views:

481

answers:

4

I've gotten accustomed to many of the Java IDEs (Eclipse, Netbeans, IntelliJ) providing you with a command to generate a default constructor for a class based on the fields in the class.

For example:

public class Example
{
    public decimal MyNumber { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
    public int SomeInteger { get; set; }

    // ↓↓↓ This is what I want generated ↓↓↓
    public Example(decimal myNumber, string description, int someInteger)
    {
        MyNumber = myNumber;
        Description = description;
        SomeInteger = someInteger;
    }
}

Having a constructor populate the all of the fields of an object is such a common task in most OOP langauges, I'm assuming that there is a some way for me to save time writing this boilerplate code in C#. I'm new to the C# world, so I'm wondering if I'm missing something fundamental about the language? Is there some option in Visual Studio that is obvious?

+6  A: 

Resharper offers a Generate Constructor tool where you can select any field/properties that you want initialized. I use the Alt+Ins hot-key to access this.

James Kolpack
That answers the question for me in terms of "getting it done." However, there is no support for it in VS2010 directly, right?
Elijah
Like Jared mentions below, VS2010 added a "Generate from usage" tool, but as far as I can tell, there's no way to generate a constructor based on fields that are already in the class. If you try to instantiate the class with a signature that doesn't match any existing ones, it will offer to generate that constructor for you.
James Kolpack
Yay, ReSharper!
MrBoJangles
+1  A: 

C# added a new feature in Visual Studio 2010 called generate from usage. The intent is to generate the standard code from a usage pattern. One of the features is generating a constructor based off an initialization pattern.

The feature is accessible via the smart tag that will appear when the pattern is detected.

For example. Lets say I have the following class

class MyType { 

}

And I write the following in my application

var v1 = new MyType(42);

A constructor taking an int does not exist so a smart tag will show up and one of the options will be "Generate constructor stub". Selecting that will modify the code for MyType to be the following.

class MyType {
    private int p;
    public MyClass(int p) {
        // TODO: Complete member initialization
        this.p = p;
    }
}
JaredPar
+1  A: 

You could write a macro to do this -- you would use Visual Studio's parser to retrieve information about the class's members.

I wrote a similar macro. (I'll share the code below). The macro I wrote is for copying forward all of the constructors in a base class when you inherit from it (useful for classes like Exception that have lots of overloads on the ctor).

Here's my macro (again, it doesn't solve your problem, but you can probably modify to do what you want)


Imports System
Imports EnvDTE
Imports EnvDTE80
Imports EnvDTE90
Imports EnvDTE100
Imports System.Diagnostics

Public Module ConstructorEditor
    Public Sub StubConstructors()
        'adds stubs for all of the constructors in the current class's base class
        Dim selection As TextSelection = DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection
        Dim classInfo As CodeClass2 = GetClassElement()

        If classInfo Is Nothing Then
            System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("No class was found surrounding the cursor.  Make sure that this file compiles and try again.", "Error")
            Return
        End If

        If classInfo.Bases.Count = 0 Then
            System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("No parent class was found for this class.  Make sure that this file, and any file containing parent classes compiles and try again")
            Return
        End If

        'setting up an undo context -- one ctrl+z undoes everything
        Dim closeUndoContext As Boolean = False
        If DTE.UndoContext.IsOpen = False Then
            closeUndoContext = True
            DTE.UndoContext.Open("StubConstructorsContext", False)
        End If

