What is the best resource for learning C#?

[Phenomenal]

I have been trying to learn C# recently however I can't find any great comprehensive guide that will teach me most of what I need to know so I am looking for suggestions of things such as videos or text guides that will teach me most of the things I need to know, any help would be appreciated  

[panda]

There really isn't a comprehensive guide? Like languages used for communication, there are comprehensive grammar and syntax guides, but ultimately if you want to learn to understand and speak you need to learn vocabulary for what you want to say.

 

There's no comprehensive vocabulary guide for programming languages (outside of syntactical vocabulary), since it differs based on the libraries you are using. You need to learn base C# and LINQ syntax, both of which are best learned through using them while learning. Then there's an even more complex and not-comprehensively-covered-in-a-single-source, that being algorithms, design patterns and so forth.

 

Given that you didn't specify a target for what you're trying to use C# for, all I can do is suggest to you once again, MSDN. It has all of the syntax information for base C# and LINQ, with plenty of examples. If you want something more specific you're going to have to name it.

[Phenomenal]

@SPQR Panda Okay, I'll check out the MSDN and try to do a bunch of tasks and projects and things and learn that way  

[Kibbelz]

The way how i self taught myself to program was actually making projects that i wanted to do. In my case it was making a game with eclipse starting out with small features gradually working onto larger features. This taught me the fundamentals like loops, if statements and loops (you may already know this but when I was 11 years old I didn't :P). From there i branched out into more complex things once I was more comfortable. Moving onto more languages with different projects in mind i essentially self taught myself the basic syntax differences and used good old google to help reinforce my knowledge and learn how to use different libraries and commands needed to complete the task in hand. I personally don't think sites like code academy and doing little tutorials on the internet teach you how to code. I think the easiest way to do it is to have an end goal - a fully functional game in mind. Then when you're old enough, start taking computer science courses at your school to learn good programming techniques rather than just hacking your way through things . Most A-levels offer a comp science course since you're also from the UK. If you feel you want to take it further, I suggest taking it at degree level (which is what i'm currently in the process of doing )

 

TLDR: There is no tutorial to just "learn coding", have the drive and goal of wanting to learn and make a project and you can easily be as "good" as myself, panda and even JC who also self taught from eclipse . Maybe you'll be the next Intersect dev in 5 years? Who knows...

[Phenomenal]

@Kibbelz That's the thing though I know how it all works it's just kind of about the syntax and C#'s quirks now however I am already kind of getting the hand of it just from working on things like you suggested, panda's advice of just doing stuff to learn has already been extremely helpful so now I think it's just a matter of time, as for the future since computers are just about the only thing I'm good at some kind of computing degree will definitely be on my list 

 

[SonicMicro234]

Learn from open source. Its one of the few best ways to understand a programming language.

[Hanox]

Open source, but if you want to follow some video guides, I recommend Pluralsight. They take you from zero to hero quickly and easy. You have to pay for it though.

[jcsnider]

This is how I got started with C#:

http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-US/education/tutorial/2dgame/getting_started

 

Keep in mind I had extensive VB experience at that point in time.  Also keep in mind that XNA is dead but I think you can still download everything required and do that tutorial.  You get a working game in a little over 2 hours and it is really super simple. You can then start tweaking that to learn. With such a small codebase it is a lot easier to navigate in that shooter game as opposed to something massive (like Intersect)

[SonicMicro234]

Yes but making a game with dead libraries is not a functional way of learning something for a future use in a project. Learning yes. Productivity....no. I believe productivity is the only end goal on this site......Am I right.....no?

[jcsnider]

Learning is productive. I'd rather someone walk away from here learning something relevant (c#) that they can use later in life or in a future career even if they have nothing to show for it as opposed to finishing a hobby project in a language that the rest of the world considers dead that won't help them in the future. 

 

The XNA library is dead. C# isn't. He would get a nice intro to C# (and it's game dev so it's interesting) and then transitioning to MonoGame which was built to resemble XNA would be easy.