I'm working with pulling a stream of bytes off of a medical device, and have run into a really annoying data structure. Basically, I am getting back a 2-byte chunk where each bit represents a boolean value. This structure appears frequently enough in the byte stream to develop a struct/class around it, but in each instance, the bits mean completely different things.
So first I set up a bunch of Enums to represent all the different definitions the bit structure could have. (Note that not every bit is used in every definition. Sometimes there are breaks in between the important bits.)
EDIT: Removed all names that looked like 'flag.' I'm not using the [Flags] attribute, and this seems to be a point of contention/confusion. The enum values are simply mapped to the indices in my BitArray.
public enum RecordInfo { AM_TEST = 0, PM_TEST, TEST_VALIDITY };
public enum RecordAlerts { ALERT1 = 0, ALERT2, ALERT3, ALERT4, VALIDATED = 15 };
Then created this container to hold the actual bits:
public struct TwoBytes<TEnum> where TEnum : struct, IConvertible
{
private BitArray _bits = new BitArray(2);
}
This seems to work as I need, until I want to index my structure based on an Enum name. So say I have a TwoByte struct called Alerts, and this contains some bit values. If I want to get a specific flag like this:
bool alert3Set = Alerts[RecordAlerts.ALERT3]
I end up with a truly heinous index function. This is what I have in place now:
public bool this[TEnum name]
{
get
{
int index = Enum.GetValues(typeof(TEnum)).Cast<TEnum>().ToList().Where(x => x.Equals(name)).Cast<int>().First();
return _bits[index];
}
}
Now it works, crazily enough. But that LINQ chains looks positively atrocious, and it takes a while to decipher what it's actually doing.
Is there a cleaner, more efficient way of converting a generic Enum 'name' to its integer value? Or would I be better suited to use a Dictionary (or some other object) to represent the bit structure definitions?
As long as every TEnum you'd use derives from int (the default), and not from another number type, this will work:
public bool this[TEnum name]
{
get
{
int index = (int)(object)name;
return _bits[index];
}
}
If you want to support enums derived from smaller types (and enums that only use values within the range supported by int), I'd use:
public bool this[TEnum name]
{
get
{
int index = Convert.ToInt32(name);
return _bits[index];
}
}
(fully supporting enums derived from types that can't implicitly be converted to int, like uint, long, and ulong, gets more complicated, because BitArray's indexer uses an int)
I think a bit of OOP would make your life easier. You can introduces classes that represent the data you receive, and has meaningful property names. Each class could accept your BitArray into constructor and parse it into properties.
Further in your program you could use these classes instead of fiddling with bits.
As FrankPI suggested in the comments, why not use an enum whose values really represent each bit, rather than using an intermediate BitArray?
[Flags]
public enum RecordFlags { FLAG1 = 0x1, FLAG2 = 0x2, FLAG3 = 0x4, FLAG4 = 0x8, FLAG5 = 0x10, VALIDATED = 0x8000 };
var readFlags = (RecordFlags) ((bytes[0] << 8) | bytes[1]);
bool hasFlag2 = (readFlags & RecordFlags.Flag2) != 0;
Related
I have a struct for a game I am building that looks like this:
using System;
public readonly struct Target
{
public Target((int Min, int Max) range, string[] targetTypes)
{
Range = range;
TargetType = ParseTypes(targetTypes);
}
public (int Min, int Max) Range { get; }
public TargetTypes TargetType { get; }
[Flags]
public enum TargetTypes { None = 0, Self = 1, Enemy = 2, Player = 4, Character = 8, Area = 16 }
}
I would like to take all of the values in the string array and cast them into a single enum (not an array of enum values, which I believe is what is happening in the answer to this question).
The thing is a Target can have multiple types. I figured an enum was the best way to represent this, and also figured defining the enum inside the struct wasn't a terrible idea, but this could be an anti-pattern (coming from a JS background, be gentle!).
I like this whole enumeration types as bit flags thing, hence the numbering, that's what sent me down this path.
