C# in Depth: What you need to master C# 2 and 3, 1st Edition
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Jon Skeet's "C# in Depth" is pretty good: http://www.amazon.com/C-Depth-Jon-Skeet/dp/1933988363/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259183768&sr=8-1
I suggest: Books,Magazines,Journals,Code Samples,etc
Seriously, I suggest books and practicing. There are a lot of books to get you started, probably all much the same. Then when you've got the basics and want a quick guide to how it really all works, this one is rather good.
Jon Skeet's C# In Depth is a favorite among StackOverflow users.
C# In Depth http://askjonskeet.com/content/csharpindepth.jpg
C++: Stroustrup's book and/or Stroustrup's D&E or Stroustrups ARM though the latter two are not in date. The ISO spec is available (see Charles bailey's answer) and is the final word if that's the type of doc you want. The most thorough answer is in the comments by aJ :- The Definitive C++ Book Guide and List. The equivalent of K&R for C++ is the first one.
C#: The C# Programming Language (3rd Edition) by Anders Hejlsberg, Mads Torgersen, Scott Wiltamuth, and Peter Golde). If you're looking for the generally accepted definitive book on C#, that's C# in depth.
I'm a fan of the CLR via C#, by Jeffrey Richter, a man very, very wise in C#-fu.
Also, check out our very own Jon Skeet's C# in Depth.
Both are great reads.
Short answer: read "C# in depth" from SO's top-most voted fellow Jon Skeet. Its an excellent book and you will learn all about the new C# 3 features, especially when to use them, including Lambda expressions.
As far as becoming proficient with C# I would highly recommend Programming C# and C# in Depth.
For Visual Studio, start poking around in the IDE a lot, play around, get familiar with it. Start with simple projects and explore all the different aspects. Learn how to optimize Visual Studio and get familiar with some of the great keyboard shortcuts / hidden features of the IDE.
Definitely do each of the following at least once:
Projects:
Debugging:
Command Line:
Testing:
Source Control:
Refactoring et al:
IDE & Keyboard Shortcuts:
I have a little article about this: the Bluffer's Guide to C# 3. Obviously there are more details in my book but it should be enough to get you going. In short:
Automatically implemented properties:
Object and collection initializers:
Implicitly typed local variables:
Implicitly typed arrays:
Anonymous types:
Lambda expressions (like anonymous methods but shorter):
Expression trees:
Extension methods: (static methods which act like instance methods on the type of their first parameter)
Query expressions:
You need knowledge about C# and .NET to developing ASP.NET apps or for SharePoint. Because both technology have same base and it's .NET
Head First C# for absolute beginner in programming (OOP) and C#. And it's good for you if you haven't knowledge about object programming, but if you familiar with OOP, this book wasting your time.
Best way how to get in .NET and C# is C# in Depth: What you need to master C# 2 and 3
Read advanced books on the topic. Some examples:
Effective Java (2nd Edition) - Joshua Bloch
C# in Depth: What you need to master C# 2 and 3 - Jon Skeet
These two as examples provide you with the changes introduced in the last versions of the languages which should be enough to get you back on track combined with some sort of a pet project as mentioned by Pax.
I try to read some advanced books on languages which I don't use activly at the moment too, but this depends on my motivation..
With best regards