? Let’s take a look at the differences between ADO Recordset and ADO.Net D
ataSet: 1. Table Collection: ADO Recordset provides the ability to navigate thro
ugh a single table of information. That table would have been formed with a join
of multiple tables and returning columns from multiple tables. ADO.NET DataSet
is capable of holding instances of multiple tables. It has got a Table Collectio
n, which holds multiple tables in it. If the tables are having a relation, then
it can be manipulated on a Parent-Child relationship. It has the ability to supp
ort multiple tables with keys, constraints and interconnected relationships. Wit
h this ability the DataSet can be considered as a small, in-memory relational da
tabase cache. 2. Navigation: Navigation in ADO Recordset is based on the cursor
mode. Even though it is specified to be a client-side Recordset, still the navig
ation pointer will move from one location to another on cursor model only. ADO.N
ET DataSet is an entirely offline, inmemory, and cache of data. All of its data
is available all the time. At any time, we can retrieve any row or column, const
raints or relation simply by accessing it either ordinarily or by retrieving it
from a name-based collection. 3. Connectivity Model: The ADO Recordset was origi
nally designed without the ability to operate in a disconnected environment. ADO
.NET DataSet is specifically designed to be a disconnected in-memory database. A
DO.NET DataSet follows a pure disconnected connectivity model and this gives it
much more scalability and versatility in the amount of things it can do and how
easily it can do that. 4. Marshalling and Serialization: In COM, through Marshal
ling, we can pass data from 1 COM component to another component at any time. Ma
rshalling involves copying and processing data so that a complex type can appear
to the receiving component the same as it appeared to the sending component. Ma
rshalling is an expensive operation. ADO.NET Dataset and DataTable components su
pport Remoting in the form of XML serialization. Rather than doing expensive Mar
shalling, it uses XML and sent data across boundaries. 5. Firewalls and DCOM and
Remoting: Those who have worked with DCOM know that how difficult it is to mars
hal a DCOM component across a router. People generally came
up with workarounds to solve this issue. ADO.NET DataSet uses Remoting, through
which a DataSet / DataTable component can be serialized into XML, sent across th
e wire to a new AppDomain, and then Desterilized back to a fully functional Data
Set. As the DataSet is completely disconnected, and it has no dependency, we los
e absolutely nothing by serializing and transferring it through Remoting. How do
you handle data concurrency in .NET ? One of the key features of the ADO.NET Da
taSet is that it can be a self-contained and disconnected data store. It can con
tain the schema and data from several rowsets in DataTable objects as well as in
formation about how to relate the DataTable objects-all in memory. The DataSet n
either knows nor cares where the data came from, nor does it need a link to an u
nderlying data source. Because it is data source agnostic you can pass the DataS
et around networks or even serialize it to XML and pass it across the Internet w
ithout losing any of its features. However, in a disconnected model, concurrency
obviously becomes

a much bigger problem than it is in a connected model. In thi
s column, I ll
explore how ADO.NET is equipped to detect and handle concurrency
violations. I ll begin by discussing scenarios in which concurrency violations c
an occur using the ADO.NET disconnected model. Then I will walk through an ASP.N
ET application that handles concurrency violations by giving the user the choice
to overwrite the changes or to refresh the out-of-sync data and begin editing a
gain. Because part of managing an optimistic concurrency model can involve keepi
ng a timestamp (rowversion) or another type of flag that indicates when a row wa
s last updated, I will show how to implement this type of flag and how to mainta
in its value after each database update. Is Your Glass Half Full? There are thre
e common techniques for managing what happens when users try to modify the same
data at the same time: pessimistic, optimistic, and last-in wins. They each hand
le concurrency issues differently. The pessimistic approach says: "Nobody can ca
use a concurrency violation with my data if I do not let them get at the data wh
ile I have it." This tactic prevents concurrency in the first place but it limit
s scalability because it prevents all concurrent access. Pessimistic concurrency
generally locks a row from the time it is retrieved until the time updates are
flushed to the database. Since this requires a connection to remain open during
the entire process, pessimistic concurrency cannot successfully be implemented i
n a disconnected model like the ADO.NET DataSet, which opens a connection only l
ong enough to populate the DataSet then releases and closes, so a database lock
cannot be held. Another technique for dealing with concurrency is the last-in wi
ns approach. This model is pretty straightforward and easy to implement-whatever
data modification was made last is what gets written to the database. To implem
ent this technique
you only need to put the primary key fields of the row in the
UPDATE statement s WHERE clause. No matter what is changed, the UPDATE statemen
t will overwrite the changes with its own changes since all it is looking for is
the row that matches the primary key values. Unlike the pessimistic model, the
last-in wins approach allows users to read the data while it is being edited on
screen. However, problems can occur when users try
to modify the same data at th
e same time because users can overwrite each other s changes without being notif
ied of
the collision. The last-in wins approach does not detect or notify the user of v
iolations because it does not care. However the optimistic technique does detect
violations. Contd.... In optimistic concurrency models, a row is only locked du
ring the update to the database. Therefore the data can be retrieved and updated
by other users at any time other than during the actual row update operation. O
ptimistic concurrency allows the data to be read simultaneously by multiple user
s and blocks other users less often than its pessimistic counterpart, making it
a good choice for ADO.NET. In optimistic models, it is important to implement so
me type of concurrency violation detection that will catch any additional attemp
t to modify records that have already been modified but not committed. You can w
rite your code to handle the violation by always rejecting and canceling the cha
nge request or by overwriting the request based on some business rules. Another
way to handle the concurrency violation is to let the user decide what to do. Th
e sample application that is shown in Figure 1 illustrates some of the options t
hat can be presented to the user in the event of a concurrency violation.

Where
Did My Changes Go? When users are likely to overwrite each other s changes, cont
rol mechanisms
should be put in place. Otherwise, changes could be lost. If the
technique you re using is the last-in wins approach, then these types of overwri


tes are entirely possible.For example, imagine Julie wants to edit an employee s
last name

to correct the spelling. She navigates to a screen which loads the em
ployee s information into a DataSet and has it presented

to her in a Web page. M
eanwhile, Scott is notified that the same
employee s phone extension has changed
. While Julie is correcting the employee s last name, Scott begins to correct hi
s extension. Julie saves her changes first and then Scott saves his.Assuming tha
t the application uses the last-in wins approach

and updates the row using a SQL
WHERE clause containing only the primary key s value, and assuming a change to
one column requires the entire row to be updated, neither Julie nor Scott may im
mediatelyrealize

the concurrency issue that just occurred.

In this particular si
tuation, Julie s changes were overwritten by Scott s changes because he saved la
st, and the last name reverted to the misspelled version. So as you can see, eve
n though

the users changed different fields, their changes collided and caused J
ulie s changes to be lost. Without some sort of concurrency detection and handli
ng, these types of overwrites can occur and

even go unnoticed.When you run the s
ample application included in this column s download, you should open two separa
te instances of Microsoft® Internet Explorer. When I generated the conflict, I ope
ned two instances to simulate two users with two separate sessions so that a con
currency violation would occur in the sample application. When you do this, be c
areful not to use Ctrl+N because if you open one instance and then use the Ctrl+
N technique to open another instance, both windows will share the same session.
Detecting Violations The concurrency violation reported to the user in Figure 1
demonstrates what can happen when multiple users edit the same data at the same
time. In Figure 1, the user attempted to modify the first name to "Joe" but sinc
e someone else had already modified the last name to "Fuller III," a concurrency
violation was detected and reported. ADO.NET detects a concurrency violation

wh
en a DataSet containing changed values is passed to a SqlDataAdapter s Update me
thod and no rows are actually modified. Simply using the


primary key (in this case the EmployeeID) in the UPDATE statement s WHERE clause
will not cause a violation to be detected because it still updates the row (in
fact, this technique has the same outcome as the last-in wins technique). Instea
d, more conditions must be specified in the WHERE clause in order for ADO.NET to
detect the violation. The key here is to make the WHERE clause explicit enough
so that it not only checks the primary key but that it also checks for another a
ppropriate condition. One way to accomplish this is to pass in all modifiable fi
elds to the WHERE clause in addition to the primary key. For example, the applic
ation shown
in Figure 1 could have its UPDATE statement look like the stored pro
cedure that s shown in Figure 2. Notice that in the code in Figure 2 nullable co
lumns are also checked to see if the value passed in is NULL. This technique is
not only messy but it can be difficult to maintain by hand and it requires you t
o test for a significant number of WHERE conditions just to update a row. This y
ields the desired result of only updating rows where none of the values have cha
nged since the last time the user got the data, but there are other techniques t
hat do not require such a huge WHERE clause. Another way to make sure that the r
ow is only updated if it has not been modified by another user since you got the
data is to add a timestamp column to the table. The SQL Server(tm) TIMESTAMP da
tatype automatically updates itself with a new value every time a value in its r
ow is modified. This makes it a very simple and convenient tool to help detect c
oncurrency violations. A third technique is to use a DATETIME column in which to
track changes to its row. In my sample application I added a column called Last
UpdateDateTime to the Employees table. ALTER TABLE Employees ADD LastUpdateDateT
ime DATETIME There I update the value of the LastUpdateDateTime field automatica
lly in the UPDATE stored procedure using the built-in SQL Server GETDATE functio
n. The binary TIMESTAMP column is simple to create and use since it automaticall
y regenerates its value each time its row is modified, but since the DATETIME co
lumn technique is easier to display on screen and demonstrate when the change wa
s made, I chose it for my sample application. Both of these are solid choices, b
ut I prefer the TIMESTAMP technique since it does not involve any additional cod
e to update its value. Retrieving Row Flags One of the keys to
implementing conc
urrency controls is to update the timestamp or datetime field s value back into
the DataSet. If the same user wants to make more modifications, this updated val
ue is reflected in the DataSet so it can be used again. There are a few differen
t ways to do this. The fastest is using output parameters within the stored proc
edure. (This should only return if @@ROWCOUNT equals 1.) The next fastest involv
es selecting the row again after the UPDATE within the stored procedure. The slo
west involves selecting
the row from another SQL statement or stored procedure f
rom the SqlDataAdapter s RowUpdated event. I prefer to use the output parameter
technique since it is the fastest and incurs the least overhead. Using the RowUp
dated event works well, but it requires me to make a second call from the applic
ation to the database. The following code snippet adds an output parameter to th
e SqlCommand object that is used to update the Employee information: oUpdCmd.Par
ameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@NewLastUpdateDateTime", SqlDbType.DateTime, 8, Pa
rameterDirection.Output,
false, 0, 0, "LastUpdateDateTime", DataRowVersion.Current, null)); oUpdCmd.Updat
edRowSource = UpdateRowSource.OutputParameters; The output parameter has
its sou
rcecolumn and sourceversion arguments set to point the output parameter s return
value back to the current value of the LastUpdateDateTime column of the DataSet
. This

way the updated DATETIME value is retrieved and can be returned to the us
er s .aspx page. Contd.... Saving Changes Now that the Employees table has the t
racking field (LastUpdateDateTime) and the stored procedure has been created to
use both the primary

key and the tracking field in the WHERE clause of the UPDAT
E statement, let s take a look at the role of ADO.NET. In order to trap the even
t when the user changes the values in the textboxes, I created an event handler
for the TextChanged event for each TextBox control: private void txtLastName_Tex
tChanged(object sender, System.EventArgs e) { // Get the employee DataRow (there
is only 1 row, otherwise I could // do a Find) dsEmployee.EmployeeRow oEmpRow =
(dsEmployee.EmployeeRow)oDsEmployee.Employee.Rows[0]; oEmpRow.LastName = txtLas
tName.Text; // Save changes back to Session Session["oDsEmployee"]

