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Visual Studio: find all references of a specific type

I converted a (C#) struct into a class and need to go through all uses of the type to ensure that there are no undesired effects of the former implicit copy and now reference behaviours.
Is there a way to find all references, where this specific type is used/involved?
I tried Find all Referenceson the type, and get all locations where the type name is explicitely stated, which is a good start.
However, I don't get the locations where an instance of this type is returned and modified. Specifically the lines where I assign the return value to an implicitely typed variable using var, or all assignments to previously defined variables.
Are there any features or tricks I could use? I guess, this particular case of struct-to-class conversion occurs quite often. Maybe you have some advice how to find all possible issues?

You could rename manually the class... every error is one place where it is used. But I think that the Visual Studio will stop after a certain number of errors.
You could mark as [Obsolete] the class, all its properties, all its methods. Then you would have a warning every time you used them.
Note that the [Obsolete] "trick" has some limitations:
[Obsolete]
public class MyClass
{
}
public static void Test1(MyClass test2) // This line has a warning
{
var y = test2; // ***This line doesn't have a warning***
MyClass z = test2; // This line has a warning
}
so it is the same as Find all References...
Another solution, based on FxCop/Code Analysis of Visual Studio:
This is a custom rule, based on the instructions of http://blogs.msdn.com/b/codeanalysis/archive/2010/03/26/how-to-write-custom-static-code-analysis-rules-and-integrate-them-into-visual-studio-2010.aspx
The Default Namespace of the assembly (you can set in the properties) must be MyCustomFxCopRules. The Platform target x86.
using Microsoft.FxCop.Sdk;
namespace MyCustomFxCopRules
{
public class StructAssignmentFinder : BaseIntrospectionRule
{
public StructAssignmentFinder()
: base("StructAssignmentFinder", "MyCustomFxCopRules.RuleMetadata", typeof(StructAssignmentFinder).Assembly)
{
var ms = new MyStruct();
var tt = ms;
}
public override TargetVisibilities TargetVisibility
{
get
{
return TargetVisibilities.All;
}
}
public override ProblemCollection Check(ModuleNode module)
{
Visit(module);
return Problems;
}
public override void VisitAssignmentStatement(AssignmentStatement assignment)
{
// You could even use FullName
if ((assignment.Source != null && assignment.Source.Type != null && assignment.Source.Type.Name.Name == "MyStruct") ||
(assignment.Target != null && assignment.Target.Type != null && assignment.Target.Type.Name.Name == "MyStruct"))
{
Problem problem = new Problem(GetNamedResolution("Struct", assignment.Target.Type.Name.Name), assignment);
Problems.Add(problem);
}
base.VisitAssignmentStatement(assignment);
}
public override void VisitConstruct(Construct construct)
{
Method targetMethod = (Method)((MemberBinding)construct.Constructor).BoundMember;
if (targetMethod.Parameters.Any(x => x.Type.Name.Name == "MyStruct"))
{
Problem problem = new Problem(GetNamedResolution("ParameterType", "MyStruct", targetMethod.Name.Name), construct);
Problems.Add(problem);
}
base.VisitConstruct(construct);
}
public override void VisitMethodCall(MethodCall call)
{
Method targetMethod = (Method)((MemberBinding)call.Callee).BoundMember;
if (targetMethod.ReturnType.Name.Name == "MyStruct")
{
Problem problem = new Problem(GetNamedResolution("ReturnType", targetMethod.ReturnType.Name.Name, targetMethod.Name.Name), call);
Problems.Add(problem);
}
if (targetMethod.Parameters.Any(x => x.Type.Name.Name == "MyStruct"))
{
Problem problem = new Problem(GetNamedResolution("ParameterType", "MyStruct", targetMethod.Name.Name), call);
Problems.Add(problem);
}
base.VisitMethodCall(call);
}
The RuleMetadata.xml (it must be an Embedded Resource)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Rules FriendlyName="Rules about Structs">
<Rule TypeName="StructAssignmentRule" Category="MyRules" CheckId="CR1000">
<Name>Struct Assignment Finder</Name>
<Description>Struct Assignment Finder</Description>
<Url></Url>
<Resolution Name="Struct">There is an assignment of struct '{0}'.</Resolution>
<Resolution Name="ReturnType">'{0}' is the return type for a call to '{1}'.</Resolution>
<Resolution Name="ParameterType">'{0}' is a parameter type for a call to '{1}'.</Resolution>
<Email></Email>
<MessageLevel Certainty="100">Warning</MessageLevel>
<FixCategories>NonBreaking</FixCategories>
<Owner></Owner>
</Rule>
</Rules>
Based on this, it is then easy to add other rules for other corner cases that I surely forgot :-)
The test file I was using:
public struct MyStruct
{
}
class Test
{
public Test()
{
var ms = new MyStruct();
var ms2 = ms;
ms3 = ms;
ms = ms3;
ms4 = ms;
ms = ms4;
ms4 = ms4;
new MyObject(default(MyStruct));
}
public MyStruct ms3;
public MyStruct ms4 { get; set; }
}
public class MyObject
{
public MyObject(MyStruct par1)
{
}
}
Note that debugging rules is tricky... It is quite easy to debug with the FxCopCmd.exe, but impossible (I think, not sure) to debug when called directly by Visual Studio.

