Rethinking the Switch Stataement with...A Dictionary? by Mike Gold On Oct 11, 2009
Sometimes its better to refactor an ugly switch statment into a more flexible pattern. The command dispatch pattern is such a pattern. Originally implemented using OO and polymorphism, the functional constructs gives you a cleaner solution.

Reversing a Dictionary in LINQ and C# by Mike Gold On Oct 06, 2009
Every once in a while you are posed with an interesting puzzle. Someone needed a dictionary reversed and this sounded just like the thing I would enjoy tackling with LINQ.

Detecting different browsers using jquery by Mike Gold On Jun 29, 2009
You can use the $.browser tag to detect different browsers in your javascript

Extending JQuery by Mike Gold On Jun 24, 2009
You can extend the jquery object yourself with the extend method and then use those methods you created as if it were any other jquery object.

Anti Pattern: Class Names with No Meaning by Mike Gold On Jun 23, 2009
The other day I came across a poorly named class. This blog leads me to my next anti-pattern and how to overcome it.

Anti Pattern: Multiple Purposes for the same method by Mike Gold On Jun 17, 2009
As I continue in my adventure of product support, I have come across some more anti-patterns that I would like to share with the community at large.

Anti Pattern: Partial filling of Objects by Mike Gold On Jun 14, 2009
A partially filled object is an object whose properties are only partially set. This is a recipe for disaster in code and should be avoided at all costs.

How To: Getting files from Team Foundation Server from the Command Line by Mike Gold On May 22, 2009
If you want to automate your day and your source control happens to be TFS, one thing you can do is execute TFS in a batch file. Here's how.

JQuery Tutorial: 3 ways to access the selection in an HTML drop down list box by Mike Gold On May 19, 2009
Because JQuery is so flexible, there are many ways to do the same thing when you read and write the DOM (Document Object Model) of the browser. This blog describes 3 ways to get the selected text from an HTML dropdown list.

Cache Busting in your JQuery ajax calls by Mike Gold On May 17, 2009
One of the problems I've run into in designing websites is that the URL of the websites are cached by the browser and this causes the information in the page to remain stale. In order to force the web page to refresh, you need to trick the browser. Here is how.

Using JQuery to Manipulate the DOM in your Browser by Mike Gold On May 14, 2009
JQuery is a powerful tool for doing awesome tricks in the browser. Through JQuery, you can change the look of your page on the fly, add animation, client side graphics and controls, and perform Ajax calls back and forth to the server. This blog talks about using JQuery to do manipulation of items on your browser page dynamically.

My thoughts on moving to ASP.NET MVC by Mike Gold On May 05, 2009
The MVC framework has recently been released, and brings great advantages to designing scalable web application for the developer. Here are some of my initial thoughts on the framework vs classic ASP.NET.

Using LINQ to convert an array from one type to another by Mike Gold On Jan 25, 2009
LINQ is a powerful tool for converting arrays to different types. Here's how to do it.

Using MVCContrib Grid in a Web 2.0 World with jquery and AJAX by Mike Gold On Nov 07, 2008
In a web 2.0 world it is not enough to keep posting the entire page back rendered to the browser. Otherwise the whole screen blinks and it looks web 1.0 ish. The following blog describes a strategy of how you can create your own "components" and populate them on a part of the page through the controller.

Passing JSON into an ASP.NET MVC Controller by Mike Gold On Oct 22, 2008
One of the limitations of the controller I had been struggling with was how to pass JSON back to the controller inside of MVC. Here is how.

Any Authors interested in Writing a Silverlight Book? by Mike Gold On Sep 22, 2008
C# Corner is gauging interest in a community driven book for Microsoft's latest Silverlight 2.0 beta technology. If you are interested in writing (or even reading this book) please comment below.

How to use the FilterExpression in your GridView by Mike Gold On Sep 19, 2008
FilterExpression is a property of the SqlDataSource that allows you to filter data in the GridView quickly. Unfortunatley it doesn't maintain its value very well on post backs. The code below will show you how to remedy this problem

How to access a DropDownList in the GridView row programmatically in the RowDataBound event handler by Mike Gold On Sep 19, 2008
this blog tells you how to access a DropDownList control programmatically in the RowDataBound event handler which occurs for each row as its bound to the database.

How To Make Sure the Silverlight App Gets Keyboard focus by Mike Gold On Sep 02, 2008
After playing with silverlight for a while, I found that the Focus method did not work very well to give the silverlight app focus for keyboard input. You can use a trick in javascript to make sure that the silverlight control has focus to begin with. Then later use the Focus method inside your XAML code behind.

How To: Speeding up adding nodes to a Treeview by Mike Gold On Aug 06, 2008
Not sure if others have experienced this, but if you try to add a lot of nodes to a treeview, the program will progessively slow down with the addition of each node. Here is how to solve the problem.

How To: Getting strings from the resx file of your form by Mike Gold On Jul 16, 2008
resx files are useful for creating window forms that can be multilingual. This blog tells you how to use the resourcemanager to get strings from your form's resx file using managed C++.

Doing OO in F# : Defining an F# Class by Mike Gold On Jun 08, 2008
Although very much a functional language, F# provides us with object-oriented mechanisms such as classes, inheritance, and encapsulation. The sample below illustrates all three

Problem with DataBinding and Custom Formatters by Mike Gold On Jun 05, 2008
Has anyone else been able to get this to work properly? It seems the only way is to implement custom formatting in a databound control is to use the Format event. Here is my sample code and how to overcome the problem.

Language-Oriented Programming: Inventing your own languages in F# by Mike Gold On Jun 03, 2008
Using cool features like discriminating unions, you can pretty much invent your own language structures in F#.

Getting Prime Numbers up to 1,000,000 using F# by Mike Gold On May 05, 2008
A while ago, I wrote a blog on using C# and LINQ to obtain all prime numbers up to 1,000,000. In this blog we'll show you the equivalent code in C# without using LINQ.