= oDsEmployee
; } This event retrieves the row and sets the appropriate field s value from the
TextBox. (Another way of getting the changed values is to grab them when the us
er clicks the Save button.) Each TextChanged event executes after the Page_Load
event fires on a postback, so assuming the user changed the first and last names
, when the user clicks the Save button, the events could fire in this order: Pag
e_Load, txtFirstName_TextChanged, txtLastName_TextChanged, and btnSave_Click. Th
e Page_Load event grabs the row from the DataSet in the Session object; the Text
Changed events update the DataRow with the new values; and the btnSave_Click eve
nt attempts to save the record to the database. The btnSave_Click event calls th
e SaveEmployee method (shown in Figure 3) and passes it a bLastInWins value of f
alse since we want to attempt a standard save first. If the SaveEmployee method
detects that changes were made to the row (using the HasChanges method on the Da
taSet, or alternatively using the RowState property on the row), it creates an i
nstance of the Employee class and passes the DataSet to its SaveEmployee method.
The Employee class could live in a logical or physical middle tier. (I wanted t
o make this a separate class so it would be easy to pull the code out and separa
te it from the presentation logic.) Notice that I did not use the GetChanges
met
hod to pull out only the modified rows and pass them to the Employee object s Sa
ve method. I skipped this step here since

there is only one row. However, if the
re were multiple rows in the DataSet s DataTable, it would be better to use the
GetChanges method to create a DataSet that contains only the modified rows. If t
he save succeeds, the Employee.SaveEmployee method returns a DataSet containing
the modified row and
its newly updated row version flag (in this case, the LastU
pdateDateTime field s value). This DataSet is then merged into the original Data
Set


so that the LastUpdateDateTime field s value can be updated in the original Data
Set. This must be done because if the user wants to make more changes she will n
eed the current values from the database merged back into the local DataSet and
shown on screen. This includes the
LastUpdateDateTime value which is used in the
WHERE clause. Without this field s current value, a false concurrency violation
would occur. Reporting Violations If a concurrency violation occurs, it will bu
bble up and be caught by the exception handler shown in Figure 3 in the catch bl
ock for DBConcurrencyException. This block calls the FillConcurrencyValues metho
d, which displays both the original values in the DataSet that were attempted to
be saved to the database and the values currently in the database. This method
is used merely to show the user why the violation occurred. Notice that the exDB
C variable is passed to the FillConcurrencyValues method. This instance of the s
pecial database concurrency exception class (DBConcurrencyException) contains th
e row where the violation occurred. When a concurrency violation occurs, the scr
een is updated to look like Figure 1. The DataSet not only stores the schema and
the current data, it also tracks changes that have been made to its data. It kn
ows which rows and columns have been modified and it keeps
track of the before a
nd
after versions of these values. When accessing a column s value via the DataR
ow s indexer, in addition to the column index you can also specify a value using
the DataRowVersion enumerator. For example, after a user changes the value of t
he last name of an employee, the following lines of C# code will retrieve the or
iginal and current values stored in the LastName column: string sLastName_Before
= oEmpRow["LastName", DataRowVersion.Original]; string sLastName_After = oEmpRo
w["LastName", DataRowVersion.Current]; The FillConcurrencyValues method uses the
row from the DBConcurrencyException and gets a fresh copy of the same row from
the database. It then displays the values using the DataRowVersion enumerators t
o show the original value of the row before the update and

the value in the data
base alongside the current values in the textboxes. User s Choice Once the user
has been notified of the concurrency issue, you could leave it up to her to deci
de how to handle it. Another alternative is to code a specific way to deal with
concurrency, such as always handling the exception to let the user know (but ref
reshing the data from the database). In this sample application I let the user d
ecide what to do next. She can either cancel changes, cancel and reload from the
database, save changes, or save anyway. The option to cancel changes simply cal
ls the RejectChanges method of the DataSet and rebinds the DataSet to the contro
ls in the ASP.NET page. The RejectChanges method reverts the changes that the us
er made back to its original state by setting all of the current field values to
the original field values. The option to cancel changes and reload the data fro
m the database also rejects the changes but additionally goes back to the databa
se via the Employee class in order to get a fresh copy of the data before rebind
ing to the control on the ASP.NET page. The option to save changes attempts to s
ave the changes but will fail if a concurrency violation is encountered. Finally
, I included a "save anyway" option. This option takes the values the user attem
pted to save and uses the last-in wins technique, overwriting whatever is in the
database. It does this by calling a different command object associated
with a stored procedure that only uses the primary key field (EmployeeID) in the
WHERE clause of the UPDATE statement. This technique should be used with cautio
n as it will overwrite the record. If you want a more automatic way of dealing w
ith the changes, you could get a fresh copy from the database. Then overwrite ju
st the fields that the current user modified, such as the Extension field. That
way, in the example I used the proper LastName would not be overwritten. Use thi
s with caution as well, however, because if the same field was modified by both
users, you may want to just back out or ask the user what to do next. What is ob
vious here is that there are several ways to deal with concurrency violations, e
ach of which must be carefully weighed before you decide on the
one you will use
in your application. Wrapping It Up Setting the SqlDataAdapter s ContinueUpdate
OnError property tells the SqlDataAdapter to either throw an exception when a co
ncurrency violation occurs or to skip the row that caused the violation and to c
ontinue with the remaining updates. By setting this property to false (its defau
lt value), it will throw an exception when it encounters a concurrency violation
. This technique is ideal when only saving a single row or when you are attempti
ng to save multiple rows and want them all to commit or all to fail. I have spli
t the topic of concurrency violation management into two parts. Next time I will
focus on what to do when multiple rows could cause concurrency violations. I wi
ll also discuss how the DataViewRowState enumerators can be used to show what ch
anges have been made to a DataSet. How you will set the datarelation between two
columns? ADO.NET provides DataRelation object to set relation between two colum
ns.It helps to enforce the following constraints,a unique constraint, which guar
antees that a column in the table contains no duplicates and a foreign-key const
raint,which can be used to maintain referential integrity.A unique constraint is
implemented either by simply setting the Unique property of a data column to tr
ue, or
by adding an instance of the UniqueConstraint class to the DataRelation o
bject s ParentKeyConstraint. As part of the foreign-key constraint, you can spec
ify referential integrity rules that are applied at three points,when a parent r
ecord is updated,when a parent record is deleted and when a change is accepted o
r rejected. C# and VB.NET Next>> Explain the differences between Server-side and
Client-side code? Server side code executes on the server.For this to occur pag
e has to be submitted or posted back.Events fired by the controls are executed o
n the server.Client side code executes in the browser of the client without subm
itting the page. e.g. In ASP.NET for webcontrols like asp:button the click event
of the button is executed on the server hence the event handler for the same in
a part of the code-behind (serverside code). Along the server-side code events
one can also attach client side events which are executed in the clients browser
i.e. javascript events. How does VB.NET/C# achieve polymorphism?
Polymorphism is also achieved through interfaces. Like abstract classes, interfa
ces also describe the methods that a class needs to implement. The difference be
tween abstract classes and interfaces is that abstract classes always act as a b
ase class of the related classes in the class hierarchy. For example, consider a
hierarchy-car and truck classes derived from four-wheeler class; the classes tw
o-wheeler


and four-wheeler derived from an abstract class vehicle. So, the class
vehicle is the base class in the class hierarchy. On the other hand dissimila
r classes can implement one interface. For example, there is an interface that c
ompares two objects. This interface can be implemented by the classes like box,
person and string, which are unrelated to each other. C# allows multiple interfa
ce inheritance. It means that a class can implement more than one interface. The
methods declared in an interface are implicitly abstract. If a class implements
an interface, it becomes mandatory for the class to override all the methods de
clared in the interface, otherwise the derived class would become abstract. Can
you explain what inheritance is and an example of when you might use it? The sav
ingaccount class has two data members-accno that stores account number, and tran
s that keeps track of the number of transactions. We can create an object of sav
ingaccount class as shown below. savingaccount s = new savingaccount ( "Amar", 5
600.00f ) ; From the constructor of savingaccount class we have called the two-a
rgument constructor of the account class using the base keyword
and passed the n
ame and balance to this constructor using which the data member s name and balan
ce are initialised. We can write our own definition of a method that already exi
sts in a base class. This is called method overriding. We have overridden the de
posit( ) and withdraw( ) methods in the savingaccount class so that we can make
sure that each account maintains a minimum balance of Rs. 500 and the total numb
er of
transactions do not exceed 10. From these methods we have called the base
class s methods to update the balance using the base keyword. We have also overr
idden the display( ) method to display additional information, i.e. account numb
er. Working of currentaccount class
is more or less similar to that of savingacc
ount class. Using the derived class s object, if we call a method that is not ov
erridden
in the derived class, the base
class method gets executed. Using derive
d class s object we can call base class s methods, but the reverse is not allowe
d. Unlike C++, C# does not support multiple inheritance. So, in C# every class h
as exactly one base class. Now, suppose we declare reference to the base class a
nd store in it the address of instance of derived class as shown below. account
a1 = new savingaccount ( "Amar", 5600.00f ) ; account a2 = new currentaccount (
"MyCompany Pvt. Ltd.", 126000.00f) ; Such a situation arises when we have to dec
ide at run-time a method of which class in a class hierarchy should get called.
Using a1 and a2, suppose we call the method display( ), ideally the method of de
rived class should get called. But it is the method of base class that gets call
ed. This is because the compiler considers the type of reference (account in thi
s case) and resolves the method call. So, to call the proper method we must make
a small change in our program. We must use the virtual keyword while defining t
he methods in base class as shown below. public virtual void display( ) { }
We must declare the methods as virtual if they are going to be overridden in der
ived class. To override a virtual method in derived classes we must use the over
ride keyword as given below. public override void display( ) { } Now it is ensur
ed
that when we call the methods using upcasted reference, it is the derived cla
ss s method that would get called. Actually, when we declare a virtual method, w
hile calling it, the compiler