The answers and comments led me to a satisfactory solution, that possibly helps others, so I thought I'd post it.
The question was not so much to find all uses, but only the "problematic" ones, namely the write accesses to the public members. Instead of finding all references to the members, as suggested in this answer I only want to find the write access. Therefore, I used a rewriting strategy like indicated in this answer and made all members write only, so the compiler would complain about the dangerous write accesses only.
This in turn transformed the struct/class into an immutable type as outlined in the comments. This made a much cleaner design. I simply rewrote all write accesses where the compiler complained, to respect the immutable design. Thereafter, struct and class are largely exchangable and the switching was easy.
Only trouble were calls to the default constructors of the struct, which was no longer present in the class. But I no longer needed them, since with the class I could simply set these cases to null.

You could do a Find All References on each of the class non-private members, one at a time. It would show every read and write to those members.

If you have Visual Studio Web Essentials Extension installed then its very easy.
Check screenshot below. On clicking on highlighted link in red you can see all reference of particular type.

Elegant ways of avoiding numerous code changes in the following legacy code

In some legacy code, there are hundreds of occurrences of the following code snippets:
myObj.ReportGenerator.Preview = reportingObj.PreviewDocument;
... whereas both the "ReportGenerator" and the "ReportingObj" are instances of a third party library and therefore not modifyable.
This code did work well under Windows XP, but running the program in Windows 7 does require the following additional line of code:
reportingObj.Render();
myObj.ReportGenerator.Preview = reportingObj.PreviewDocument;
Unfortunately, there are hundreds of occurences of this piece of code all of the code base, and manually searching for them sounds like quite error-prone a process.
As "ReportGenerator" and "reportingObj" are third party, I cannot change their getter / setter.
What are elegant ways of approaching such an issue?

You could wrap ReportingObj in a class of your own in which you just delegate to the original ReportingObj, but for the PreviewDocument property check to see if Render() was called and if not call it - something like this:
public Foo PreviewDocument
{
get
{
if (!_rendered)
{
_originalreportingObj.Render();
_rendered = true;
}
return _originalreportingObj.PreviewDocument;
}
}

You could change the class of myObj, which I assume is under your control, and have the ReportGenerator property return a wrapper class that either calls the original setter of the Preview or calls it after calling Render():
public class ReportGeneratorWrapper
{
private ReportGenerator m_InnerReportGenerator;
public PreviewDocument Preview
{
get
{
return m_InnerReportGenerator;
}
set
{
if (IsNT6OrAbove)
value.Render();
m_InnerReportGenerator = value;
}
}
}

You might find that the least amount of rework will be to create a static class, something like:
public class Previewer
{
public static PreviewDocumentType PreviewDocument(ReportingObject reportingObj) {
reportingObj.Render();
return reportingObj.PreviewDocument;
}
}
where PreviewDocumentType is the type returned from PreviewDocument and ReportingObject is the type of reporting object.
You can then replace
reportingObj.PreviewDocument;
with
Previewer.PreviewDocument(reportingObj);

Encapsulation questions in C#

I'm having some problems with encapsulation in C#. There are two specific scenarios that are causing me problems and I believe the issue is related.
Scenario #1
I have a class definition that looks something like this
class MyClass
{
private int _someField;
private OtherClass _otherClass;
public int someField
{
get { return _someField; }
set { _someField = value; }
}
public OtherClass otherClass
{
get { return _otherClass; }
set { _otherClass = value; }
}
}
If I then try and do something like this in a new piece of code
MyClass theClass = new MyClass();
theClass.otherClass.XYZ += 1;
I get told Cannot Modify the return value of 'MyClass.otherClass' because it is not a variable.
Scenario 2#
public partial class trksegType
{
private wptType[] trkptField;
private extensionsType extensionsField;
/// <remarks/>
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("trkpt")]
public wptType[] trkpt
{
get
{
return this.trkptField;
}
set
{
this.trkptField = value;
}
}
}
If I now try and foreach through the wptType array:
foreach (wptType way in trk.trkseg[i])
I get told - foreach statement cannot operate on variables of type 'trksegType' because 'trksegType' does not contain a public definition for 'GetEnumerator'
Even though an array should implicitly allow enumeration.
Can anyone explain what's going on and what I can do to get around this problem, whilst still maintaining best practices.

