Received Microsoft Community Contributor (MCC) Badge for the First Time!

Today I just noticed that I have received the Microsoft Community Contributor (MCC) badge for the first time and Thank you Microsoft!

Microsoft Community Contributor

And if you want to become one, read the following to know how.

MICROSOFT COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTOR (MCC)

PROCESS: Microsoft automatically reviews the contributions of participants who offer their time and energy to online technical communities such as Microsoft Answers/Community, MSDN, and TechNet to identify those who make notable contributions for possible recognition as a Microsoft Community Contributor. Microsoft employees cannot become MCCs, but MVPs can become MCCs. MCC is an automatic reward (nobody can help you win it by nominating you). 

REWARD: The reward is a "small benefit": the award status in your profile on the online community (MSDN, TechNet, etc.) and your name on a list of MCC award recipients. The MCC badge ends after ninety days (three months) from the date found within the welcome email.

Tips to becoming an MCC (based on the FAQ)

1) Make an impact in the community, using tools like TechNet and MSDN Forums. Maintain quality and quantity in your contributions.
2) Rule the Forums. Find a technology's forum (on MSDN or TechNet) where there's a huge need for moderation and answerers. Become an expert in that technology. Then answer a ton of questions with quality answers, propose a lot of answers (especially ones that aren't from you), and then request to be made an Answerer or Moderator. See How to Become an MSDN or TechNet Forum Moderator. Try to get a lot of quality answers completed.
NOTE: This award is based on your contributions in the last 3 months. In other words, if you just started one week ago, you'll need to continue your efforts for a few more months.
NOTE: MCC is an automatic reward (nobody can help you win it by nominating you).

For more information,

   How to Become an MVP or MCC

Happy Coding.

Regards,
Jaliya

Visual C# Technical Guru - July 2015

Another month as a judge in Microsoft TechNet Guru Awards under Visual C# category.

The TechNet Guru Awards celebrate the technical articles on Microsoft TechNet.

Post in WikiNinjas Official Blog,

http://blogs.technet.com/b/wikininjas/archive/2015/08/18/the-microsoft-technet-guru-awards-july-2015.aspx

Visual C# Technical Guru - July 2015

Happy Coding.

Regards,
Jaliya

C# : String vs. string

I have seen this confusion over and over, and thought of writing a post about it. Basically String and string are both the same. If you go to definition (F12) on String or string, you will see that you will be navigated to the same String class. string is an alias for System.String.

So now you must be thinking, if these two are similar, when should we use String or string. Again there is no strict rule for which to use, but as a practice we are maintaining following standards. If you are using the string type for a variable, use string. If you accessing String classes' methods, then use String.

Let me show you what I mean.

class Program

{

    static void Main(string[] args)

    {

        string value1 = System.String.Empty;

        string value2 = System.String.Format("{0} {1}", "Hello", "World");

        string value3 = System.String.Concat("Hello", " ", "World");

        if (System.String.IsNullOrEmpty(value1))

        { 

            // some implementation

        }

        // etc.

    }

}

class String

{

}

Above code will be compiling fine. But it’s good to note one important thing. string is a reserved keyword and String is yet another class. So theoretically there is nothing wrong having an another class named String in your project. But that is highly unlikely.

Hope this helps.

Happy Coding.

Regards,
Jaliya