Yes, I control the inputs, so happy to hear why/how I should do this differently - thanks for your time!
You could use the following.
TargetType = (TargetTypes)Enum.Parse(typeof(TargetTypes),string.Join(",",targetTypes));
The second parameter of Enum.Parse accepts either a single value/constant representing the enum or a list of named constants or underlying values delimited by commas (,).
Thank you #asawyer for pointing the way. I missed an important part of the documentation (always RFTM twice!):
Converts the string representation of the name or numeric value of one or more enumerated constants to an equivalent enumerated object.
There's no need for anything fancy here, Parse does the trick:
TargetType = (TargetTypes) Enum.Parse(typeof(TargetTypes), string.Join(",", targetTypes));
In C#, if we define an enum that contains a member correspondingto a negative value, and then we iterate over that enum's values, the negative value does not come first, but last. Why does that happen? In other languages (C, C++, Ada, etc), iterating over an enum will give you the order in which you defined it.
MSDN has a good example of this behavior:
using System;
enum SignMagnitude { Negative = -1, Zero = 0, Positive = 1 };
public class Example
{
public static void Main()
{
foreach (var value in Enum.GetValues(typeof(SignMagnitude)))
{
Console.WriteLine("{0,3} 0x{0:X8} {1}",
(int) value, ((SignMagnitude) value));
}
}
}
// The example displays the following output:
// 0 0x00000000 Zero
// 1 0x00000001 Positive
// -1 0xFFFFFFFF Negative
From the very documentation page you link to, my emphasis:
The elements of the array are sorted by the binary values of the enumeration constants (that is, by their unsigned magnitude).
Digging into the CLR code (the 2.0 SSCLI) and getting far lower-level than I'm really comfortable with, it looks like ultimately this is because internally enum values are stored in something that looks like this (note this is C++):
class EnumEEClass : public EEClass
{
friend class EEClass;
private:
DWORD m_countPlusOne; // biased by 1 so zero can be used as uninit flag
union
{
void *m_values;
BYTE *m_byteValues;
USHORT *m_shortValues;
UINT *m_intValues;
UINT64 *m_longValues;
};
LPCUTF8 *m_names;
As can be seen, it's unsigned types that hold the actual values - so when these values are emitted for enumeration, naturally they are in their unsigned order.
In my application, I have something like:
public enum Locations {
LocationA,
LocationB,
LocationC
}
private List<Locations> _myLocations;
public Int64 PackedLocations {
get {
return PackEnumList(this._myLocations);
}
}
So: an enum (backed by int), a List of those enum values, and a read-only property which returns the result of a method I've left out so far.
That method, PackEnumList, is meant to give me a 64-bit integer where each BIT denotes whether the corresponding enum value was selected or not in a list of unique enum values. So in my example above, if _myLocations has only one item: {Locations.LocationA}, the result would be 1 (binary: ...00001), if we then add Locations.LocationC to that list, the result would be 5 (binary: ...000101). The implementation isn't important right now (but I'll include it below for completion/interest/feedback), but the signature of that method is:
public Int64 PackEnumList(List<Enum> listOfEnumValues) {
...
}
When I compile, I get an error that "the best overloaded method ... has some invalid arguments".
I'm guessing this is because _myLocations is being seen as a List of int values, but I'd like PackEnumList() to work even if the enumeration being used were backed by something else, if possible.
Is there a more appropriate way to make a method which will accept a List/Collection of any enumeration?
