Develop Reference

Is there a simpler way to return fields from static function?

I often want to parse a string into various bits and have a readable way to return them.
I like this approach, but it involves creating a specific class
long orderID = Utils.UnTradeIdent(tradeIdent).OrderID;
In Utils.cs:
public class TradeIdentData
{
public string AccountIdent;
public long OrderID;
public string SubID;
}
public static TradeIdentData UnTradeIdent(string tradeIdent)
{
TradeIdentData tradeIdentData = new TradeIdentData();
var parts = tradeIdent.Split('!');
tradeIdentData.AccountIdent = parts[0];
if (parts[1].Contains("."))
{
var bits = parts[1].Split('.');
tradeIdentData.OrderID = long.Parse(bits[1]);
tradeIdentData.SubID = bits[1];
}
else
{
tradeIdentData.OrderID = long.Parse(parts[1]);
tradeIdentData.SubID = "";
}
return tradeIdentData;
}

A separate class with well-named properties (which you are already using) is currently the most readable way of doing this.
In C# 7 you will be able to use tuples for return values, like so:
public static (string AccountIdent, string OrderID, string SubID) UnTradeIdent(string tradeIdent)
{
string accountIdent, orderID, subID ;
... Code to initialise accountIdent, orderID and subID appropriately ...
// Now return the data as a tuple:
return (accountIdent, orderID, subID);
}
You can consume this as follows:
long orderID = Utils.UnTradeIdent(tradeIdent).OrderID;
Or if you want all the values:
var result = Utils.UnTradeIdent(tradeIdent);
// Use result.OrderId, result.SubID or result.AccountIdent
This is not going to be available until some time next year, though.
Also, even though this new tuple support makes it more convenient to WRITE the code, it doesn't let you document it using XML comments as well. Spending the time to write a simple and well-documented class will still often be better than using the new C# 7 tuple support.
See here for more details.

You can also use the out keyword to pass arguments by reference, see MSDN article out (C# Reference):
public static void UnTradeIdent(string tradeIdent, out string AccountIdent, out long OrderID, out string SubID)
{
var parts = tradeIdent.Split('!');
AccountIdent = parts[0];
if (parts[1].Contains("."))
{
var bits = parts[1].Split('.');
OrderID = long.Parse(bits[1]);
SubID = bits[1];
}
else
{
OrderID = long.Parse(parts[1]);
SubID = "";
}
}
UPDATED with suggestion from comments:
public static bool UnTradeIdent(string tradeIdent, out string AccountIdent, out long OrderID, out string SubID)
{
bool result = false;
AccountIdent = "";
OrderID = 0;
SubID = "";
try
{
var parts = tradeIdent.Split('!');
AccountIdent = parts[0];
if (parts[1].Contains("."))
{
var bits = parts[1].Split('.');
OrderID = long.Parse(bits[1]);
SubID = bits[1];
}
else
{
OrderID = long.Parse(parts[1]);
SubID = "";
}
}
catch(ArgumentNullException ane)
{
// Handle parsing exception
}
catch (FormatException fe)
{
// Handle parsing exception
}
catch (OverflowException oe)
{
// Handle parsing exception
}
return result;
}

Its pretty simple to do just by changing the return type to dynamic and using an anonymous class
public static dynamic UnTradeIdent(string tradeIdent)
{
var value1 = //parselogic
var value2 = //parselogic
return new { Identity = value1, Item2 = value2};
}

I would consider making additional static methods. Your current implementation is cleaner when you require all of the returned properties, but something like below might be appropriate when you only need one of them.
public static string TradeIdentToAccountIdent(string tradeIdent)
{
var parts = tradeIdent.Split('!');
return parts[0];
}
public static long TradeIdentToOrderID(string tradeIdent)
{
var parts = tradeIdent.Split('!');
if (parts[1].Contains("."))
{
var bits = parts[1].Split('.');
return long.Parse(bits[1]); // Taken from your example, should probably be bits[0]?
}
else
return long.Parse(parts[1]);
}
// My own take on it this time, you could obviously use your logic as well.
public static string TradeIdentToSubID(string tradeIdent)
{
var order = tradeIdent.Split('!')[1];
if (order.Contains("."))
return order.Split('.')[1];
else
return String.Empty;
}