considers the contents
of the reference rather tha
n its type. If we don t want to override base class s virtual method, we can dec
lare it with new modifier in derived class. The new modifier indicates that the
method is new to this class and is not an override of a base class method. How w
ould you implement inheritance using VB.NET/C#? When we set out to implement a c
lass using inheritance, we must first start with an existing class from which we
will derive our new subclass. This existing class, or base class, may be part o
f the .NET system class library framework, it may be part of some other applicat
ion or .NET assembly, or we may create it as part of our existing application. O
nce we have a base class, we can then implement one or more subclasses based on
that base class. Each of our subclasses will automatically have all of the metho
ds, properties, and events of that base class ? including the implementation beh
ind each method, property, and event. Our subclass can add new methods, properti
es, and events of its own - extending the original interface with new functional
ity. Additionally, a subclass can replace the methods and properties of the base
class with its own new implementation - effectively overriding the original beh
avior and replacing it with new behaviors. Essentially inheritance is a way of m
erging functionality from an existing class into our new subclass. Inheritance a
lso defines rules for how these methods, properties, and events can be merged. I
n VB.NET we can use implements keyword for inheritance, while in C# we can use t
he sign ( :: ) between subclass and baseclass. How is a property designated as r
ead-only? In VB.NET: Private mPropertyName as DataType Public ReadOnly Property
PropertyName() As DataType Get Return mPropertyName End Get End Property In C# P
rivate DataType mPropertyName; public returntype PropertyName { get{ //property
implementation goes here return mPropertyName; } // Do not write the set impleme
ntation } What is hiding in CSharp ?
Hiding is also called as Shadowing. This is the concept of Overriding the method
s. It is a concept used in the Object Oriented Programming. E.g. public class Cl
assA { public virtual void MethodA() { Trace.WriteLine("ClassA Method"); } } pub
lic class ClassB : ClassA { public new void MethodA() { Trace.WriteLine("SubClas
s ClassB Method"); } } public class TopLevel { static void Main(string[] args) {
TextWriter tw = Console.Out; Trace.Listeners.Add(new TextWriterTraceListener(tw
)); ClassA obj = new ClassB(); obj.MethodA(); // Outputs “Class A Method" ClassB o
bj1 = new ClassB(); obj.MethodA(); // Outputs “SubClass ClassB Method” } } What is t
he difference between an XML "Fragment" and an XML "Document." An XML fragment i
s an XML document with no single top-level root element. To put it simple it is
a part (fragment) of a well-formed xml document. (node) Where as a wellformed xm
l document must have only one root element. What does it meant to say “the canonic
al” form of XML? "The purpose of Canonical XML is to define a standard format for
an XML document. Canonical XML is a very strict XML syntax, which lets documents
in canonical XML be compared directly. Using this strict syntax makes it easier
to see whether two XML documents are the same. For example, a section of text i
n one document might read Black & White, whereas the same section of text might
read Black & White in another document,

and even in another. If you compare thos
e three documents byte by byte, they ll be different. But if you write them all
in canonical XML, which specifies every aspect of the syntax you can use, these
three documents would all have the same version of this text (which would be Bla
ck & White) and could be compared without problem. This Comparison is especially
critical when xml documents are digitally signed. The digital signal may be int
erpreted in different way and the document may be rejected. Why is the XML InfoS
et specification different from the Xml DOM? What does the InfoSet attempt to so
lve?
"The XML Information Set (Infoset) defines a data model for XML. The Infoset des
cribes the abstract representation of an XML Document. Infoset is the generalize
d representation of the XML Document, which is primarily meant to act as a set o
f definitions used by XML technologies to formally describe what parts of an XML
document they operate upon. The Document Object Model (DOM) is one technology f
or representing an XML Document in memory and to programmatically read, modify a
nd manipulate a xml document. Infoset helps defining generalized standards on ho
w to use XML that is not dependent or tied to a particular XML specification or
API. The Infoset tells us what part of XML Document should be considered as sign
ificant information. Contrast DTDs versus XSDs. What are their similarities and
differences? Which is preferred and why? Document Type Definition (DTD) describe
s a model or set of rules for an XML document. XML Schema Definition (XSD) also
describes the structure of an XML document but XSDs are much more powerful. The
disadvantage with the Document Type Definition is it doesn’t support data types be
yond the basic 10 primitive types. It cannot properly define the type of data co
ntained by the tag. An Xml Schema provides an Object Oriented approach to defini
ng the format of an xml document. The Xml schema support most basic programming
types like integer, byte, string, float etc., We can also define complex types o
f our own which can be used to define a xml document. Xml Schemas are always pre
ferred over DTDs as a document can be more precisely defined using the XML Schem
as because of
its rich support for data representation.

Speaking of Boolean data
types, what s different between C# and C/C++? There s no conversion between 0 a
nd false, as well as any other number and true, like in C/C++. How do you conver
t a string into an integer in .NET? Int32.Parse(string)

Can you declare a C++ ty
pe destructor in C# like ~MyClass()? Yes, but what s the point, since it will ca
ll Finalize(), and Finalize() has no guarantees when the memory will be
cleaned
up, plus, it introduces additional load on the garbage collector. What s differe
nt about namespace declaration

when comparing that to package declaration in Jav
a? No semicolon. What s the difference between const and readonly? The readonly
keyword is different from the const keyword. A const field can only be initializ
ed at the declaration of the field. A readonly field can be initialized either a
t the declaration or in a constructor. Therefore, readonly fields can have diffe
rent values depending on the constructor used. Also, while a const field is a co
mpile-time constant, the readonly field can be used for runtime constants as in
the following example: public static readonly uint l1 = (uint) DateTime.Now.Tick
s; What does a character do?
On most systems, produces

a rather annoying beep. Can you create enumerated data
types in C#? Yes. What s different about switch statements in C#? No fall-throu
ghs allowed. What happens when you encounter a continue statement inside the for
loop? The code for the rest of the loop is ignored, the control is transferred
back to the beginning of the loop. How can you sort the elements of the array in
descending order? By calling Sort() and then Reverse() methods.

Will finally bl
ock get executed if the exception had not occurred? Yes. What s the C# equivalen
t of C++ catch (…), which was a catch-all statement for any possible exception? A
catch block that catches the exception of type System.Exception. You can also om
it the parameter data type in this case and just write catch {}. Can multiple ca
tch blocks be executed? No, once the proper catch code fires off, the control is
transferred to the finally block (if there are any), and then whatever follows
the finally block. Why is it a bad idea to throw your own exceptions? Well, if a
t that point you know that an error has occurred, then why not write the proper
code to handle that error instead of passing a new Exception object to the catch
block?

Throwing your own exceptions signifies some design flaws in the project.
What s the difference between // comments, /* */ comments and /// comments? Sin
gle-line, multi-line and XML documentation comments. How do you generate documen
tation from the C# file commented properly with a command-line compiler? Compile
it with a /doc switch. Can you change the value of a variable while debugging a
C# application? Yes,

if you are debugging via Visual Studio.NET, just go to Imm
ediate window.

What s the implicit name

of the parameter that gets passed into
t
he class set method? Value, and it s datatype depends on whatever variable we r
e changing. How do you inherit from a
class in C#? Place a colon and then the na
me of the base class. Notice that it s double colon in C++. Does C# support mult
iple inheritance? No, use interfaces instead. So how do you retrieve the customi
zed properties of a .NET application from XML .config file? Can you automate thi
s process? Initialize an instance of AppSettingsReader class. Call the GetValue
method of AppSettingsReader class, passing in the name of the property and the t
ype expected. Assign the result to the appropriate variable. In Visual Studio ye
s, use Dynamic Properties for automatic .config creation, storage and retrieval.
Why is it not a good idea to insert code into InitializeComponent method when w
orking with Visual Studio? The designer will likely through it away, most of the
code inside InitializeComponent is auto-generated.