For completeness, here's the rest of what I'm trying to do (these are static because they're in a shared utility class). These are completely untested yet (since I can't get past the compile error when calling the pack method), so take them with a grain of salt. And there might be a better way to do this, I'm doing this half to solve an interesting problem, and half because I think it is an interesting problem.
public static Int64 PackEnumList(List<Enum> listOfEnumValues) {
BitArray bits = new BitArray(64, defaultValue: false);
foreach (var value in listOfEnumValues) {
// get integer value of each Enum in the List:
int val = Convert.ToInt32(value);
if (val >= 64) {
// this enum has more options than we have bits, so cannot pack
throw new Exception("Enum value out of range for packing: " + val.ToString());
}
bits[val] = true;
}
var res = new Int64[1];
bits.CopyTo(res, 0);
return res[0];
}
// (this method is a little farther from the ideal: the resulting list will need
// to be matched by the caller to the appropriate List of Enums by casting
// each Int32 value to the Enum object in the list)
public static List<Int32> UnpackEnumList(Int64 packedValue) {
string binaryString = Convert.ToString(packedValue, 2);
List<Int32> res = new List<Int32>();
for (int pos = 0; pos < binaryString.Length; pos++) {
if (binaryString[binaryString.Length - pos - 1] == '1') {
// bit is on
res.Add(pos);
}
}
return res;
}
Is there a more appropriate way to make a method which will accept a List/Collection of any enumeration?
Within straight C#? Nope. But you can fudge it...
I have a project called Unconstrained Melody which allows you to make a generic method with a constraint of "T must be an enum type" or "T must be a delegate type". These are valid constraints at the IL level, but can't be expressed in C#
Basically Unconstrained Melody consists of two parts:
A library of useful methods with those constraints, where the source code is written using valid C# which doesn't actually represent those constraints, but uses a marker interface
An IL-rewriting project (ugly but servicable) which converts those constraints into the real "unspeakable" ones
(The expectation is that users of the library would just use the rewritten binary.)
It sounds like you could use the latter part of the project for your code here. It won't be terribly pleasant, but it would work. You might also find the library part useful.
As a side thought, you might want to consider using a [Flags]-style enum instead:
[Flags]
public enum Locations {
LocationA = 1 << 0,
LocationB = 1 << 1,
LocationC = 1 << 2
}
Change your method signature to public Int64 PackEnumList(IEnumerable<Enum> listOfEnumValues)
And then call it like following:
public Int64 PackedLocations
{
get { return PackEnumList(this._myLocations.Cast<Enum>()); }
}
A List<Enum> is not a List<Locations> nor a List<Int32>. Use a generic method to handle the list:
public static void PackEnumList<T>(IEnumerable<T> list) where T : IConvertible
{
foreach (var value in list)
int numeric = value.ToInt32();
// etc.
}
I'd change your signature method to:
public Int64 PackEnumList<T>(IEnumerable<T> listOfEnumValues) where T : struct, IFormattable, IConvertible {
...
}
The where T : struct... constrains it to enum types only (any any other struct implementing both interfaces, which is probably very low)
I have a set of codes that are particular to the application (one to one mapping of the code to its name), and I've been using enums in C# to represent them. I'm not sure now if that is even necessary. The values never change, and they are always going to be associated with those labels:
Workflow_Status_Complete = 1
Workflow_Status_Stalled = 2
Workflow_Status_Progress = 3
Workflow_Status_Complete = 4
Workflow_Status_Fail = 5
Should I use an enum or a class with static members?
Static members of type int seems to be inferior to an enum to me. You lose the typesafety of an enum. And when debugging you don't see the symbolic name but just a number.
On the other hand if an entry consists of more than just a name/integervalue pair a class can be a good idea. But then the fields should be of that class and not int. Something like:
class MyFakeEnum
{
public static readonly MyFakeEnum Value1=new MyFakeEnum(...);
}
Use an enum. Even though your codes never change, it will be difficult to know what the value represents just by inspection. One of the many strengths of using enums.
enum RealEnum : uint
{
SomeValue = 0xDEADBEEF,
}
static class FakeEnum
{
public const uint SomeValue = 0xDEADBEEF;
}
var x = RealEnum.SomeValue;
var y = FakeEnum.SomeValue;
// what's the value?
var xstr = x.ToString(); // SomeValue
var ystr = y.ToString(); // 3735928559
Not even the debugger will help you much here, especially if there are many different values.
