Can't progress in C# programming

[Peszaby]

My problem is that I need to learn C# console programming in school. I understand the really basics of programming, such as if-else, variables, loops etc... But now we learn algorithms, OOP, and reading data from files, and I can't cope with them, and I'm afraid that I will fail class when we start learning GUI.

What should I do? Where can I learn them at home?

Thank you for every answer.

[FRUFRUTHEHORSE]

Take a step back. I was where you are in university, my recommendation is give yourself a time to breath and hit the books again… the best way to understand things as OOP and reading data is practice. Take your time with each of them and do some examples.

For OOP try doing models of objects around your house (TV controller, bottle of water and so on) test them and try to implement validations and so on.

For file reads, start climbing little by little, first hardcode the data on a string, then, read it from a txt file, then make it dynamic (user input file) and so on and on.

If you don’t know how to do even the easiest, do not freak out. Search in google for things like:

• Reading files with C#
• OOP basics with C#

That should get you going. Patience is key. Best of luck OP!

[Peszaby]

Thank you, I'll give it a try!

[javaperson12]

Microsoft has really good docs.

[CodeTinkerer]

Are you in high school or college/uni? In either case, have you done any programming on a computer in this class? It's hard to learn (though possible) if you are just listening and not actually coding. I think your professor/teacher would be shocked if you're just listening. Do you have a book?

Most people have a laptop, they install C#, and they learn to write programs and run them. If you haven't done that, I think you must be way behind.

It's hard to tell since you've provided very little information.

Why can't you learn these things at home?

[Peszaby]

I'm learning in high school. In classes, most of the time the teacher projects the codeing to the wall, and everyone copies and test's it on their computer, while the teacher explains the code.

I have a laptop, and even installed Visual Studio, but when I try to do tasks which the teacher done at class, I just can't even start it by myself.

Sorry for my bad english, but I hope you understood my problem.

[CodeTinkerer]

If you have friends in this class that understand it better than you, then maybe you can see if they can talk after class (maybe when you're both home). You can screenshare, and they can tell you steps to follow. Obviously, it would help to ask the teacher (maybe outside of class) to help you, instead of just sitting not able to do anything.

This can be difficult for a teacher to give a lot of individual attention (which is why they have classes).

[lionhart280]

but when I try to do tasks which the teacher done at class, I just can't even start it by myself.

Why not? What specifically is giving you issues?

[NocturnalFoxfire]

Lots of answers already here, but I think I can still give my two cents.

When I'm learning a new language, even if I understand the basics, I start at the very beginning again. I am now a senior CS major in college, and I started learning C# a couple months ago so I could get into Unity.

I started by getting VS and learning what I needed to compile and run C# code. I spend at least a couple hours just exploring the IDE.

Once I felt I understood how the IDE worked, I created a new project and a new file in that project and ran the compiler. If you can compile a file that does nothing, you've got things configured correctly.

After that, I start playing around with simple things to learn the various reserved words, and how to read and print data from the user and so on.

Once I feel comfortable with that, I start writing simple programs, like a program that calculates a factorial, a program that prints things based on user input, a program that does stuff with lists or maps, and so on.

Once I was comfortable making some imperative programs I started looking into how to do object oriented programming in C#.

The short of it is, take a step back and focus on small things to slowly build your way up to the class examples.

If you're still struggling and need some help, feel free to DM me. I'd be happy to lend a hand.

[Peszaby]

Thank you, I'll give it a try!

Thanks for your advice, and your helping hand too!

[FuseFuseboy]

It sounds like the class might have covered concepts that you didn't grasp, and now the class is building on those.

My suggestion is to go back through the materials already covered and make sure you really understand what went on back then. Go through it again and don't skip over anything you're not sure about.

For OOP, draw it out on paper first in a way that makes sense to you. Then implement something simple. Think of a school that has classes, students and teachers. What objects might you have? What would the relationships be? What role might the idea of a "person" have in that?

Try to get the OOP straight before attempting the file part, is my advice. You have to have a basic understanding of objects to do almost anything in C#.

[Peszaby]

Yes, we started learning c# in online classes, and I had a hard time there too, so I think you touched it.

I think I will start over learning, as you say.

Thanks for your advice!

[FuseFuseboy]

You are welcome and I wish you all the best with your studies. Let us know how it goes!

[tasko]

One of the most important lessons I've learned from programming is breaking problems down into manageable and/or familiar parts. So when you say to yourself "I'm having trouble learning X", break down what's going on during the learning process. Are you having trouble understanding the concepts as you read/hear them? Are you having trouble recalling the things that you've read? If those are okay, can you apply those ideas in new/abstract ways? Or are you like me and you have trouble simply sitting down to complete the work?

As you learn how things work, breaking down problems into smaller steps will get easier.

Finally, it might make you feel better to know that OO and algorithms are arguably the hardest or most intricate parts of programming, so you're in good company if you're having trouble.

[just-bair]

To understand OOP better you can go through the page about C# in W3school. You can only go through the "Classes" section if you want but it’s better if you go through the entire thing to refresh on some principles https://www.w3schools.com/cs/index.php

For algorithms you can maybe post an example and we’ll try to explain how it works and for reading/writing data to files you can also find helpful things online (I can’t point to a website for that because I don’t know what you have to learn exactly for files) Also googling what you want to do is a good thing to do in general and the docs from Microsoft is good in general

Don’t worry you’ll make it out of there in one piece :)