Retrieve a Customized String Value

Goal:
Retrieve a string value that is "1_2_3" om the code myListAnimals. In the future, the value can be random.
I need to add a "_" between numbers.
Problem:
I don't know how to do it by using LINQ?
public class Animal
{
private void int _number;
private void string _name;
private bool display;
public int Number
{
get { return _number;}
set { _number = value; }
}
public int Name
{
get { return _name;
set { _name = value; }
}
public bool Display
{
get { return display;
set { display = value; }
}
}
List<Animal> myListAnimal = new List<Animal>
Animal myAnimal = new List<Animal>
myAnimal.Number = 1;
myAnimal.Name = "Dog";
myAnimal.Display = True;
myAnimals.add(myAnimal )
Animal myAnimal2 = new List<Animal>
myAnimal2.Number = 2;
myAnimal2.Name = "Cat";
myAnimal2.Display = True;
myAnimals.add(myAnimal2)
Animal myAnimal3 = new List<Animal>
myAnimal3.Number = 3;
myAnimal3.Name = "Pig";
myAnimal3.Display = True;
myAnimals.add(myAnimal3)
Animal myAnimal4 = new List<Animal>
myAnimal4.Number = 4;
myAnimal4.Name = "Sheep";
myAnimal4.Display = false;
myAnimals.add(myAnimal4)

Note: Your code sample isn't valid C#. I assume that you can fix that (it's pretty simple basic changes that need to be made). That said:
Yes, you can use LINQ to concatenate strings, which is ultimately what you're doing.
var concat = myListAnimal
.Where(a => a.Display)
.Select(a => a.Number.ToString())
.Aggregate((current, next) => current + "_" + next);
Console.WriteLine(concat);
Would output with your data:
1_2_3
Where() filters the values where Display != true
Select() projects the number values to a sequence of strings
and Aggregate() does the concatenation.

your code is not valid. First fix it and try this.
var concat =string.Join("_", myListAnimal.Select(a => a.Number).ToArray());

Try using StringBuilder and ForEach extension method.
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
myAnimals.ForEach(x=> sb.AppendFormat("{0}_",x.Number));

Read values from a non-delimited string into class object

I have a string with the following structure:
Student Name________AgeAddress_______________________Bithday___Lvl
Example:
Jonh Smith 016Some place in NY, USA 01/01/2014L01
As you can see, there is no delimited character like | or ,
Also, there is no space between fields (if you check, there is no space between Age/Address and Birthday/Level.
The size of each field is static so if data's length is less then it will contains white spaces.
I have a class that need to be filled with that information:
public class StudentData
{
public char[] _name = new char[20];
public string name;
public char[] _age = new char[3];
public string age;
public char[] _address = new char[30];
public string address;
public char[] _bday = new char[10];
public string bday;
public char[] _level = new char[3];
public string level;
}
Is there any way to do this automatically and dynamically?
I mean I really don't want to code like this:
myClass.name = stringLine.substring(0,19);
myClass.age = stringLine.substring(20,22);
That's because I have way more fields that the ones added in this example & way more string lines with other different data.
Update: There were supposed to be a lot of spaces between "Smith" and "016", but I don't know how to edit it.
Update2: If I use StringReader.Read() I can evade to use substring and indexes, but it isn't still so dynamically because I would need to repeat those 3 lines for each field.
StringReader reader = new StringReader(stringLine);
reader.Read(myClass._name, 0 myClass._name.Length);
myClass.name = new string(myClass._name);