        Try
            Dim parentInfo As CodeClass2 = classInfo.Bases.Item(1)
            Dim childConstructors As System.Collections.Generic.List(Of CodeFunction2) = GetConstructors(classInfo)
            Dim parentConstructors As System.Collections.Generic.List(Of CodeFunction2) = GetConstructors(parentInfo)
            For Each constructor As CodeFunction2 In parentConstructors
                If Not MatchingSignatureExists(constructor, childConstructors) Then
                    ' we only want to create ctor stubs for ctors that are missing
                    ' note: a dictionary could be more efficient, but I doubt most classes will have more than 4 or 5 ctors...
                    StubConstructor(classInfo, constructor)
                End If
            Next
        Finally
            If closeUndoContext Then
                DTE.UndoContext.Close()
            End If
        End Try
    End Sub
    Private Function GetConstructors(ByVal classInfo As CodeClass2) As System.Collections.Generic.List(Of CodeFunction2)
        ' return a list of all of the constructors in the specified class
        Dim result As System.Collections.Generic.List(Of CodeFunction2) = New System.Collections.Generic.List(Of CodeFunction2)
        Dim func As CodeFunction2
        For Each member As CodeElement2 In classInfo.Members
            ' members collection has all class members.  filter out just the function members, and then of the functions, grab just the ctors
            func = TryCast(member, CodeFunction2)
            If func Is Nothing Then Continue For
            If func.FunctionKind = vsCMFunction.vsCMFunctionConstructor Then
                result.Add(func)
            End If
        Next
        Return result
    End Function
    Private Function MatchingSignatureExists(ByVal searchFunction As CodeFunction2, ByVal functions As System.Collections.Generic.List(Of CodeFunction2)) As Boolean
        ' given a function (searchFunction), searches a list of functions where the function signatures (not necessarily the names) match
        ' return null if no match is found, otherwise returns first match
        For Each func As CodeFunction In functions
            If func.Parameters.Count  searchFunction.Parameters.Count Then Continue For
            Dim searchParam As CodeParameter2
            Dim funcParam As CodeParameter2
            Dim match As Boolean = True

            For count As Integer = 1 To searchFunction.Parameters.Count
                searchParam = searchFunction.Parameters.Item(count)
                funcParam = func.Parameters.Item(count)
                If searchParam.Type.AsFullName  funcParam.Type.AsFullName Then
                    match = False
                    Exit For
                End If
            Next

            If match Then
                Return True
            End If
        Next
        ' no match found
        Return False
    End Function

    Private Sub StubConstructor(ByVal classInfo As CodeClass2, ByVal parentConstructor As CodeFunction2)
        ' adds a constructor to the current class, based upon the parentConstructor that is passed in

        ' highly inefficient hack to position the ctor where I want it (after the last ctor in the class, if there is another ctor
        ' note that passing zero as the position (put the ctor first) caused some problems when we were adding ctors to classes that already had ctors
        Dim position As Object
        Dim ctors As System.Collections.Generic.List(Of CodeFunction2) = GetConstructors(classInfo)

        If ctors.Count = 0 Then
            position = 0
        Else
            position = ctors.Item(ctors.Count - 1)
        End If

        ' if there are no other ctors, put this one at the top
        Dim ctor As CodeFunction2 = classInfo.AddFunction(classInfo.Name, vsCMFunction.vsCMFunctionConstructor, vsCMTypeRef.vsCMTypeRefVoid, position, parentConstructor.Access)

        Dim baseCall As String = ":base("
        Dim separator As String = ""
        For Each parameter As CodeParameter2 In parentConstructor.Parameters
            ctor.AddParameter(parameter.Name, parameter.Type, -1)
            baseCall += separator + parameter.Name
            separator = ", "
        Next
        baseCall += ")"

        ' and 1 sad hack -- appears to be no way to programmatically add the :base() calls without using direct string manipulation
        Dim startPoint As TextPoint = ctor.GetStartPoint()
        Dim endOfSignature As EditPoint = startPoint.CreateEditPoint()
        endOfSignature.EndOfLine()
        endOfSignature.Insert(baseCall)
        startPoint.CreateEditPoint().SmartFormat(endOfSignature)
    End Sub

    Private Function GetClassElement() As CodeClass2
        'returns a CodeClass2 element representing the class that the cursor is within, or null if there is no class
        Try
            Dim selection As TextSelection = DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection
            Dim fileCodeModel As FileCodeModel2 = DTE.ActiveDocument.ProjectItem.FileCodeModel
            Dim element As CodeElement2 = fileCodeModel.CodeElementFromPoint(selection.TopPoint, vsCMElement.vsCMElementClass)
            Return element
        Catch
            Return Nothing
        End Try
    End Function

End Module

JMarsch
A: 

Here is a macro that I use for that purpose. It will generate a constructor from fields and properties that have a private setter.