Where do you add an event handler? It s the Attributesproperty, the Add function
inside that property. e.g. btnSubmit.Attributes.Add(""onMouseOver"",""someClien
tCode();"") What are jagged array? First lets us answer the question that what a
n array is? The dictionary meaning of array is an orderly arrangement or sequent
ial arrangement of elements. In computer science term: An array is a data struct
ure that contains a number of variables, which are accessed through computed ind
ices. The variables contained in an array, also called the elements of the array
, are all of the same type, and this type is called the element type of the arra
y. An array has a rank that determines the number of indices associated with eac
h array element. The rank of an array is also referred to as the dimensions of t
he array. An array with a rank of one is called a single-dimensional array. An a
rray with a rank greater than one is called a multi-dimensional array. Specific
sized multidimensional arrays are often referred to as two-dimensional arrays, t
hree-dimensional arrays, and so on. Now let us answer What are jagged arrays? A
jagged array is an array whose elements are arrays. The elements of jagged array
can be of different dimensions and sizes. A jagged array is sometimes called as
“array-ofarrays”. It is called jagged because each of its rows is of different size
so the final or graphical representation is not a square. When you create a jag
ged array you declare the number of rows in your array. Each row will hold an ar
ray that will be on any length. Before filling the values in the inner arrays yo
u must declare them. Jagged array declaration in C#: For e.g. : int [] [] myJagg
edArray = new int [3][]; Declaration of inner arrays: myJaggedArray[0] = new int
[5] ; // First inner array will be of length 5. myJaggedArray[1] = new int[4] ;
// Second inner array will be of length 4. myJaggedArray[2] = new int[3] ; // Th
ird inner array will be of length 3. Now to access third element of second row w
e write: int value = myJaggedArray[1][2]; Note that while declaring the array th
e second dimension is not supplied because this you will declare later on in the
code. Jagged array are created out of single dimensional arrays so be careful w
hile using them. Don’t confuse it with multi-dimensional arrays because unlike the
m jagged arrays are not rectangular arrays. For more information on arrays: http
://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/enus/csref/html/vclrfarra
yspg.asp What is a delegate, why should you use it and how do you call it ? A de
legate is a reference type that refers to a Shared method of a type or to an ins
tance method of an object. Delegate is like a function pointer in C and C++. Poi
nters are used to store the address of a thing. Delegate lets some other code ca
ll your function without needing to know where your function is actually located
. All events in .NET actually use
delegates in the background to wire up events. Events are really just a modified
form of a delegate. It should give you an idea of some different areas in which
delegates may be appropriate: · They enable callback functionality in multi-tier
applications as demonstrated in the examples above. · The CacheItemRemoveCallback
delegate can be used in ASP.NET to keep cached information up to date. When the
cached information is removed for any reason, the associated callback is exercis
ed and could contain a reload of the cached information. · Use delegates to facili
tate asynchronous processing for methods that do not offer asynchronous behavior
. · Events use delegates so clients can give the application events to call when t
he event is fired. Exposing custom events within your applications requires the
use of delegates. How does the XmlSerializer work? XmlSerializer in the .NET Fra
mework is a great tool to convert Xml into runtime objects and vice versa If you
define integer variable and a object variable and a structure then how those wi
ll be plotted in memory. Integer , structure – System.ValueType -- Allocated memor
y on stack , infact integer is primitive type recognized and allocated memory by
compiler itself . Infact , System.Int32 definition is as follows : [C#] [Serial
izable] public struct Int32 : IComparable, IFormattable, IConvertible So , it’s a
struct by definition , which is the same case with various other value types . O
bject – Base class , that is by default reference type , so at runtime JIT compile
r allocates memory on the “Heap” Data structure . Reference types are defined as cla
ss , derived directly or indirectly by System.ReferenceType WebServices And Wind
ows Services Next>> Can you give an example of when it would be appropriate to u
se a web service as opposed to non-serviced .NET component Web service is one of
main component in Service Oriented Architecture. You could use web services whe
n your clients and servers are running on different networks and also different
platforms. This provides a loosely coupled system. And also if the client is beh
ind the firewall it would be easy to use web service since it runs on port 80 (b
y default) instead of having some thing else in Service Oriented Architecture ap
plications. What is the standard you use to wrap up a call to a Web service "SOA
P. " What is the transport protocol you use to call a Web service SOAP HTTP with
SOAP What does WSDL stand for?
"WSDL stands for Web Services Dsescription Langauge. There is WSDL.exe that crea
tes a .wsdl Files which defines how an XML Web service behaves and instructs cli
ents as to how to interact with the service. eg: wsdl http://LocalHost/WebServic
eName.asmx" Where on the Internet would you look for Web Services? www.uddi.org
What does WSDL stand for? Web Services Description Language True or False: To te
st a Web service you must create a windows application or Web application to con
sume this service? False. What are the various ways of accessing a web service ?
1.Asynchronous Call Application can make a call to the Webservice and then cont
inue todo watever oit wants to do.When the service is ready it will notify the a
pplication.Application can use BEGIN and END method to make asynchronous call to
the webmethod.We can use either a WaitHandle or a Delegate object when making a
synchronous call. The WaitHandle class share resources between several objects.
It provides several methods which will wait for the resources to become availabl
e The easiest and most powerful way to to implement an asynchronous call is usin
g a delegate object. A delegate object wraps up a callback function. The idea is
to pass a method in the invocation of the web method. When the webmethod has fi
nished it will call this callback function to process the result 2.Synchronous C
all Application has to wait until execution has completed.
What are VSDISCO files? VSDISCO files are DISCO files that support dynamic disco
very of Web services. If you place the following VSDISCO file in a directory on
your Web server, for example, it returns references to all ASMX and DISCO files
in the host directory and any subdirectories not noted in elements: xmlns="urn:s
chemas-dynamicdiscovery:disco.2000-03-17">
How does dynamic discovery work? ASP.NET maps the file name extension VSDISCO to
an HTTP handler that scans the host directory and subdirectories for ASMX and D
ISCO files and returns a dynamically generated DISCO document. A client who requ
ests a VSDISCO file gets back what appears to be a static DISCO document. Note t
hat VSDISCO files are disabled in the release version of ASP.NET. You can reenab
le them by uncommenting the line in the section of Machine.config that maps *.vs
disco to System.Web.Services.Discovery.DiscoveryRequestHandler and granting the
ASPNET user account permission to read the IIS metabase. However, Microsoft is a
ctively discouraging the use of VSDISCO files because they could represent a thr
eat to Web server security. Is it possible to prevent a browser from caching an
ASPX page? Just call

SetNoStore on the HttpCachePolicy object exposed through th
e Response object s Cache property, as demonstrated here:
SetNoStore works by returning a Cache-Control: private, no-store header in the H
TTP response. In this example, it prevents caching of a Web page that shows the
current time. What does AspCompat="true" mean and when should I use it? AspCompa
t is an aid in migrating ASP pages to ASPX pages. It defaults to false but shoul
d be set to true in any ASPX file that creates apartment-threaded COM objects--t
hat is, COM objects registered ThreadingModel=Apartment. That includes all COM o
bjects written with Visual Basic 6.0. AspCompat should also be set to true (rega
rdless of threading model) if the page creates COM objects that access intrinsic
ASP objects such as Request and Response. The following directive sets AspCompa
t to true: Setting AspCompat to true does two things. First, it makes intrinsic
ASP objects available to the COM components by placing unmanaged wrappers around
the equivalent ASP.NET objects. Second, it improves the performance of calls th
at the page places to apartment- threaded COM objects by ensuring that the page
(actually, the thread that processes the request for the page) and the COM objec
ts it creates share an apartment. AspCompat="true" forces ASP.NET request thread
s into single-threaded apartments (STAs). If those threads create COM objects ma
rked ThreadingModel=Apartment, then the objects are created in the same STAs as
the threads that created them. Without AspCompat="true," request threads run in
a multithreaded apartment (MTA) and each


call to an STA-based COM object incurs a performance hit when it s marshaled acr
oss apartment boundaries. Do not set AspCompat

to true if your page uses no COM
objects or if it uses COM objects that don t access ASP intrinsic objects and th
at are registered ThreadingModel=Free or ThreadingModel=Both. Can two different
programming languages be mixed in a single ASMX file? No. What namespaces are im
ported by default in ASMX files? The following namespaces are imported by defaul
t. Other namespaces must be imported manually.· System, System.Collections,System.
ComponentModel,System.Data, System.Diagnostics,System.Web,System.Web.Services Ho
w do I provide information to the Web Service when the information is required a
s a SOAP Header? The key here is
the Web Service proxy you created using wsdl.ex
e or through Visual Studio .NET s Add Web Reference menu option. If you happen t
o download a WSDL file for a Web Service that requires a SOAP header, .NET will
create a SoapHeader class in the proxy source file. Using the previous example:
public class Service1 : System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol { p
ublic AuthToken AuthTokenValue; [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute(Names
pace="http://tempuri.org/", IsNullable=false)] public class AuthToken : SoapHead
er { public string Token; }} In this case,

when you create an instance of the pr
oxy in your main application file, you ll also create an instance of the AuthTok
en class and assign the string: Service1 objSvc = new Service1(); processingobjS
vc.AuthTokenValue = new AuthToken(); objSvc.AuthTokenValue.Token = ; Web Service
string strResult = objSvc.MyBillableWebMethod(); What is WSDL? WSDL is the Web S
ervice Description

Language, and it is implemented as a specific XML vocabulary.
While it s very much more complex than what can be described here, there are tw
o important aspects to WSDL with which you should be aware. First, WSDL provides
instructions to consumers of Web Services to describe the