Given your requirement I came up with an interesting solution. All be-it it may be more complex and longer than using the String.SubString() method as stated.
However this solution is transferable to other types and other string. I used a concept of Attributes, Properties, and Reflection to parse a string by a Fixed Length and setting the class Properties.
Note I did change your StudentData class to follow a more conventional coding style. Following this handy guide on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xzf533w0(v=vs.71).aspx
Here is the new StudentData class. Note it uses the properties as opposed to fields. (Not discussed here).
public class StudentData
{
string name;
string age;
string address;
string bday;
string level;
[FixedLengthDelimeter(0, 20)]
public string Name { get { return this.name; } set { this.name = value; } }
[FixedLengthDelimeter(1, 3)]
public string Age { get { return this.age; } set { this.age = value; } }
[FixedLengthDelimeter(2, 30)]
public string Address { get { return this.address; } set { this.address = value; } }
[FixedLengthDelimeter(3, 10)]
public string BDay { get { return this.bday; } set { this.bday = value; } }
[FixedLengthDelimeter(4, 3)]
public string Level { get { return this.level; } set { this.level = value; } }
}
Note on each of the properties there is an Attribute called FixedLengthDelimeter that takes two parameters.
OrderNumber
FixedLength
The OrderNumber parameter denotes the order in the string (not the position) but the order in which we process from the string. The second parameter denotes the Length of the string when parsing the string. Here is the full attribute class.
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Property, AllowMultiple = false)]
public sealed class FixedLengthDelimeterAttribute : Attribute
{
public FixedLengthDelimeterAttribute(int orderNumber, int fixedLength)
{
this.fixedLength = fixedLength;
this.orderNumber = orderNumber;
}
readonly int fixedLength;
readonly int orderNumber;
public int FixedLength { get { return this.fixedLength; } }
public int OrderNumber { get { return this.orderNumber; } }
}
Now the attribute is simple enough. Accepts the two paramters we discussed eariler in the constructor.
Finally there is another method to parse the string into the object type such as.
public static class FixedLengthFormatter
{
public static T ParseString<T>(string inputString)
{
Type tType = typeof(T);
var properties = tType.GetProperties(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public); //;.Where(x => x.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(FixedLengthDelimeterAttribute), false).Count() > 0);
T newT = (T)Activator.CreateInstance(tType);
Dictionary<PropertyInfo, FixedLengthDelimeterAttribute> dictionary = new Dictionary<PropertyInfo, FixedLengthDelimeterAttribute>();
foreach (var property in properties)
{
var atts = property.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(FixedLengthDelimeterAttribute), false);
if (atts.Length == 0)
continue;
dictionary[property] = atts[0] as FixedLengthDelimeterAttribute;
}
foreach (var kvp in dictionary.OrderBy(x => x.Value.OrderNumber))
{
int length = kvp.Value.FixedLength;
if (inputString.Length < length)
throw new Exception("error on attribute order number:" + kvp.Value.OrderNumber + " the string is too short.");
string piece = inputString.Substring(0, length);
inputString = inputString.Substring(length);
kvp.Key.SetValue(newT, piece.Trim(), null);
}
return newT;
}
}
The method above is what does the string parsing. It is a pretty basic utility that reads all the properties that have the FixedLengthDelimeter attribute applied a Dictionary. That dictionary is then enumerated (ordered by OrderNumber) and then calling the SubString() method twice on the input string.
The first substring is to parse the next Token while the second substring resets the inputString to start processing the next token.
Finally as it is parsing the string it is then applying the parsed string to the property of the class Type provided to the method.
Now this can be used simply like this:
string data1 = "Jonh Smith 016Some place in NY, USA 01/01/2014L01";
StudentData student = FixedLengthFormatter.ParseString<StudentData>(data1);
What this does:
Parses a string against property attributes in a fixed length format.
What this does not do:
It does convert the parsed strings to another type. Therefore all the properties must be a string. (this can be easily adapted by adding some type casting logic in).
It is not well tested. This is only tested against a few samples.
It is not by all means the only or best solution out there.

You could use FileHelpers library (NuGet).
Just define the structure of your input file with attributes:
[FixedLengthRecord]
public class StudentData
{
[FieldFixedLength(20)]
[FieldTrim(TrimMode.Right)]
public string name;
[FieldFixedLength(3)]
public string age;
[FieldFixedLength(30)]
[FieldTrim(TrimMode.Right)]
public string address;
[FieldFixedLength(10)]
public string bday;
[FieldFixedLength(3)]
public string level;
}
Then simply read the file using FileHelperEngine<T>:
var engine = new FileHelperEngine<StudentData>();
var students = engine.ReadFile(filename);

Enum as parameter: Get name and index

I have an enum like this:
public enum Global
{
txt_test = 123
}
Now I want to use a call like this:
var text = lib.Get(Global.txt_test);
Method:
public TextString Get(Enum enumeration)
{
string name = enumeration.ToString();
int index = ?; // (int)enumeration not working
...
}
How to get the index of an enum in this case?
Or am I doing it wrong at all?
Thank you.
Solution:
public TextString Get(Enum enumeration)
{
string name = enumeration.ToString();
int index = Convert.ToInt32(enumeration);
...
}

Enum are convertible to int for retrieving their values:
public TextString Get(Enum enumeration)
{
string name = enumeration.ToString();
int index = Convert.ToInt32(enumeration);
// ...
return null;
}
Note that this will work because your enumeration is type of int by default. Enums can still be other value type like long :
enum Range : long { Max = 2147483648L, Min = 255L };
In this case, the conversion will lost precision.