Check out the State Pattern as this is a better design. With the idea you are using you'll end up with a large switch/if-else statement which can be very difficult to keep up.
I would lean towards enums as they provide more information and they make your codes "easier to use correctly and difficult to use incorrectly". (I think the quote is from The Pragmatic Programmer.
EDITED: Updated 3/23/09. See rest of post at bottom. I'm still having trouble with the indexer. Anymore help or examples would really help me out.
Write a class, MyCourses, that contains an enumeration of all the
courses that you are currently taking.
This enum should be nested inside of
your class MyCourses. Your class
should also have an array field that
provides a short description (as a
String) of each of your courses. Write
an indexer that takes one of your
enumerated courses as an index and
returns the String description of the
course.
Write a class MyFriends that contains an indexer that provides
access to the names of your friends.
namespace IT274_Unit4Project
{
public class MyCourses
{
// enumeration that contains an enumeration of all the courses that
// student is currently enrolled in
public enum CourseName {IT274= 0,CS210 = 1}
// array field that provides short description for each of classes,
// returns string description of the course
private String[] courseDescription =
{"Intermediate C#: Teaches intermediate elements of C# programming and software design",
"Career Development Strategies: Teaches principles for career progression, resume preparation, and overall self anaylsis"};
// indexer that takes one of the enumerated courses as an index
// and returns the String description of the course
public String this[CourseName index]
{
get
{
if (index == 1)
return courseDescription[0];
else
return courseDescription[1];
}
set
{
if (index == 1)
courseDescription[0] = value;
else
courseDescription[1] = value;
}
}
}
}//end public class MyCourses
I'm working on this homework project and having trouble understanding the text explaining how to correctly take the accessed value of the enumeration and then apply the string array value to it. Can you please help me understand this? The text we are using is very difficult and poorly written for a beginner to understand, so I'm kind of on my own here. I've got the first parts written, but need some help on the accessing of the enumeration value and assigning, i think i'm close, but don't understand how to properly get and set the values on this.
Please do not provide me with direct code answers, unless a MSDN style explanation that is generalized and not specific to my project. ie:
public class MyClass
{ string field1;
string field2;
//properties
public string Value1
get etc...
Thanks!
First of all, the base type of an enumeration has to be a numeric value type, so you can't have an enumeration with base type string. The following isn't going to compile:
public enum CourseName
{
Class1 = "IT274-01AU: Intermediate C#",
Class2 = "CS210-06AU: Career Development Strategies"
}
So change it to use the default base type of int. Something like the following will do, but change the names as you see fit (you might want to use the course name instead of the code, for example). Remember also that you should use meaningful names whenever possible in an enumeration.
public enum Courses
{
IT274_01AU,
CS210_06AU
}
(I know you said you didn't want specific code examples, but I think this one illustrates my point much more clearly than any explanation.)
Second, you're on the right track with the indexer, but you have to think of how to relate the enumeration to the array of string descriptions. Remember, an enumeration is nothing more than a finite set of glorified (named) numbers. With the above Courses enumeration, you have two values named IT274_01AU and CS210_06AU. So in the indexer, you have to map each of these values to the string description. There are multiple ways to do it, but the simplest one would be a switch statement, for example:
switch (myEnum)
{
case value1:
return string1;
case value2:
return string2;
}
Another option, however is to explicitly map the enum values to its base type, and use the base type to index into your array. For example, if you have the enum
public enum Enumerations
{
value1 = 0,
value2 = 1
}
then you can index directly into an array using myArray[(int)myEnum]. This may be of use and is the slightly-more-advanced-but-less-lines-of-code-and-arguably-easier-to-understand method.
(resisting the urge to write code)
First off, an enumeration is a named list of integers and (per MSDN) the approved types for an enum are byte, sbyte, short, ushort, int, uint, long, or ulong.
Also, remember that courseDescription is an array of strings and the purpose of the indexer is to give you an index into that array (ie. [0] returns the first string, [1] returns the second, etc.).