layout and contents o
f the SOAP packets the Web Service intends
to issue. It s an interface descripti
on document, of sorts. And second, it isn t intended that you read and interpret
the WSDL. Rather, WSDL should be processed by machine, typically to generate pr
oxy source code (.NET) or create dynamic proxies on the fly (the SOAP Toolkit or
Web Service Behavior). What is a Windows Service and how does its lifecycle dif
fer from a "standard" EXE?
Windows service is a application that runs in the background. It is equivalent t
o a NT
service. The executable created is not a Windows application, and hence y
ou can t just click and run it . it needs to be installed as a service, VB.Net h
as a facility where we can add an installer to our program and then use a utilit
y to install the service. Where as this is not the case with standard exe How ca
n a win service developed in .NET be installed or used in Win98? Windows service
cannot be installed on Win9x machines even though the .NET framework runs on ma
chine. Can you debug a Windows Service? How ? Yes we can debug a Windows Service
. Attach the WinDbg debugger to a service after the service starts This method i
s similar to the method that you can use to attach a debugger to a process and t
hen debug a process. Use the process ID of the process that hosts the service th
at you want to debug 1 To determine the process ID (PID) of the process that hos
ts the service that you want to debug, use one of the following methods. • Method
1: Use the Task Manager a. Right-click the taskbar, and then click Task Manager.
The Windows Task Manager dialog box appears. b. Click the Processes tab of the
Windows Task Manager dialog box. c. Under Image Name, click the image name of th
e process that hosts the service that you want to debug. Note the process ID of
this process as specified by the value of the corresponding PID field. • Method 2:
Use the Task List Utility (tlist.exe) a. Click Start, and then click Run. The R
un dialog box appears. b. In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK. c. At th
e command prompt, change the directory path to reflect the location of the tlist
.exe file on your computer. Note The tlist.exe file is typically located in the
following directory: C:Program FilesDebugging Tools for Windows d. At the comman
d prompt, type tlist to list the image names and the process IDs of all processe
s that are currently running on your computer. Note Make a note of the process I
D of the process that hosts the service that you want to debug. 2 At a command p
rompt, change the directory path to reflect the location of the windbg.exe file
on your computer. Note If a command prompt is not open, follow steps a and b of
Method 1. The windbg.exe file is typically located in the following directory: C
:Program FilesDebugging Tools for Windows. 3 At the command prompt, type windbg –p
ProcessID to attach the WinDbg debugger to the process that hosts the service t
hat you want to debug.
Note ProcessID is a placeholder for the process ID of the process that hosts the
service that you want to debug. Use the image name of the process that hosts th
e service that you want to debug You can use this method only if there is exactl
y one running instance of the process that hosts the service that you want to ru
n. To do this, follow these steps: 1 Click Start, and then click Run. The Run di
alog box appears. 2 In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK to open a comma
nd prompt. 3 At the command prompt, change the directory path to reflect the loc
ation of the windbg.exe file on your computer. Note The windbg.exe file is typic
ally located in the following directory: C:Program FilesDebugging Tools for Wind
ows. 4 At the command prompt, type windbg –pn ImageName to attach the WinDbg debug
ger to the process that hosts the service that you want to debug. NoteImageName
is a placeholder for the image name of the process that hosts the service that y
ou want to debug. The "-pn" command-line option specifies that the ImageName com
mand-line argument is the image name of a process. back to the top Start the Win
Dbg debugger and attach to the process that hosts the service that you want to d
ebug 1 Start Windows Explorer. 2 Locate the windbg.exe file on your computer. No
te The windbg.exe file is typically located in the following directory: C:Progra
m FilesDebugging Tools for Windows 3 Run the windbg.exe file to start the WinDbg
debugger. 4 On the File menu, click Attach to a Process to display the Attach t
o Process dialog box. 5 Click to select the node that corresponds to the process
that hosts the service that you want to debug, and then click OK. 6 In the dial
og box that appears, click Yes to save base workspace information. Notice that y
ou can now debug the disassembled code of your service. Configure a service to s
tart with the WinDbg debugger attached You can use this method to debug services
if you want to troubleshoot service-startuprelated problems. 1 Configure the "I
mage File Execution" options. To do this, use one of the following methods: • Meth
od 1: Use the Global Flags Editor (gflags.exe) a. Start Windows Explorer. b. Loc
ate the gflags.exe file on your computer.
Note The gflags.exe file is typically located in the following directory: C:Prog
ram FilesDebugging Tools for Windows. c. Run the gflags.exe file to start the Gl
obal Flags Editor. d. In the Image File Name text box, type the image name of th
e process that hosts the service that you want to debug. For example, if you wan
t to debug a service that is hosted by a process that has MyService.exe as the i
mage name, type MyService.exe. e. Under Destination, click to select the Image F
ile Options option. f. Under Image Debugger Options, click to select the Debugge
r check box. g. In the Debugger text box, type the full path of the debugger tha
t you want to use. For example, if you want to use the WinDbg debugger to debug
a service, you can type a full path that is similar to the following: C:Program
FilesDebugging Tools for Windowswindbg.exe h. Click Apply, and then click OK to
quit the Global Flags Editor. • Method 2: Use Registry Editor a. Click Start, and
then click Run. The Run dialog box appears. b. In the Open box, type regedit, an
d then click OK to start Registry Editor. c. Warning If you use Registry Editor
incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall yo
ur operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that
result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own
risk. In Registry Editor, locate, and then right-click the following registry su
bkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionImage File Exec
ution Options d. Point to New, and then click Key. In the left pane of Registry
Editor, notice that New Key #1 (the name of a new registry subkey) is selected f
or editing. e. Type ImageName to replace New Key #1, and then press ENTER. Note
ImageName is a placeholder for the image name of the process that hosts the serv
ice that you want to debug. For example, if you want to debug a service that is
hosted by a process that has MyService.exe as the image name, type MyService.exe
. f. Right-click the registry subkey that you created in step e. g. Point to New
, and then click String Value. In the right pane of Registry Editor, notice that
New Value #1, the name of a new registry entry, is selected for editing. h. Rep
lace New Value #1 with Debugger, and then press ENTER. i. Right-click the Debugg
er registry entry that you created in step h, and then click Modify. The Edit St
ring dialog box appears. j. In the Value data text box, type DebuggerPath, and t
hen click OK. Note DebuggerPath is a placeholder for the full path of the debugg
er that you want to use. For example, if you want to use the WinDbg debugger to
debug a service, you can type a full path that is similar to the following: C:Pr
ogram FilesDebugging Tools for Windowswindbg.exe 2 For the debugger window to ap
pear on your desktop, and to interact with the debugger, make your service inter
active. If you do not make your service interactive, the debugger
will start but you cannot see it and you cannot issue commands. To make your ser
vice interactive, use one of the following methods: • Method 1: Use the Services c
onsole a. Click Start, and then point to Programs. b. On the Programs menu, poin
t to Administrative Tools, and then click Services. The Services console appears
. c. In the right pane of the Services console, right-click ServiceName, and the
n click Properties. Note ServiceName is a placeholder for the name of the servic
e that you want to debug. d. On the Log On tab, click to select the Allow servic
e to interact with desktop check box under Local System account, and then click
OK. • Method 2: Use Registry Editor a. In Registry Editor, locate, and then click
the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServices
ServiceName Note Replace ServiceName with the name of the service that you want
to debug. For example, if you want to debug a service named MyService, locate an
d then click the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlS
etServicesMyService b. Under the Name field in the right pane of Registry Editor
, right-click Type, and then click Modify. The Edit DWORD Value dialog box appea
rs. c. Change the text in the Value data text box to the result of the binary OR
operation with the binary value of the current text and the binary value, 0x000
00100, as the two operands. The binary value, 0x00000100, corresponds to the SER
VICE_INTERACTIVE_PROCESS constant that is defined in the WinNT.h header file on
your computer. This constant specifies that a service is interactive in nature.
3 When a service starts, the service communicates to the Service Control Manager
how long the service must have to start (the time-out period for the service).
If the Service Control Manager does not receive a "service started" notice from
the service within this time-out period, the Service Control Manager terminates
the process that hosts the service. This time-out period is typically less than
30 seconds. If you do not adjust this time-out period, the Service Control Manag
er ends the process and the attached debugger while you are trying to debug. To
adjust this time-out period, follow these steps: a. In Registry Editor, locate,
and then right-click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurr
entControlSetControl b. Point to New, and then click DWORD Value. In the right p
ane of Registry Editor, notice that New Value #1 (the name of a new registry ent
ry) is selected for editing. c. Type ServicesPipeTimeout to replace New Value #1
, and then press ENTER. d. Right-click the ServicesPipeTimeout registry entry th
at you created in step c, and then click Modify. The Edit DWORD Value dialog box
appears. e. In the Value data text box, type TimeoutPeriod, and then click OK N
ote TimeoutPeriod is a placeholder for the value of the time-out period (in mill
iseconds) that you want to set for the service. For example, if you want to set
the time-out period to 24 hours (86400000 milliseconds), type 86400000.
f. Restart the computer. You must restart the computer for Service Control Manag
er to apply this change. 4 Start your Windows service. To do this, follow these
steps: a. Click Start, and then point to Programs. b. On the Programs menu, poin
t to Administrative Tools, and then click Services. The Services console appears
. c. In the right pane of the Services console, right-click ServiceName, and the
n click Start. Note ServiceName is a placeholder for the name of the service tha
t you want to debug. COM And COM+ What are different transaction options availab
le for services components ? There are 5 transactions types that can be used wit
h COM+. Whenever an object is registered with COM+ it has to abide either to the
se 5 transaction types. Disabled: - There is no transaction. COM+ does not provi
de transaction support for this component. Not Supported: - Component does not s
upport transactions. Hence even if the calling component in the hierarchy is tra
nsaction enabled this component will not participate in the transaction. Support
ed: - Components with transaction type supported will be a part of the transacti
on if the calling component has an active transaction. If the calling component
is not transaction enabled this component will not start a new transaction. Requ
ired: - Components with this attribute require a transaction i.e. either the cal
ling should have a transaction in place else this component will start a new tra
nsaction. Required New: - Components enabled with this transaction type always r
equire a new transaction. Components with required new transaction type instanti
ate a new transaction for themselves every time. Can we use com Components in .n
et?.How ?.can we use .net components in vb?.Explain how ? COM components have di
fferent internal architecture from .NET components hence they are not innately c
ompatible. However .NET framework supports invocation of unmanaged code from man
aged code (and vice-versa) through COM/.NET interoperability. .NET application c
ommunicates with a COM component through a managed wrapper of the component call
ed Runtime Callable Wrapper (RCW); it acts as managed proxy to the unmanaged COM
component. When a method call is made to COM object, it goes onto RCW and not t
he object itself. RCW manages the lifetime management of the COM component. Impl
ementation Steps Create Runtime Callable Wrapper out of COM component. Reference
the metadata assembly Dll in the project and use its methods & properties RCW c
an be created using Type Library Importer utility or through VS.NET. Using VS.NE
T, add reference through COM tab to select the desired DLL. VS.NET automatically
generates metadata assembly putting the classes provided by that component into
a namespace with the same name as COM dll (XYZRCW.dll)
.NET components can be invoked by unmanaged code through COM Callable Wrapper (C
CW) in COM/.NET interop. The unmanaged code will talk to this proxy, which trans
lates call to managed environment. We can use COM components in .NET through COM
/.NET interoperability. When managed code calls an unmanaged component, behind t
he scene, .NET creates proxy called COM Callable wrapper (CCW), which accepts co
mmands from a COM client, and forwards it to .NET component. There are two prere
quisites to creating .NET component, to be used in unmanaged code: 1. .NET class
should be implement its functionality through interface. First define interface
in code, then have the class to imlpement it. This way, it prevents breaking of
COM client, if/when .NET component changes. 2.Secondly, .NET class, which is to
be visible to COM clients must be declared public. The tools that create the CC
W only define types based on public classes. The same rule applies to methods, p
roperties, and events that will be used by COM clients. Implementation Steps 1.
Generate type library of .NET component, using TLBExporter utility. A type libra
ry is the COM equivalent of the metadata contained within a .NET assembly. Type
libraries are generally contained in files with the extension .tlb. A type libra
ry contains the necessary information to allow a COM client to determine which c
lasses are located in a particular server, as well as the methods, properties, a
nd events supported by those classes. 2. Secondly, use Assembly Registration too
l (regasm) to create the type library and register it. 3. Lastly install .NET as
sembly in GAC, so it is available as shared assembly. What is Runtime Callable w
rapper?.when it will created?. The common language runtime exposes COM objects t
hrough a proxy called the runtime callable wrapper (RCW). Although the RCW appea
rs to be an ordinary object to .NET clients, its primary function is to marshal
calls between a .NET client and a COM object. This wrapper turns the COM interfa
ces exposed by the COM component into .NETcompatible interfaces. For oleautomati
on (attribute indicates that an interface is compatible with Automation) interfa
ces, the RCW can be generated automatically from a type library. For non-oleauto
mation interfaces, it may be necessary to develop a custom RCW which manually ma
ps the types exposed by the COM interface to .NET-compatible types. What is Com
Callable wrapper?when it will created? .NET components are accessed from COM via
a COM Callable Wrapper (CCW). This is similar to a RCW, but works in the opposi
te direction. Again, if the wrapper cannot be automatically generated by the .NE
T development tools, or if the automatic behaviour is not desirable, a custom CC
W can be developed. Also, for COM to 'see' the .NET component, the .NET componen
t must be registered in the registry.CCWs also manage the object identity and ob
ject lifetime of the managed objects they wrap. What is a primary interop ? A pr
imary interop assembly is a collection of types that are deployed, versioned, an
d configured as a single unit. However, unlike other managed assemblies, an inte
rop assembly contains type definitions (not implementation) of types that have a
lready been
defined in COM. These type definitions allow managed applications to bind to the
COM types at compile time and provide information to the common language runtim
e about how the types should be marshaled at run time. What are tlbimp and tlbex
p tools used for ? The Type Library Exporter generates a type library that descr
ibes the types defined in a common language runtime assembly. The Type Library I
mporter converts the type definitions found within a COM type library into equiv
alent definitions in a common language runtime assembly. The output of Tlbimp.ex
e is a binary file (an assembly) that contains runtime metadata for the types de
fined within the original type library. What benefit do you get from using a Pri
mary Interop Assembly (PIA)? PIAs are important because they provide unique type
identity. The PIA distinguishes the official type definitions from counterfeit
definitions provided by other interop assemblies. Having a single type identity
ensures type compatibility between applications that share the types defined in
the PIA. Because the PIA is signed by its publisher and labeled with the Primary
InteropAssembly attribute, it can be differentiated from other interop assemblie
s that define the same types. Remoting FAQ's
What distributed process frameworks outside .NET do you know? Distributed Comput
ing Environment/Remote Procedure Calls (DEC/RPC), Microsoft Distributed Componen
t Object Model (DCOM), Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), and Ja
va Remote Method Invocation (RMI). What are possible implementations of distribu
ted applications in .NET? .NET Remoting and ASP.NET Web Services. If we talk abo
ut the Framework Class Library, noteworthy classes are in System.Runtime.Remotin
g and System.Web.Services. When would you use .NET Remoting and when Web service
