.NET Tip: Using a Nullable Value Type
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 10/03/2008
Discover how to use nullable types when retrieving data from your database.

.NET Tip: Take a Byte out of Strings
Rating:
Jay Miller - 09/19/2008
Convert a string to an array of bytes and back again.

Adding Attachments to Excel 2007 Email Hyperlinks
Rating: none
Paul Kimmel - 08/29/2008
Learn to add attachments to hyperlinks that contain email addresses by using a little bit of VBA.

Writing CDs with C# and Windows XP's ICDBurn Interface
Rating:
Hannes du Preez - 05/21/2008
Learn how to write data to a CD while utilising XP's ICDBurn interface.

.NET Tip: String Literals Without Escape Characters
Rating:
Jay Miller - 03/26/2008
Use @-quoted strings to avoid escape characters in your string literals.

.NET Tip: Filling Lists with Enums
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 01/11/2008
Most applications developers build have lists or dropdowns that need to be filled with values for the user to select. This tip will show you how to use an enumeration to populate your lists.

.NET Tip: Display All Fields and Properties of an Object
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 11/30/2007
Learn how to display all of the fields and properties of any object. By using a little reflection, you can expose the internals of your objects.

Build a Windows Event Log Watcher Service Process to Export Event Log Entries as an RSS Feed
Rating: none
aleksisa - 11/13/2007
Build a Windows Event Log Watcher Service Process to Export Event Log Entries as an RSS feed using System.Diagnostics.EventLog, EntryWritten, and EnableRaisingEvents.

FreeDOM (Programming)
Rating: none
VectorX - 11/12/2007
Learn about FreeDOM (Free Document Object Model), a web development technique used to create event-driven web applications. FreeDOM is designed to overcome the limitations of stateless HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) transmissions.

.NET Tip: Passing a Variable Number of Arguments to a Method
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 11/09/2007
Have you ever not known how many parameters a method would need to accept? The C# params keyword lets you pass a variable number of arguments to a method.

.NET Tip: Type Casting and Comparison Using "as" and "is"
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 09/28/2007
Use some of the language's lesser known features for safe type casting and comparison.

[Updated] Programatically Add Exceptions to a Windows Firewall Using C#
Rating:
Daniela Ilea - 08/31/2007
Learn how to programatically add exceptions to a Windows Firewall using C#.

Speeding Up .NET
Rating:
Bill Hatfield - 07/31/2007
.NET programmers can become a little lazy when it comes to performance optimization. Discover a few easy tips to keep performance at a peak!

XSD Tutorial: XML Schemas For Beginners
Rating:
Simon Sprott - 05/24/2007
This five-part article gives a basic overview of the building blocks underlying XML Schemas, showing how and when to use them.

Integrating .NET and SAP 101
Rating: none
Paul Kimmel - 04/04/2007
SAP integration with Windows is possible and basic operations aren't too difficult but can be challenging. Here you will find an opener for VB.NET programmers who might be working on an SAP implementation and integration with non-SAP systems.

[Updated] Developing For Windows Vista
Rating: none
Bradley Jones - 04/03/2007
There's a lot more to Vista than the .NET 3.0 framework. The new OS offers interesting and useful new features for developers-and DevX has rounded them up for you.

Creating VB.NET Public Methods That Accept Optional Arguments
Rating: none
Bill Hatfield - 03/28/2007
Learn to provide flexibility in the ways your public method can be called by using Visual Basic .NET's three different approaches for specifying optional parameters.

VB .NET Tip: Assembly Deployment Best Practices
Rating: none
Bill Hatfield - 03/07/2007
If maintaining your code is important to you, take note of these few assembly deployment best practices.

.NET Tip: Exiting a Try/Catch Block
Rating:
Eric Smith - 02/16/2007
If you use a return statement within a Try/Catch block, there's a behavior you need to be aware of in your code.

.NET Tip: Comparing Strings Safely
Rating: none
Eric Smith - 12/11/2006
The .NET Framework's built-in comparison functions don't handle nulls properly. Learn a couple of functions to take care of this for you.

What ADO.NET Teaches Us about Custom Objects
Rating:
Paul Kimmel - 11/29/2006
Why do so many .NET programmers prefer to write custom objects instead of using ADO.NET objects? More control, for one. Read on to find out the other reasons.

Testing with Mock Objects
Rating: none
Dan Gartner - 10/24/2006
Mock objects can be created to act as stand-ins for actual implementations in order to isolate unit tests. This makes it easier to detect defects during development. Discover how to create your own mock objects using NMock 2.0.

.NET Tip: Creating and Using Your Own Events
Rating: none
Eric Smith - 09/20/2006
Simply registering for a custom event and running your code when the event occurs makes managing the sequence of events within a Web page easier.

Multithreaded Programming Using CSP.NET
Rating: none
Martin Nebelong Olsen - 09/05/2006
Read a short introduction to multithreaded programming with CSP.NET, which is a simple and intuitive alternative to standard thread programming.

