Blog
Mert Özen's blog posts on software development, backend, frontend, and DevOps.
Nullable in C#: int?, string? and Managing Null by Design
Working with null in C#: Nullable<T> and int?, lifted operators that compute with null, the nullable reference types of C# 8 and their warnings, flow analysis, the ?. ?? ??= and ! operators, and rules for managing null by design.
Exception Handling in C#: try/catch/finally, throw and Your Own Exception
Exception handling in C#: try, catch and their order, cleanup with finally and using, how throw and throw ex differ in the stack trace, the when filter, writing your own exception type and using InnerException, and when to use an exception and when TryXxx.
Enums in C#: Underlying Types, [Flags], Parse and switch
The number under an enum: why (OrderStatus)7 is a valid value, why default is 0, giving values by hand, the surprises of Parse and TryParse, the CS8524 warning in switch expressions, and combinable options with [Flags].
Dates and Times in C#: DateTime, DateTimeOffset, DateOnly, TimeOnly and UTC
Why do a UTC and a local DateTime with the same numbers compare equal? The Kind problem, DateTimeOffset for pinning down a moment, TimeZoneInfo and daylight saving time, DateOnly and TimeOnly from .NET 6, Days versus TotalDays in TimeSpan, culture-aware formatting and parsing, and the store-in-UTC rule.
Files and the Console in C#: ReadLine, File, Path, Directory, using and Encoding
Why does the same text take 15 and 18 bytes? UTF-8 and the BOM, Console.ReadLine that can return null, Path.Combine versus Path.Join, one-line reads and writes with File and Directory, relative paths and the working directory, and the empty file of a StreamWriter that was never disposed.
Organizing C# Code: Namespaces, global using, Solutions and NuGet
Why do you get CS0117 when you reach an internal member from another project? The project and assembly boundary, file-scoped namespaces, global using and the generated implicit usings file, the .slnx solution of the .NET 10 SDK, references between projects, and adding a NuGet package.
Debugging in C#: Breakpoints, the Call Stack, Debug.Assert and Compiler Warnings
Why doesn't Debug.WriteLine show up in the terminal, and why does Debug.Assert vanish in Release? Debugger concepts independent of the IDE, finding an integer division bug with a watch, reading a stack trace, the anatomy of dotnet build warnings, and turning nullable warnings into errors with WarningsAsErrors.
C# Mini Project: A Console Bookstore (List, Add, Search, Save to a File)
The closing project of the C# Fundamentals series: a console Bookstore built with enums, DateOnly, nullable types, TryParse, exception filters and file I/O. Two real bugs caught on the first run (14,00 becoming 1400 and a silently deleted line), their fixes, and the bridge to the OOP series.