s? Use remoting for more efficient exchange of information when you control both
ends of the application. Use Web services for open-protocol-based information e
xchange when you are just a client or a server with the other end belonging to s
omeone else. What's a proxy of the server object in .NET Remoting? It's a fake c
opy of the server object that resides on the client side and behaves as if it wa
s the server. It handles the communication between real server object and the cl
ient object. This process is also known as marshaling. What are remotable object
s in .NET Remoting? Remotable objects are the objects that can be marshaled acro
ss the application domains. You can marshal by value, where a deep copy of the o
bject is created and then passed to the receiver. You can also marshal by refere
nce, where just a reference to an existing object is passed.
What are channels in .NET Remoting? Channels represent the objects that transfer
the other serialized objects from one application domain to another and from on
e computer to another, as well as one process to another on the same box. A chan
nel must exist before an object can be transferred. What security measures exist
for .NET Remoting in System.Runtime.Remoting? None. Security should be taken ca
re of at the application level. Cryptography and other security techniques can b
e applied at application or server level. What is a formatter? A formatter is an
object that is responsible for encoding and serializing data into messages on o
ne end, and deserializing and decoding messages into data on the other end. Choo
sing between HTTP and TCP for protocols and Binary and SOAP for formatters, what
are the trade-offs? Binary over TCP is the most effiecient, SOAP over HTTP is t
he most interoperable. What's SingleCall activation mode used for? If the server
object is instantiated for responding to just one single request, the request s
hould be made in SingleCall mode. What's Singleton activation mode? A single obj
ect is instantiated regardless of the number of clients accessing it. Lifetime o
f this object is determined by lifetime lease. How do you define the lease of th
e object? By implementing ILease interface when writing the class code. Can you
configure a .NET Remoting object via XML file? Yes, via machine.config and appli
cation level .config file (or web.config in ASP.NET). Application-level XML sett
ings take precedence over machine.config. How can you automatically generate int
erface for the remotable object in .NET with Microsoft tools? Use the Soapsuds t
ool. What are CAO's i.e. Client Activated Objects ? Client-activated objects are
objects whose lifetimes are controlled by the calling application domain, just
as they would be if the object were local to the client. With client activation,
a round trip to the server occurs when the client tries to create an instance o
f the server object, and the client proxy is created using an object reference (
ObjRef) obtained on return from the creation of the remote object on the server.
Each time a client creates an instance of a client-activated type, that instanc
e will service only that particular reference in that particular client until it
s lease expires and its memory is recycled. If a calling application domain crea
tes two new instances of the remote type, each of the
client references will invoke only the particular instance in the server applica
tion domain from which the reference was returned. In COM, clients hold an objec
t in memory by holding a reference to it. When the last client releases its last
reference, the object can delete itself. Client activation provides the same cl
ient control over the server object's lifetime, but without the complexity of ma
intaining references or the constant pinging to confirm the continued existence
of the server or client. Instead, client-activated objects use lifetime leases t
o determine how long they should continue to exist. When a client creates a remo
te object, it can specify a default length of time that the object should exist.
If the remote object reaches its default lifetime limit, it contacts the client
to ask whether it should continue to exist, and if so, for how much longer. If
the client is not currently available, a default time is also specified for how
long the server object should wait while trying to contact the client before mar
king itself for garbage collection. The client might even request an indefinite
default lifetime, effectively preventing the remote object from ever being recyc
led until the server application domain is torn down. The difference between thi
s and a serveractivated indefinite lifetime is that an indefinite server-activat
ed object will serve all client requests for that type, whereas the client-activ
ated instances serve only the client and the reference that was responsible for
their creation. For more information, see Lifetime Leases. To create an instance
of a client-activated type, clients either configure their application programm
atically (or using a configuration file) and call new (New in Visual Basic), or
they pass the remote object's configuration in a call to Activator.CreateInstanc
e. The following code example shows such a call, assuming a TcpChannel has been
registered to listen on port 8080. How many processes can listen on a single TCP
/IP port? One. What technology enables out-of-proc communication in .NET? Most u
sually Remoting;.NET remoting enables client applications to use objects in othe
r processes on the same computer or on any other computer available on its netwo
rk.While you could implement an out-of-proc component in any number of other way
s, someone using the term almost always means Remoting. How can objects in two d
iff. App Doimains communicate with each other? .Net framework provides various w
ays to communicate with objects in different app domains. First is XML Web Servi
ce on internet, its good method because it is built using HTTP protocol and SOAP
formatting. If the performance is the main concern then go for second option wh
ich is .Net remoting because it gives you the option of using binary encoding an
d the default TcpChannel, which offers the best interprocess communication perfo
rmance What is the difference between .Net Remoting and Web Services? Although w
e can develop an application using both technologies, each of them has its disti
nct advantages. Yes you can look at them in terms of performance but you need to
consider your need first. There are many other factors such authentications, aut
horizing in process that need to be considered. Point Remoting Webservices If yo
ur application needs interoperability with other platforms or operating systems
No Yes, Choose Web Services because it is more flexible in that they are support
SOAP. If performance is the main requirement with security You should use the T
CP channel and the binary formatter No Complex Programming Yes No State Manageme
nt Supports a range of state management, depending on what object lifetime schem
e you choose (single call or singleton call). Its stateless service management (
does not inherently correlate multiple calls from the same user) Transport Proto
col It can access through TCP or HTTP channel. It can be access only through HTT
P channel. WinForms FAQ : What base class do all Web Forms inherit from? System.
Windows.Forms.Form What is the difference between Debug.Write and Trace.Write? W
hen should each be used? The Debug.Write call won't be compiled when the DEBUGsy
mbol is not defined (when doing a release build). Trace.Write calls will be comp
iled. Debug.Write is for information you want only in debug builds, Trace.Write
is for when you want it in release build as well. Difference between Anchor and
Dock Properties? Dock Property->Gets or sets which edge of the parent container
a control is docked to. A control can be docked to one edge of its parent contai
ner or can be docked to all edges and fill the parent container. For example, if
you set this property to DockStyle.Left, the left edge of the control will be d
ocked to the left edge of its parent control. Additionally, the docked edge of t
he control is resized to match that of its container control. Anchor Property->G
ets or sets which edges of the control are anchored to the edges of its containe
r. A control can be anchored to one or more edges of its parent container. Ancho
ring a control to its parent ensures that the anchored edges remain in the same
position relative to the edges of the parent container when the parent container
is resized. When would you use ErrorProvider control? ErrorProvider control is
used in Windows Forms application. It is like Validation Control for ASP.NET pag
es. ErrorProvider control is used to provide validations in Windows forms and di
splay user friendly messages to the user if the validation fails. E.g If we went
to validate the textBox1 should be empty, then we can validate as below 1). You
need to place the errorprovide control on the form
private void textBox1_Validating(object sender, System.ComponentModel.CancelEven
tArgs e) { ValidateName(); } private bool ValidateName() { bool bStatus = true;
if (textBox1.Text == "") { errorProvider1.SetError (textBox1,"Please enter your
Name"); bStatus = false; } else errorProvider1.SetError (textBox1,""); return bS
tatus; } it check the textBox1 is empty . If it is empty, then a message Please
enter your name is displayed. Can you write a class without specifying namespace
? Which namespace does it belong to by default?? Yes, you can, then the class be
longs to global namespace which has no name. For commercial products, naturally,
you wouldn't want global namespace. You are designing a GUI application with a
windows and several widgets on it. The user then resizes the app window and sees
a lot of grey space, while the widgets stay in place. What's the problem? One s
hould use anchoring for correct resizing. Otherwise the default property of a wi
dget on a form is top-left, so it stays at the same location when resized. How c
an you save the desired properties of Windows Forms application? .config files i
n .NET are supported through the API to allow storing and retrieving information
. They are nothing more than simple XML files, sort of like what .ini files were
before for Win32 apps. So how do you retrieve the customized properties of a .N
ET application from XML .config file? Initialize an instance of AppSettingsReade
r class. Call the GetValue method of AppSettingsReader class, passing in the nam
e of the property and the type expected. Assign the result to the appropriate va
riable. Can you automate this process? In Visual Studio yes, use Dynamic Propert
ies for automatic .config creation, storage and retrieval.
My progress bar freezes up and dialog window shows blank, when an intensive back
ground process takes over. Yes, you should've multi-threaded your GUI, with task
bar and main form being one thread, and the background process being the other.
What's the safest way to deploy a Windows Forms app? Web deployment: the user al
ways downloads the latest version of the code, the program runs within security
sandbox, properly written app will not require additional security privileges. W
hy is it not a good idea to insert code into InitializeComponent method when wor
king with Visual Studio? The designer will likely through it away, most of the c
ode inside InitializeComponent is auto-generated. What's the difference between
WindowsDefaultLocation and WindowsDefaultBounds? WindowsDefaultLocation tells th
e form to start up at a location selected by OS, but with internally specified s
ize. WindowsDefaultBounds delegates both size and starting position choices to t
he OS. What's the difference between Move and LocationChanged? Resize and SizeCh
anged? Both methods do the same, Move and Resize are the names adopted from VB t
o ease migration to C#. How would you create a non-rectangular window, let's say
an ellipse? Create a rectangular form, set the TransparencyKey property to the
same value as BackColor, which will effectively make the background of the form
transparent. Then set the FormBorderStyle to FormBorderStyle.None, which will re
move the contour and contents of the form. How do you create a separator in the
Menu Designer? A hyphen '-' would do it. Also, an ampersand '&' would underline
the next letter. How's anchoring different from docking? Anchoring treats the co
mponent as having the absolute size and adjusts its location relative to the par
ent form. Docking treats the component location as absolute and disregards the c
omponent size. So if a status bar must always be at the bottom no matter what, u
se docking. If a button should be on the top right, but change its position with
the form being resized, use anchoring. How do you trigger the Paint event in Sy
stem.Drawing? Invalidate the current form, the OS will take care of repainting.
The Update method forces the repaint. With these events, why wouldn't Microsoft
combine Invalidate and Paint, so that you wouldn't have to tell it to repaint, a
nd then to force it to repaint?
Painting is the slowest thing the OS does, so usually telling it to repaint, but
not forcing it allows for the process to take place in the background. How can
you assign an RGB color to a System.Drawing.Color object? Call the static method
FromArgb of this class and pass it the RGB values. What class does Icon derive
from? Isn't it just a Bitmap with a wrapper name around it? No, Icon lives in Sy
stem.Drawing namespace. It's not a Bitmap by default, and is treated separately
by .NET. However, you can use ToBitmap method to get a valid Bitmap object from
a valid Icon object. Before in my VB app I would just load the icons from DLL. H
ow can I load the icons provided by .NET dynamically? By using System.Drawing.Sy
stemIcons class, for example System.Drawing.SystemIcons.Warning produces an Icon
with a warning sign in it. When displaying fonts, what's the difference between
pixels, points and ems? A pixel is the lowest-resolution dot the computer monit
or supports. Its size depends on user's settings and monitor size. A point is al
ways 1/72 of an inch. An em is the number of pixels that it takes to display the
letter M. BEWARE THE QUIRKS OF THE INTERVIEWER INTERVIEWS that are intended to
focus on candidate’s competence are almost always about personality, too. There ar
e countless books on interviewing professionals what traits to look for, what qu
estions to ask and how to interpret the answers. But the role of the interviewer
is rarely taken into account. Do interviewers of different personality types ma
ke different decisions on the same people, given the same criteria? A candidate
may tick all the boxes as regards ability, attitude, experience, personality and
values. So why will one interviewer think he or she is perfect for the post whe
n an other does not? It may be that the personality of the interviewer has to be
included in the equation. Extroverts usually enjoy interviewing. They are “People’s
people”: sociable, eager to be amused and entertained and often entertaining them
selves. They probably talk too much and listen too little. They may not do their
preparation as thoroughly as they should. They may be impatient and inattentive
in along interviews. And, of course, they are attracted to vivacious (if vacuou
s) candidates. Introverts make very different, and often diffident, interviewers
. They pause more, seeming hesitant when they are processing information. They c
an find the whole process tiring and intimidating and feel more for those candid
ates who are similar to themselves. They usually take the data gathering serious
ly and see the whole process as a semiscientific exercise. In the same way as th
eir extroverted colleagues, though, they probably
tend to favour people of a similar disposition. The trouble is that introverts r
arely volunteer for interviewing assignments. And what of the “sensitive” (neurotic)
interviewers? They are the fragile flowers of the world. They are prone to stre
ss and generally don’t like people whom they see as threatening. They can be bitch
y and critical, wary and judgmental. Neurotic interviewers can easily feel threa
tened by a “mover and shaker”. They worry about things: the present, the future, the
ir reputation, their security, their ability and so on. They listen carefully to
the candidates answer to questions about work life balance, diversity, counsell
ing and other issues. If they don’t like what they hear, in response to salient as
well as less relevant questions, their instinct is to push the reject button. S
table interviewers, like stable employees, are better news. They are less irrita
ble and moody and better able to weigh the information. They worry less about wh
at might go wrong and cope well with all the little dramas at interviews. They t
end to be calm, focused and rational. Agreeable interviewers are warm, trusting
and empathise with the candidate. They understand that interviews can be stressf
ul. They are concerned about making the interviewee comfortable and relaxed and
believe that they get the best out of others by giving them a chance. Less agree
able and likable types believe that you understand people by “putting them on the
spot”. They treat the interviews as a Paxman style grilling. They cross-examine – of
ten pushing candidates to give details of failures that don’t appear on the CV. Th
ey are hard to please, cynical, tough, and world-weary and care little for the i
nterviewee’s comfort. The ambition and achievement needs of interviewers are also
relevant. Paradoxically, interviewers with small or grand ambitions may both be
intimidated by the obviously ambitious candidate.Those with low aspirations can
feel intimidated by thrusting MBAs who want to be on the board at 30 and retired
at 40 . The highly ambitious interviewer sees candidates like these as a threat
. What of the interviewers own abilities? How are bright, educated interviewers
different from the less talented? Here’s another paradox: the clever prefer discri
minating questions, the dim prefer “clever” questions. Brighter people tend to have
a bigger vocabulary and think fast. They ask good questions. The interview is a
social process. It can be a sophisticated, intellectual, theatrical show: a hall
of mirrors, a game of bluff and counterbluff. And there is no doubt that “gut fee
ling” plays a big part on both sides. So what’s the moral for employers? First, ackn
owledge that the interviewer’s make up (ability and personality) inevitably plays
a part.
Second, try to work out how specific interviewers react to particular candidates
. Third, use multiple interviewers but particularly those with the ability and p
ersonality profiles found among those actually applying for the job in question.
Fourth, where possible, try to encourage greater insights in your interviewers.
Fifth, choose-or train-interviewers who are bright, stable and scientious. Sala
ry Negotiation Basics Many people see negotiation as a process

