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Using CodeIt.Right to Create Visual Basic Coding Standards

July 31, 2018Carlos SchultsNo Comments

Here on the SubMain blog, I’ve already covered how to use CodeIt.Right to Create C# Coding Standards. Today Visual Basic gets the same treatment. In case you haven’t read the previous post (or any post in this blog at all), I’ll briefly explain what these posts are about. CodeIt.Right is an automated code review tool. It checks the source code of your application against a set of rules (which can be the standard rules or custom ones), giving you instant feedback on its quality. Similarly to the previous post, I’ll explain how you can create a Visual Basic coding standard by…

C# Dictionary: Definition, Examples, Best Practices, and Pitfalls

July 10, 2018Rick Beley3

So far we’ve had the opportunity to take a deep C# dive on arrays, lists, and the very valuable enum. Today we are going to stay in the System.Collections.Generic namespace and learn about a structure that’s designed for lookups—the C# dictionary.

Code Inspections? Get Over Yourself.

June 26, 2018Melissa McEwen9

When I last looked for software engineering jobs, I came across a post that looked perfectly normal until I got to a line that said, “Participate in daily code inspections.” What the heck was a code inspection? It sounded pretty serious. And we’d be doing it every single day? A quick Google search brought me to a Wikipedia page for “software inspection,” which told me that “code inspection” was pioneered in the 70s at IBM. My grandfather’s cousin happened to work there at the time, so I asked him to weigh in. He said they were a “formalized effort by team…

C# Enum: Definition, Examples, Best Practices, and Pitfalls

June 12, 2018Justin Boyer4

We’ve discussed arrays and lists in C#. This time, we’ll take the same journey with a funky little type called the enum. C# enums are very useful constructs, but they have some quirky behavior that can bite you if you’re not careful. Let’s now see what makes enums tick, how to use them effectively, and what to be careful of when using them.

C# List: Definition, Examples, Best Practices, and Pitfalls

May 15, 2018Carlos Schults3

Not that long ago, we published a post about the fundamentals of the C# array. Today’s post will continue the trend, covering the C# list. Don’t worry: if you’re a beginner, you’ll also benefit from this post. Instead of brushing up, you’ll get your first contact with this incredibly useful data structure. As in the array post, we’ll discuss what a list is. We’ll learn how to use it, what its most common operations are, and how to avoid some common pitfalls. With that in mind, you’re ready to see what the C# list has to offer you.

C# Array: Definition, Examples, Best Practices, and Pitfalls

April 17, 2018Justin Boyer2

So you’ve started your journey into C# development. Learning any new language or framework can be a challenging road. However, you need not despair. Allow those who have gone before you to lead the way and guide you on your journey. Today’s leg of the journey is the C# array. In this post, we’ll discuss what an array is. We’ll see how to use one in our code, and we’ll discuss how best to use it and what pitfalls can hurt your code quality.

StyleCop: A Detailed Guide to Starting and Using It

April 10, 2018Peter Morlion12

Put two developers together and they’re bound to have a discussion about coding style. No two developers write code in the exact same way. More often than not, one isn’t better than the other and it’s just a matter of taste. In a team or in a single project, it’s more important to be consistent than it is to choose the right style. Agreeing on a style can be hard enough, but enforcing it shouldn’t be something you do manually. It will be tedious and error-prone. StyleCop is a tool that can automate this. Let’s have a look at how…

Sharpen the Saw: 4 Quick Tips for Your Dev Team

March 27, 2018Carlos SchultsNo Comments

Are you familiar with the expression “sharpen the saw” in the context of learning and continuous improvement? If you’ve read Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, then I’m sure you are. For those unfamiliar with the term, it basically means to engage in practices that will make you better at your craft without necessarily involving the craft itself. What can you as a tech lead, lead developer, or software architect do to encourage the developers on your team to sharpen their saws? That’s what we’ll to answer with this post. We’ll show you four quick, easy ways your team…

C# Lambda logos illustrating C# Functional Programming

Functional Programming in C#: Map, Filter, and Reduce Your Way to Clean Code

March 13, 2018Carlos Schults7

C# is supposed to be an object-oriented language, but it’s possible that you, as a .NET/C# developer, have been using functional programming concepts without even knowing it. And that’s what today’s post is about. I’ll just first briefly cover the attractions of functional programming and why it makes sense to apply it even when using a so-called object-oriented language. Then I’ll show you how you’ve already been using some functional style in your C# code, even if you’re not aware of it. I’ll tell you how you can apply functional thinking to your code in order to make it cleaner, safer, and…

CodeIt.Right Rules Explained, Part 14

March 6, 2018Erik Dietrich1

Today, I’m doing another post in the CodeIt.Right Rules Explained series. For anyone who hasn’t seen one of these before, here’s briefly how it works. CodeIt.Right is an automated .NET code review tool, and it has a lot of rules to help you. In the posts in this series, I explain those rules in detail. Whenever I post in this series, I start with my two rules of thumb for static analysis. Never implement a suggested fix without knowing what makes it a fix. Never ignore a suggested fix without understanding what makes it a fix. As always, I’ll explain that…