Welcome to C For Dummies, 2nd Edition — your last, desperate, and final attempt to understand the C programming language. Although I can’t promise that you’ll become a C guru after wading through this text, I can guarantee that you will
Know how to recognize a C program and, when one is grouped with an IRS Form 1040, the morning stock report, baseball statistics, and anything written in Braille, you’ll be able to pick out which one is the C program.
Be able to write C programs that no other publisher would let an author print in its C books.
Appreciate the following code, but be unable to use it at cocktail parties to impress your friends: while(dead_horse) beat();
Find out how to speak in C Talk, which is the ability to look at character groupings, such as printf, putchar, and clock, and pronounce them as “print-f,” “put-kar,” and “see-lock.”
Have fun.

The C# programming language is a powerful, relatively new descendant of the earlier C, C++, and Java languages. Programming with it is a lot of fun, as you’re about to find out in this book. Microsoft created C# as a major part of its .NET initiative. For what are probably political reasons, Microsoft turned the specifications for the C# language over to the ECMA (pronounced ek-ma) international standards committee in the summer of 2000, long before .NET was a reality. In theory, any company can come up with its own version of C# written to run on any operating system, on any machine larger than a calculator.

With Microsoft’s introduction of the .NET platform, a new, exciting programming language was born. Visual C# is now the language of choice for developing on the .NET platform, and Microsoft has even written a majority of the .NET Framework using Visual C#. Visual C# is a modern object-oriented language designed and developed from the ground up with a best-of-breed mentality, implementing and expanding on the best features and functions found in other languages. Visual C# 2008 combines the power and flexibility of C++ with some of the simplicity of Visual C#.

"Think of Baxter and Rennie, add the pricing models from Wilmott and, to illustrate each model, Levy's own Numerical Recipes in C and C#. Levy's book is written in precise mathematical language, covering all types of derivative products and illustrating the state-of-the-art resolution methods for pricing. As such, it is set to become a classic amongst serious quants." - Professor Carol Alexander, Chair of Risk Management and Director of Research, ICMA Centre, Business School, The University of Reading, UK

Every C# programmer needs to learn about LINQ (Language–lIntegrated Query), Microsoft’s breakthrough technology for simplifying and unifying data access from any data source. With LINQ you can write more elegant and flexible code not just to access databases and files but to manipulate data structures and XML.