of each party try
ing to get the most
for what they have to give. And that s a reasonable way
to l
ook at it when you re buying or selling a car, a computer, or a carpet. It s tem
pting to look

at job negotiations in the same way— but
not advisable. Shoot for Fa
ir When you re negotiating an employment contract, you re negotiating
the basis
for a relationship, and you want to live happily together. This doesn t mean tha
t you have to arrive at a compromise, but that you should come to an agreement t
hat both parties feel is fair. There are at least four factors that can increase
your perceived worth. All of them fit into the context of networking and interv
iewing, and all of them can be turned to your advantage without alienating poten
tial employers. 1. How You See and Present Yourself Are you confident? Do you sp
eak convincingly about your accomplishments? Do you have a clear

and credible ob
jective? Do you understand and seem to fit in with the company s culture? You wi
ll generate more buyer enthusiasm if the company sees you as a long-term asset t
han if it sees you only as right for this particular job. 2. How the Company See
s the Value of the Work to Be Done This is your opportunity to put the work in a
broader context than the company may see. Instead of talking about providing go
od customer service, for example, you might discuss retaining valued customers a
nd increasing business activity. If you present some convincing illustrations, t
he job might seem worthy of a higher valuation—including, perhaps, a bonus for ach
ieving objectives that you help define. 3. How the Company Perceives

Your Approp
riateness for the Job You want to demonstrate that what you ve
learned and achie
ved in the past, along with your understanding of the company s needs, makes you
more qualified than other candidates.
4. How Your Discussion of Compensation and Benefits Plays Out Your

attention to
the first three factors should already have raised the company s estimation of y
our value. The direct discussion—often thought of as the whole of negotiation—is whe
re you apply your skills at recapitulation, listening, and politely asserting th
e value you have established.
Posted by Nisha Nitin on 11:19 PM 0 Comments Counter Offers: Do They Merit Consi
deration? by David Richter You are one of the fortunate few who have not been do
wnsized. However, your current job isn’t exactly fulfilling. Perhaps it isn’t what y
ou enjoy doing. Maybe the hours are too long. Perhaps you are having some confli
cts with your supervisor. Your salary may not be on par with average job salarie
s for the same type and level of position, or not come close to what you feel yo
u are worth. Whatever the reason(s), you have decided to enter into a job search
. So you begin your search. You work hard and spend quite a bit of time searchin
g for your new job. Your efforts are finally rewarded; you have received an offe
r. Congratulations! Now comes the hard part. Wait a minute! Did I just say “now co
mes the hard part”? What am I talking about? The hard part is finding your new job
, isn’t it? If you are employed while searching for a job, you must inform your pr
esent employer that you have received an offer of employment elsewhere. When you
give notice, two things can happen. Either your present employer will accept, w
ith regret, your decision, or they will do whatever they can to persuade you to
stay. Your present employer probably spent a lot of time and money hiring and th
en training you. They are accustomed to your work habits and abilities, and know
you work in harmony with your peers. You have achieved a number of accomplishme
nts during your tenure there. To find your replacement at this juncture would be
costly. Your company will most likely attempt to retain you with a counter-offe
r. A counter-offer represents the company’s monetary sense of what it’s going to tak
e to retain you as an employee. It will be fashioned as an offer difficult to re
fuse, and include a substantial increase in your compensation along with whateve
r other perks are deemed necessary to win you back. What should you do?
The answer can be found in the reason you went looking elsewhere in the first pl
ace. If you accept the counter-offer, you will make more money, but in every oth
er respect, your situation will remain the same. You need to ask yourself if the
added income and perks will let you overcome whatever it was that caused your l
ack of fulfillment. Temporarily, you may be satiated, but you will most likely r
each a point where you eventually seek a new position. While it may be difficult
to turn down a counter-offer, it may be your best option. The sooner you find y
ourself in a more fulfilling position, the more creative and happier you will be
. Copyright © 2005 TopDog Group All rights reserved. About the Author David Richte
r is a recognized authority in career coaching. His extensive knowledge and expe
rience gained from many years in recruitment, outplacement and career management
has allowed David to formulate powerful strategies anyone can use to secure int
erviews and receive offers.