Imports System
Imports EnvDTE
Imports EnvDTE80
Imports EnvDTE90
Imports EnvDTE90a
Imports EnvDTE100
Imports System.Diagnostics
Imports System.Collections.Generic

Public Module Temp

    Sub AddConstructorFromFields()
        DTE.UndoContext.Open("Add constructor from fields")

        Dim classElement As CodeClass, index As Integer
        GetClassAndInsertionIndex(classElement, index)

        Dim constructor As CodeFunction
        constructor = classElement.AddFunction(classElement.Name, vsCMFunction.vsCMFunctionConstructor, vsCMTypeRef.vsCMTypeRefVoid, index, vsCMAccess.vsCMAccessPublic)

        Dim visitedNames As New Dictionary(Of String, String)
        Dim element As CodeElement, parameterPosition As Integer, isFirst As Boolean = True
        For Each element In classElement.Children
            Dim fieldType As String
            Dim fieldName As String
            Dim parameterName As String

            Select Case element.Kind
                Case vsCMElement.vsCMElementVariable
                    Dim field As CodeVariable = CType(element, CodeVariable)
                    fieldType = field.Type.AsString
                    fieldName = field.Name
                    parameterName = field.Name.TrimStart("_".ToCharArray())

                Case vsCMElement.vsCMElementProperty
                    Dim field As CodeProperty = CType(element, CodeProperty)
                    If field.Setter.Access = vsCMAccess.vsCMAccessPrivate Then
                        fieldType = field.Type.AsString
                        fieldName = field.Name
                        parameterName = field.Name.Substring(0, 1).ToLower() + field.Name.Substring(1)
                    End If
            End Select

            If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(parameterName) And Not visitedNames.ContainsKey(parameterName) Then
                visitedNames.Add(parameterName, parameterName)

                constructor.AddParameter(parameterName, fieldType, parameterPosition)

                Dim endPoint As EditPoint
                endPoint = constructor.EndPoint.CreateEditPoint()
                endPoint.LineUp()
                endPoint.EndOfLine()

                If Not isFirst Then
                    endPoint.Insert(Environment.NewLine)
                Else
                    isFirst = False
                End If

                endPoint.Insert(String.Format(MemberAssignmentFormat(constructor.Language), fieldName, parameterName))

                parameterPosition = parameterPosition + 1
            End If
        Next

        DTE.UndoContext.Close()

        Try
            ' This command fails sometimes '
            DTE.ExecuteCommand("Edit.FormatDocument")
        Catch ex As Exception
        End Try
    End Sub
    Private Sub GetClassAndInsertionIndex(ByRef classElement As CodeClass, ByRef index As Integer, Optional ByVal useStartIndex As Boolean = False)
        Dim selection As TextSelection
        selection = CType(DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection, TextSelection)

        classElement = CType(selection.ActivePoint.CodeElement(vsCMElement.vsCMElementClass), CodeClass)

        Dim childElement As CodeElement
        index = 0
        For Each childElement In classElement.Children
            Dim childOffset As Integer
            childOffset = childElement.GetStartPoint(vsCMPart.vsCMPartWholeWithAttributes).AbsoluteCharOffset
            If selection.ActivePoint.AbsoluteCharOffset < childOffset Or useStartIndex Then
                Exit For
            End If
            index = index + 1
        Next
    End Sub
    Private ReadOnly Property MemberAssignmentFormat(ByVal language As String) As String
        Get
            Select Case language
                Case CodeModelLanguageConstants.vsCMLanguageCSharp
                    Return "this.{0} = {1};"

                Case CodeModelLanguageConstants.vsCMLanguageVB
                    Return "Me.{0} = {1}"

                Case Else
                    Return ""
            End Select
        End Get
    End Property
End Module
Antoine Aubry