How does multi-threading work in .NET?
There are two main ways of multi-threading which .NET encourages:
To start your own threads with ThreadStart delegates, you should create a new thread "manually" for long-running tasks.
Using the ThreadPool class either directly (using ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem) or indirectly using asynchronous methods (such as Stream.BeginRead, or calling BeginInvoke on any delegate).
Use the thread pool only for brief jobs.
Benefits of using the Thread Pool.
Benefits of using the Thread Pool.
The benefits of using a Thread Pool are:
Thread creation and destruction overhead is negated,
Better performance and better system stability.
It is better to use a thread pool in cases where the number of threads is very large.
Whats the difference betweeen Structure, Class and Enumeration
Structures and Enumerations are Value-Types. This means, the data that they contain is stored as a stack on the memory. Classes are Reference-Types, means they are stored as a heap on the memory.
Structures are implicitly derived from a class called System.ValueType. The purpose of System.ValueType is to override the virtual methods defined by System.Object. So when the runtime encounters a type derived from System.ValueType, then stack allocation is achieved. When we allocate a structure type, we may also use the new keyword. We may even make a constructor of a structure, but, remember, A No-argument constructor for a structure is not possible. The structure's constructor should always have a parameter.
So if we define the following structure
struct MyStruct
{
public int y,z;
}
and we create a structure type
MyStruct st = new MyStruct();
In case of a class, no-argument constructors are possible. Class is defined using the class keyword.
A struct cannot have an instance field, whereas a class can.
class A
{
int x = 5; //No error
...
}
struct
{
int x = 5; //Syntax Error
}
A class can inherit from one class (Multiple inheritance not possible). A Structure cannot inherit from a structure.
Enum is the keyword used to define an enumeration. An enumeration is a distinct type consisting of a set of named constants called the enumerator list. Every enumeration has an underlying type. The default type is "int". Note: char cant be the underlying data type for enum. First value in enum has value 0, each consequent item is increased by 1.
enum colors {red, green, blue, yellow};
Here, red is 0, green is 1, blue is 2 and so on.
An explicit casting is required to convert an enum value to its underlying type
int x = (int)colors.yellow;
What is the difference between Shared and Static?
They both mean the same. Shared is used in VB.NET. Static is used in C#.
When the static keyword is used to declare a class, the member in context must be directly invoked from the class, rather than from the instance. Consider the following example
//Consider writing the following line of code...
Console obj = new Console();
obj.Writeline("Vishal likes static members"); //This line does'nt print
//This does'nt work, because WriteLine is a static method defined in the class Console
//The Console class is a static class
To use static members, give a reference to the exact class, as an instance in this case won't work.
To make this work, write...
Console.Writeline("Vishal likes static members");
To work with members of static classes, no need to create their instances.
Static Member - A class member declared with the keyword static is a static member. A static member is owned by the class, not by its instances (objects of the class).
Note that static members are actually class members, while non-static members are instance members (means they are owned by the instances). Both in C# & VB.NET, we may create static/shared events, properties, fields and functions.
Note Indexers in C# cannot be declared static.
Note Static member functions cannot access non-static members directly.
Questions on XSLT and xPath in .NET
Define XSLT.
XSLT language is used for transforming XML documents into XHTML documents. It also transforms XML into another XML document.
What is XPATH?
XPath is a language that is used to navigate through XML documents.It can find information in an XML document like elements and attributes.
Define XMLReader Class.
The XMLReader Class (Assembly: System.Xml.dll) represents a reader that provides fast, non-cached, forward-only access to XML data.
Define XMLValidatingReader class.
The XMLValidatingReader class (Assembly: System.Xml.dll) represents a reader that provides:
- Document type definition (DTD),
- XML-Data Reduced (XDR) schema, and
- XML Schema definition language (XSD) validation
.NET interview: What is a CLR (Common Language Runtime)?
Often there is a need for different languages to communicate with each other at run time. For e.g. A class may be written in one language and its derived class may be written in a different language. Common Language Runtime is a run time environment for .NET. These different languages are integrated and can communicate easily because language compilers and tools that target the runtime use a common type system defined by the runtime.
Features or Functionalities offered by CLR:-
- Garbage collection for managing life of objects.
- Enables Cross language inheritance as explained in example above.
- Syntax and keywords similar to C and C++
ASP .NET Interview Questions, Part 1
1. Describe the role of inetinfo.exe, aspnet_isapi.dll andaspnet_wp.exe in the page loading process. inetinfo.exe is theMicrosoft IIS server running, handling ASP.NET requests among other things.When an ASP.NET request is received (usually a file with .aspx extension),the ISAPI filter aspnet_isapi.dll takes care of it by passing the request tothe actual worker process aspnet_wp.exe.
2. What’s the difference between Response.Write() andResponse.Output.Write()? The latter one allows you to write formattedoutput.