David holds Masters in both Engineering and Counseli
ng Psychology. David s website is: http://www.procareercoach.com Posted by Nisha
Nitin on 11:17 PM 0 Comments Counter Offers: Do They Merit Consideration? by Da
vid Richter You are one of the fortunate few who have not been downsized. Howeve
r, your current job isn’t exactly fulfilling. Perhaps it isn’t what you enjoy doing.
Maybe the hours are too long. Perhaps you are having some conflicts with your s
upervisor. Your salary may not be on par with average job salaries for the same
type and level of position, or not come close to what you feel you are worth. Wh
atever the reason(s), you have decided to enter into a job search. So you begin
your search. You work hard and spend quite a bit of time searching for your new
job. Your efforts are finally rewarded; you have received an offer. Congratulati
ons! Now comes the hard part. Wait a minute! Did I just say “now comes the hard pa
rt”? What am I talking about? The hard part is finding your new job, isn’t it? If yo
u are employed while searching for a job, you must inform your present employer
that you have received an offer of employment elsewhere. When you give notice, t
wo things can happen. Either your present employer will accept, with regret, you
r decision, or they will do whatever they can to persuade you to stay. Your pres
ent employer probably spent a lot of time and money hiring and then training you
. They are accustomed to your work habits and abilities, and know you work in
harmony with your peers. You have achieved a number of accomplishments during yo
ur tenure there. To find your replacement at this juncture would be costly. Your
company will most likely attempt to retain you with a counter-offer. A counter-
offer represents the company’s monetary sense of what it’s going to take to retain y
ou as an employee. It will be fashioned as an offer difficult to refuse, and inc
lude a substantial increase in your compensation along with whatever other perks
are deemed necessary to win you back. What should you do? The answer can be fou
nd in the reason you went looking elsewhere in the first place. If you accept th
e counter-offer, you will make more money, but in every other respect, your situ
ation will remain the same. You need to ask yourself if the added income and per
ks will let you overcome whatever it was that caused your lack of fulfillment. T
emporarily, you may be satiated, but you will most likely reach a point where yo
u eventually seek a new position. While it may be difficult to turn down a count
er-offer, it may be your best option. The sooner you find yourself in a more ful
filling position, the more creative and happier you will be. Copyright © 2005 TopD
og Group All rights reserved. About the Author David Richter is a recognized aut
hority in career coaching. His extensive knowledge and experience gained from ma
ny years in recruitment, outplacement and career management has allowed David to
formulate powerful strategies anyone can use to secure interviews and receive o

ffers. David holds Masters in both Engineering and Counseling Psychology. David
s website is: http://www.procareercoach.com Posted by Nisha Nitin on 11:17 PM 0
Comments The Telephone Interview In this electronic age, interviewers use the te
lephone to weed out applicants. Your goal is a face-to-face meeting, so use thes
e methods to achieve it. You must be prepared to handle the questioning and use
every means at your disposal to win the real thing you want – the face-to-face mee
ting. The most obvious (and often most neglected) point to remember this: during
the interview, the person from the company has only ears with which to judge yo
u and that is something you must overcome. Here are the some tips: v Take a surp
rise call in your stride – if you receive a call as a result of a CV you sent or a
telephone massage you left and you are unprepared, be calm. Sound positive, fri
endly. v Beware of over familiarity – You should alway! s refer to the interviewer
by his or her surname until invited to do o therwise.
v Allow the person on the phone to do most of the talking – To ask most (but not a
ll) of the questions. Keep up your end of the conversation – this is, after all, a
sales presentation, so be sure to ask a few questions of your own that will rev
eal you as an intelligent person and provide you with the opportunity to promote
your candidacy. For example, ask what immediate projects the interviewers depar
tment is involved in or the biggest challenges that are being tackled. v Everyon
e wants to employ a problem solver – find the problem and you are already halfway
towards the offer. v Beware of giving yes/no answers – They give no real informati
on about your abilities. v Be factual in your answers –You should be brief yet tho
rough. v Take notes – They will be invaluable to you in preparing for the face-to-
face meeting. If for any reason, the person you are speaking is interrupted, jot
down the topic under discussion. When he or she gets back on the line, you can
helpfully recap. v The person from the company may! talk about the business and,
from the dossier in front of you; you will also know facts about the outfit. A
little flattery goes a long way – admire the company achievements and you are, in
fact, admiring the interviewer. Likewise, if any areas of common interest arise,
comment on them and agree with the interviewer when possible – people take on peo
ple like themselves. v If the interviewer does not give the openings you need to
sell yourself, be ready to salvage the situation and turn into your advantage.
Have a few work-related questions prepared. v Remember that your single objectiv
e at this point is to sell yourself and your skills. v The telephone interview h
as come to an end when you are asked if you have any questions. Ask any more que
stions that will improve your understanding of the job requirements. v No matter
how many questions you get answered in the initial conversion, there will alway
s be something you forgot. This allows you to call again to satisfy any curiosit
y, which will also enable you to increase rapport. Don’t take too much advantage o
f it, though: one well-placed phone call that contains two or three considered q
uestions will be appreciated; four or five phone calls will not. v ! ; Taking ca
re to ascertain the correct spelling and pronunciation of the interviewers name
shows your concern for the small but important things in life – it will be noticed
. v&nb sp; Follow with a casual enquiry as to what direction the meeting will ta
ke. &! nbsp; v The knowledge gained will help you to package and present yoursel
f and allow you time, to bone up on any weak or rusty areas. -------------------
--------------------------------------------------"Why have you changed so frequ
ently?" - How do you answer this question if asked in the interview? Want to kno
w few smart answers? wait for my next two messages? Why have you changed so freq
uently? If you have jumped around, blame it on youth (even the interviewer was y
oung once). Now you realize what a mistake your job-hopping was and, with your a
dded domestic responsibilities, you’re now much more settled. Alternatively, you m
ay wish to impress on the interviewer that your job-hopping was never as a resul
t of each job change.
You could reply, ‘My first job involved a long journey to and from work. It was ha
rd, but I knew it would give me good experience in a very competitive field. Sub
sequently, I found a job much closer to home where commuting was only half an ho
ur each way. I was very happy at my second job. However, I got an opportunity to
really broaden my experience base with a new company that was just starting up.
With the wisdom of hindsight, I realize that move was a mistake – it took me just
six months to see that I couldn’t make a contribution there. I have been with my
current company a reasonable length of time. So I have broad experience in diffe
rent environments. I didn’t just job-hope, I have been following a path to gain th
is broad experience. So you see I have more experience than the average person o
f my years and a desire to settle down and make it pay off for me and my employe
r.’ Alternatively, you can say, ‘Now I want to settle down and make my diverse backg
round pay off in my contributions to my new employer. I have a strong desire to
contribute and am looking for an employer that will keep me challenged. I think
this might be the company to do that – am I right? Three essential tips to getting
through your tech interview and getting the job. You might think technical-job
interviews are no different from interviews for non-tech jobs, but in fact, they’r
e special situations with unique potential pitfalls. The three tips that follow
will help you better prepare for them. 1. Be prepared to prove yourself Your res
ume will be examined from top to bottom, taken apart and put back together. Make
sure you know what’s on it, and make sure you’re telling the truth. Edith, a busine
ss analyst at a technology-consulting firm, says “It may be tempting to load up yo
ur resume with experience you wish you had, but as soon as the interviewer asks
you for more information, you’ve blown it.” David, a systems administrator, is adama
nt that the biggest mistake you can make in a technical interview is to try to f
ake your way through it. “If you don’t know something, don’t talk about it.” And Johanna
, a recruiter, warns that interviewers may even ask you questions that are impos
sible to answer, just to see if you’ll admit what you don’t know. The best way to pr
epare is to review your resume and practice expounding on each and every part of
it. If you say you know Java, can you prove it? If you say you have network adm
inistration experience, can you talk an interviewer through the process of setti
ng up a mailbox and giving multiple users access to it? Be prepared to answer qu
estions about how to build a particular application or tackle a specific problem
. The questions themselves, of course, depend on the specific position. But you
can be sure that your interviewer won’t just take your resume at face value. 2. Wa
tch your attitude Perhaps the worst mistake you can make in a tech interview (be
sides lying or trying to convince an interviewer that you know more than you rea
lly do) is to be arrogant. Techies often get a bad rap for lacking social skills
, particularly when they’re dealing with nontechies. Be confident, yes, but don’t tr
y to talk over your interviewer’s head and don’t be
condescending. “You should come across as knowledgeable, relaxed, and sure of your
self —never arrogant,” says David, the systems administrator. Don’t be careless in you
r dress, either. The rule of thumb for dressing for any interview— wear a conserva
tive version of what you’d wear for the job one level above the one you’re seeking—app
lies to tech jobs, too. Sure, you might wear sweatpants and pocket Tshirts once
you’ve got the job, but the interview is not the time to be casual. Emy, a dot com
recruiter, says “It’s not necessary for a man to wear a tie or for a woman to wear
a suit, but it sure does impress me.” 3. Ask well-informed questions. At the end o
f each interview, when the interviewer says, “Well, that’s about it. Do you have any
questions?” don’t say no. (That’s a good rule of thumb for any interview, not just fo
r tech jobs.) But make sure that you ask questions that show you understand the
business, not just the technology. Johanna, the recruiter, says “Show you’re not onl
y interested in money, but in what the position has to offer. Ask questions such
as ‘what new markets does this company intend to go after, now that you’ve conquere
d this market? Looking to the future, how do you see me fitting into the company
?’ Make a big deal out of the big picture. Don’t be too narrowly focused.” It’s also a g
ood idea to ask to meet people in other departments. Talk to members of the comp
any’s marketing or business-development teams to find out how they represent the c
ompany to potential clients. You’ll show that you’re interested in learning how the
entire company functions and that you’re not planning to hole yourself up in the s
erver room all day.