This article explains the use of switch constructs. Switch constructs are a conditional, like if/else constructs discussed in the previous ASP.NET Tutorial 4. In all honesty, you won’t use switch blocks nearly as often as you will use if… but there are times when they just plain make more sense.

A switch block compares a single variable or value to any number of other values, and when it finds a match, it executes some code. What really makes switch blocks handy is that after it finds a match, it will keep checking conditions until you tell it to stop (by using the break keyword).

This article will introduce you to conditionals in C#. Conditionals are a program’s decision-makers. They are used to evaluate and compare data, and then take different sets of actions based on the evaluations. It’s really not very different from the way humans make decisions. For instance, let’s say you’ve decided that you want go swimming… but only if it’s not too cold outside (because I live in sunny California, I’d consider anything 75 or under is “too cold”). If you can phrase a concept like that in English ("if it’s over 75 degrees outside, I’ll go swimming"), you can program it just as easily.

Hopefully by the end of this article you will be able to write some of the most basic conditionals in C#… if constructs. We’ll even cover some of the more fancy variations of if… including if else and if else if constructs.

This tutorial introduces code comments – including general comments, intellisense comments, and code regions. Code comments are little notes that you can leave right inside your code to help yourself or other developers that may need to look at your code.

Developing good code commenting habits is absolutely vital for every developer. When you’re projects get even remotely complicated, you will run into situations where you won’t be able to remember what on earth you were doing last, or why you did something a certain way to begin with. Furthermore, if anyone ever inherits your code, comments can make the nearly insurmountable task of deciphering it much more palatable. More often than not, however, it will be you deciphering your own code – so save yourself a lot of time later by spending a little up front and writing good comments.

This tutorial is meant to give you a general understanding of C# structure and object-oriented programming, including the oft-neglected hows and the whys. Topics covered will include an overview of variables, methods, classes, and namespaces.

Hopefully, by the end of this tutorial, you’ll have a general understanding of how C# code is structured and organized.