3. What methods are fired during the page load? Init() – when the pageis instantiated, Load() – when the page is loaded into server memory,PreRender() – the brief moment before the page is displayed to the user asHTML, Unload() – when page finishes loading.
4. Where does the Web page belong in the .NET Framework class hierarchy?System.Web.UI.Page
5. Where do you store the information about the user’s locale? System.Web.UI.Page.Culture
6. What’s the difference between Codebehind=”MyCode.aspx.cs” andSrc=”MyCode.aspx.cs”? CodeBehind is relevant to Visual Studio.NET only.
7. What’s a bubbled event? When you have a complex control, like DataGrid, writing an event processing routine for each object (cell, button, row, etc.) is quite tedious. The controls can bubble up their eventhandlers, allowing the main DataGrid event handler to take care of its constituents.
8. Suppose you want a certain ASP.NET function executed on MouseOver overa certain button. Where do you add an event handler? It’s the Attributesproperty, the Add function inside that property. So btnSubmit.Attributes.Add(“onMouseOver”,”someClientCode();”)
9. What data type does the RangeValidator control support? Integer,String and Date.
10. Explain the differences between Server-side and Client-side code? Server-side code runs on the server. Client-side code runs in the clients’ browser.
11. What type of code (server or client) is found in a Code-Behind class? Server-side code.
12. Should validation (did the user enter a real date) occur server-side or client-side? Why? Client-side. This reduces an additional request to the server to validate the users input.
13. What does the “EnableViewState” property do? Why would I want it on or off? It enables the viewstate on the page. It allows the page to save the users input on a form.
14. What is the difference between Server.Transfer and Response.Redirect? Why would I choose one over the other? Server.Transfer is used to post a form to another page. Response.Redirect is used to redirect the user to another page or site.
15. Can you explain the difference between an ADO.NET Dataset and an ADO Recordset?
· A DataSet can represent an entire relational database in memory, complete with tables, relations, and views.
· A DataSet is designed to work without any continuing connection to the original data source.
· Data in a DataSet is bulk-loaded, rather than being loaded on demand.
· There’s no concept of cursor types in a DataSet.
· DataSets have no current record pointer You can use For Each loops to move through the data.
· You can store many edits in a DataSet, and write them to the original data source in a single operation.
· Though the DataSet is universal, other objects in ADO.NET come in different versions for different data sources.
16. Can you give an example of what might be best suited to place in the Application_Start and Session_Start subroutines? This is where you can set the specific variables for the Application and Session objects.
17. If I’m developing an application that must accommodate multiple security levels though secure login and my ASP.NET web application is spanned across three web-servers (using round-robin load balancing) what would be the best approach to maintain login-in state for the users? Maintain the login state security through a database.
18. Can you explain what inheritance is and an example of when you might use it? When you want to inherit (use the functionality of) another class. Base Class Employee. A Manager class could be derived from the Employee base class.
C# Interview Questions, Part 2
21. What’s the difference between an interface and abstract class? In the interface all methods must be abstract; in the abstract class some methods can be concrete. In the interface no accessibility modifiers are allowed, which is ok in abstract classes.
22. How can you overload a method? Different parameter data types, different number of parameters, different order of parameters.
23. If a base class has a bunch of overloaded constructors, and an inherited class has another bunch of overloaded constructors, can you enforce a call from an inherited constructor to an arbitrary base constructor? Yes, just place a colon, and then keyword base (parameter list to invoke the appropriate constructor) in the overloaded constructor definition inside the inherited class.
24. What’s the difference between System.String and System.StringBuilder classes? System.String is immutable; System.StringBuilder was designed with the purpose of having a mutable string where a variety of operations can be performed.
25. What’s the advantage of using System.Text.StringBuilder over System.String? StringBuilder is more efficient in the cases, where a lot of manipulation is done to the text. Strings are immutable, so each time it’s being operated on, a new instance is created.
26. Can you store multiple data types in System.Array? No.
27. What’s the difference between the System.Array.CopyTo() and System.Array.Clone()? The first one performs a deep copy of the array, the second one is shallow.
28. How can you sort the elements of the array in descending order? By calling Sort() and then Reverse() methods.
29. What’s the .NET datatype that allows the retrieval of data by a unique key? HashTable.
30. What’s class SortedList underneath? A sorted HashTable.
31. Will finally block get executed if the exception had not occurred? Yes.
32. What’s the C# equivalent of C++ catch (…), which was a catch-all statement for any possible exception? A catch block that catches the exception of type System.Exception. You can also omit the parameter data type in this case and just write catch {}.
33. Can multiple catch blocks be executed? No, once the proper catch code fires off, the control is transferred to the finally block (if there are any), and then whatever follows the finally block.