.NET Tip: Create a Custom Configuration Section in .NET 2.0
Rating: none
Eric Smith - 06/30/2006
Creating a custom configuration section in your configuration class will make it more modular and not reliant on the generic appSettings section in the configuration file.

Satellite Assemblies
Rating:
Jayant Kulkarni - 02/09/2006
Discover what satellite assemblies are, how to create them, and how to use satellite assemblies with strong named assemblies with very simple and small pieces of code chunks.

TIP: Playing a WAV File with C# 2.0
Rating:
Bradley Jones - 12/29/2005
Playing a sound in C# 2.0 couldn't get much easier!

Refactoring VB in Visual Studio 2005
Rating:
Paul Kimmel - 12/21/2005
Refactoring can improve the internal structure of your VB code without changing its external behavior. Use it to remove the subjectivity of what is good code and what is less-good code.

Programming with the My Feature
Rating:
Paul Kimmel - 11/21/2005
Part code-generating factory, part proxy pattern, and part façade pattern, the My feature makes VB.NET a little simpler to use by acting as a cue for the VB compiler to substitute it with more verbose code.

Time Management Tips for Developers
Rating:
Alexander Fedorenko - 09/09/2005
Learn about a few time management principles that can make our lives more successful and improve software and Web development.

[Updated] TIP: A Quick Way to Write Public Properties in C#
Rating:
pete# - 08/15/2005
Learn about a very quick and easy way to create public properties for member variables inside a class using regular expressions.

Script CallBack In ASP.NET 1.1
Rating:
sndshreeman - 05/23/2005
Learn how to implement the script callback features in ASP.NET 1.1 using XMLHTTP.

Creating Installer Patches with MSI 3.0
Rating:
Joseph Poozhikunnel - 04/26/2005
Today, it is common to have software patch releases due to various reasons. Discover the steps needed to create a patch using MSI 3.0.

[Updated] Console with a WinForm
Rating:
Wilfried Mestdagh - 04/13/2005
Often, you need a Console window in a WinForm application for easy debugging or logging purposes. Learn how to do this.

.NET Regular Expressions and Captures
Rating: none
Tom Archer - MSFT - 03/30/2005
Learn the subtle differences between groups and captures in .NET regular expressions and how to suppress capture information when your applications don't need it.

[Updated] FileSystemWatcher—Why Does It Stop Working?
Rating:
Zeb - 02/15/2005
Ever wondered why, when using FileSystemWatcher over a network drive, it seems to forget what it's supposed to do? This article aims to explain the problem and show you how to solve it.

Writing Verifiably Type-Safe Code in Visual C++
Rating:
Nick Wienholt - 12/07/2004
In the first two releases of Visual Studio.NET, writing verifiably type-safe code with C++ went from impossible to extremely difficult. Thankfully, Visual C++.NET 2005 offers a much better story on verification than the current compiler.

Retrieve the Caret Position by Using an Extended TextBox Class
Rating:
Csaba Hatvany - 10/06/2004
Extend the TextBox class with properties for retrieving the (line, column) coordinate of the caret current position.

How To Swap Top-Level Forms
Rating:
Marc Clifton - 07/12/2004
Learn to implement a specialized ApplicationContext that allows the application to close the current top-level form and replace it with a different one.

Monitoring Clipboard Activity in C#
Rating:
Tom Archer - MSFT - 06/03/2004
Learn to control your Clipboard contents.

Forcing Garbage Collection in .NET
Rating:
Tom Archer - MSFT - 04/21/2004
Discover the methods for forcing the Garbage Collector (GC) to go into action!

Differential Development, Part 1
Rating:
Eric Litovsky - 04/20/2004
Make changes to any part of your application design at any point of your development lifecycle without breaking the build or re-writing the application.

Creating an NUnit Project Template for .NET, Part 1
Rating:
Paul Kimmel - 04/12/2004
Combine NUnit and TraceListeners to create great test libraries.

Placing Your C# Application in the System Tray
Rating:
Tom Archer - MSFT - 04/07/2004
Learn the steps involved in specifying that an application is to be minimized to the Tray, how to allow the user to restore the application by double-clicking the icon, and how to create and respond to a System Tray icon's context menu.

Calculating the Next Working Day in .NET
Rating:
Karl Moore - 03/11/2004
Sometimes you don't just want to add a certain number of days to a date; you want to take working days into account.

Persistence of Window State and Appearance for .NET Applications
Rating: none
Alexander Fedorenko - 03/05/2004
The process of building professional desktop applications includes many hidden tasks, such as the persistence of the window state and appearance. This will introduce additional accessibility for such applications. Learn a simple approach to do so.

Quick Visual Studio .NET Tips
12/26/2003
Still getting used to Visual Studio .NET? Here are a handful of little-known Visual Studio tips sure to make your life easier...