If you only need the enum value (what you are calling "index") as a string, the best way is to use custom format strings as documented here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c3s1ez6e%28v=vs.110%29.aspx
For example:
public TextString Get(Enum enumeration)
{
string index = enumeration.ToString("D");
// ...
return null;
}

string representation of an enum (estring)?

i need an enum or something similiar to do something like this:
public enum MyStringEnum {
[StringValue("Foo A")] Foo = "A",
[StringValue("Foo B")] Foo = "B" }
is this possible? my example, i return back a dataset with a value represented as either A,B,C,D,E .. i need a solution to return this as a string representation?
i guess the obvious would be to create an extension method or something which just had a switch statement in and return a string .. any other cleaner solutions?
regards,
dave

Here is something we use for our MVC applications to retrieve a display name for our enums. It uses a custom attribute and an extension method to retrieve the enum display name.
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Field, AllowMultiple = false)]
public class EnumDisplayNameAttribute : Attribute
{
public EnumDisplayNameAttribute(string displayName)
{
DisplayName = displayName;
}
public string DisplayName { get; set; }
}
public static string GetDisplayName(this Enum enumType)
{
var displayNameAttribute = enumType.GetType()
.GetField(enumType.ToString())
.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(EnumDisplayNameAttribute), false)
.FirstOrDefault() as EnumDisplayNameAttribute;
return displayNameAttribute != null ? displayNameAttribute.DisplayName : Enum.GetName(enumType.GetType(), enumType);
}
Usage on the enum:
public enum Foo
{
[EnumDisplayName("Foo Bar")]
Bar = 0
}
Getting back the display name:
var f = Foo.Bar;
var name = f.GetDisplayName();

Would it be an option not to use enum and use structs instead?
struct FooEnum
{
private int value;
private string name;
private FooEnum(int value, string name)
{
this.name = name;
this.value = value;
}
public static readonly FooEnum A = new FooEnum(0, "Foo A");
public static readonly FooEnum B = new FooEnum(1, "Foo B");
public static readonly FooEnum C = new FooEnum(2, "Foo C");
public static readonly FooEnum D = new FooEnum(3, "Foo D");
public override string ToString()
{
return this.name;
}
//TODO explicit conversion to int etc.
}
You could then use FooEnum like an enum with an own ToString() overload:
FooEnum foo = FooEnum.A;
string s = foo.ToString(); //"Foo A"

If you want to do something like this:
MyStringEnum value = MyStringEnum.A;
string description = value.GetDescription();
// description == "Foo A"
Setup your enum like this:
public enum MyStringEnum
{
[Description("Foo A")]
A,
[Description("Foo B")]
B
}
And use a utility/extension method that reads the attribute:
public static string GetDescription(this MyStringEnum enumerationValue)
{
Type type = enumerationValue.GetType();
string name = enumerationValue.ToString();
//Tries to find a DescriptionAttribute for a potential friendly name for the enum
MemberInfo[] member = type.GetMember(name);
if (member != null && member.Length > 0)
{
object[] attributes = member[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
if (attributes != null && attributes.Length > 0)
{
//Pull out the description value
return ((DescriptionAttribute)attributes[0]).Description;
}
}
return name;
}

I've seen this done where I would put
MyStringEnum.Foo.ToString();
In this case it would give "A"

The cleanest solution for this problem is to create a custom attribute that will store the string value you want for the enum constant. I've used that strategy in the past and it worked out fairly well. Here's a blog post detailing the work involved:
Enum With String Values In C# - Stefan Sedich's Blog
Of course this is only necessary if you need some kind of meaningful text. If the name of the enum constant works for you...then you can simply call ToString().