34. Why is it a bad idea to throw your own exceptions? Well, if at that point you know that an error has occurred, then why not write the proper code to handle that error instead of passing a new Exception object to the catch block? Throwing your own exceptions signifies some design flaws in the project.
35. What’s a delegate? A delegate object encapsulates a reference to a method. In C++ they were referred to as function pointers.
36. What’s a multicast delegate? It’s a delegate that points to and eventually fires off several methods.
37. How’s the DLL Hell problem solved in .NET? Assembly versioning allows the application to specify not only the library it needs to run (which was available under Win32), but also the version of the assembly.
38. What are the ways to deploy an assembly? An MSI installer, a CAB archive, and XCOPY command.
39. What’s a satellite assembly? When you write a multilingual or multi-cultural application in .NET, and want to distribute the core application separately from the localized modules, the localized assemblies that modify the core application are called satellite assemblies.
40. What namespaces are necessary to create a localized application? System.Globalization, System.Resources.
C# Interview Questions, Part 3
41. What’s the difference between // comments, /* */ comments and /// comments? Single-line, multi-line and XML documentation comments.
42. How do you generate documentation from the C# file commented properly with a command-line compiler? Compile it with a /doc switch.
43. What’s the difference between and XML documentation tag? Single line code example and multiple-line code example.
44. Is XML case-sensitive? Yes, so and are different elements.
45. What debugging tools come with the .NET SDK? CorDBG – command-line debugger, and DbgCLR – graphic debugger. Visual Studio .NET uses the DbgCLR. To use CorDbg, you must compile the original C# file using the /debug switch.
46. What does the This window show in the debugger? It points to the object that’s pointed to by this reference. Object’s instance data is shown.
47. What does assert() do? In debug compilation, assert takes in a Boolean condition as a parameter, and shows the error dialog if the condition is false. The program proceeds without any interruption if the condition is true.
48. What’s the difference between the Debug class and Trace class? Documentation looks the same. Use Debug class for debug builds, use Trace class for both debug and release builds.
49. Why are there five tracing levels in System.Diagnostics.TraceSwitcher? The tracing dumps can be quite verbose and for some applications that are constantly running you run the risk of overloading the machine and the hard drive there. Five levels range from None to Verbose, allowing to fine-tune the tracing activities.
50. Where is the output of TextWriterTraceListener redirected? To the Console or a text file depending on the parameter passed to the constructor.
51. How do you debug an ASP.NET Web application? Attach the aspnet_wp.exe process to the DbgClr debugger.
52. What are three test cases you should go through in unit testing? Positive test cases (correct data, correct output), negative test cases (broken or missing data, proper handling), exception test cases (exceptions are thrown and caught properly).
53. Can you change the value of a variable while debugging a C# application? Yes, if you are debugging via Visual Studio.NET, just go to Immediate window.
54. Explain the three services model (three-tier application). Presentation (UI), business (logic and underlying code) and data (from storage or other sources).
55. What are advantages and disadvantages of Microsoft-provided data provider classes in ADO.NET? SQLServer.NET data provider is high-speed and robust, but requires SQL Server license purchased from Microsoft. OLE-DB.NET is universal for accessing other sources, like Oracle, DB2, Microsoft Access and Informix, but it’s a .NET layer on top of OLE layer, so not the fastest thing in the world. ODBC.NET is a deprecated layer provided for backward compatibility to ODBC engines.
56. What’s the role of the DataReader class in ADO.NET connections? It returns a read-only dataset from the data source when the command is executed.
57. What is the wildcard character in SQL? Let’s say you want to query database with LIKE for all employees whose name starts with La. The wildcard character is %, the proper query with LIKE would involve ‘La%’.
58. Explain ACID rule of thumb for transactions. Transaction must be Atomic (it is one unit of work and does not dependent on previous and following transactions), Consistent (data is either committed or roll back, no “in-between” case where something has been updated and something hasn’t), Isolated (no transaction sees the intermediate results of the current transaction), Durable (the values persist if the data had been committed even if the system crashes right after).
59. What connections does Microsoft SQL Server support? Windows Authentication (via Active Directory) and SQL Server authentication (via Microsoft SQL Server username and passwords).
60. Which one is trusted and which one is untrusted? Windows Authentication is trusted because the username and password are checked with the Active Directory, the SQL Server authentication is untrusted, since SQL Server is the only verifier participating in the transaction.
61. Why would you use untrusted verificaion? Web Services might use it, as well as non-Windows applications.
62. What does the parameter Initial Catalog define inside Connection String? The database name to connect to.
63. What’s the data provider name to connect to Access database? Microsoft.Access.
64. What does Dispose method do with the connection object? Deletes it from the memory.
65. What is a pre-requisite for connection pooling? Multiple processes must agree that they will share the same connection, where every parameter is the same, including the security settings.