For scenario 1, I suspect that OtherClass has been defined as a struct. When a struct is accessed from a property accessor a new copy of the struct is created and returned (structs are value types). Changing a property on this new copy will have no effect on the original struct.
The C# compiler detects this and raises that slightly obscure error.

Scenario 1:
The reason is very likely because your OtherClass is a struct and not a class. Value sematics are a bit tricky and mutable value types are considered harmful. So you either want to make OtherClass a class and not a struct or you do something along those lines:
struct OtherClass
{
public int XYZ { get; }
public OtherClass(int xyz)
{
XYZ = xyz;
}
public OtherClass AddToXYZ(int count)
{
return new OtherClass(this.XYZ + count);
}
}
Then you can do
myClass.otherClass = myClass.otherClass.AddToXYZ(1);
Scenario 2:
You either need to implement IEnumerable on trksegType to enumerate over trkpt or actually access trkpt for the enumeration.
In General:
You have violated encapsulation in both scenarios by accessing objects through other objects. Have a look here: http://www.csharp-station.com/Tutorials/lesson19.aspx
You also should consider using better (more explicit) names for your objects. mttng vwls ds nt ncrs rdblty.

(You really shouldn’t post two questions in one.)
Scenario 1
Cannot Modify the return value of 'MyClass.otherClass' because it is not a variable.
This error happens because OtherClass is not a class, but a struct — also called a value type. This means that accessing MyClass.otherClass copies the value instead of returning a reference. You would be modifying this copy, which would be pointless. The compiler catches this because it is always a bug and never useful.
Scenario 2
foreach (wptType way in trk.trkseg[i])
You haven’t told us what trkseg[i] is, but if it is of the type trksegType, then the answer is: because trksegType doesn’t allow any enumeration. It does not implement IEnumerable, IEnumerable<T>, nor does it have a GetEnumerator method of its own.
Perhaps you meant to write:
foreach (wptType way in trk.trkseg[i].trkpt)
because trkpt is an array of wptType. (You might have found this error sooner if you used more meaningful variable names instead of weird combinations of letters that make no sense.)

I can't see anything wrong with your first example - so double check that the sample that errors really does and correct if not.
In the second instance, it looks like you're trying to iterate on an instance of trksegType, rather than the contained trkpt property. Try foreach (wptType way in trk.trkseg[i].trkpt) instead.

Property as parameter? C#

So I've got a whole bunch of options, every different page/tab can have their own local options. We'll have maybe 10-15 pages tabs open tops. I need to implement a way to show the global defaults, weather the all the tabs have consistent values. I'm working on the model/viewmodel portion of a WPF app.
I'd love to find a way that is more elegant since I'm having to cut and past roughly the same code 20+ times and just change property names. Maybe this is the problem Dynamics solve, but right now this feels both wrong and painful.
Here is an example of my current solution:
public class Foo
{
private bool fooVar1;
private bool fooVar2;
//lots of these
private decimal fooVar23;
public Foo()
{
}
public bool FooVar1
{
get;
set;
}
//you get the picture...
}
public class FooMonitor
{
private Foo defaultFoo;
private List<Foo> allFoos;
public FooMonitor(Foo DefaultFoo)
{
defaultFoo = DefaultFoo;
}
public void AddFoo(Foo newFoo)
{
allFoos.Add(newFoo);
}
public void AddFoo(Foo oldFoo)
{
allFoos.Remove(oldFoo);
}
public bool IsFooVar1Consistent
{
get
{
Foo[] tempFoos = allFoos.ToArray();
foreach (Foo tempFoo in tempFoos)
{
if (tempFoo.FooVar1 != defaultFoo.FooVar1) return false;
}
return true;
}
}
}
Or am I approaching this problem entirely incorrectly.
As I'm writing this question (After about 2000 lines of code) I'm thinking of how I read that WPF itself implements Dictionary look ups that crawl up to the parent to see if a Property is present and what the value should be.

Well, for a start you are defining both backing fields which will never be used and automatic properties. This is enough for a simple bool property:
public bool FooVar1 { get; set; }
No need for the private field. This greatly reduces the number of lines in your example.

I'd love to find a way that is more
elegant since I'm having to cut and
past roughly the same code 20+ times
and just change property names.
Code generators exist for exactly this purpose. But if you don't want to go that route, you can shorten your code to this:
return allFoos.All(foo => foo.FooVar1 == defaultFoo.FooVar1);

I'm not quite sure what the question is, but if you're looking for some way to unify the IsFoorVarXConsistent code, you could do it using reflection or by passing in an expression:
public bool IsConsistent(Func<Foo, bool> property)
{
foreach (Foo tempFoo in allFoos)
{
if (property(tempFoo) != property(defaultFoo))
return false;
}
return true;
}
Called like this:
bool is1Consistent = IsConsistent(f => f.FooVar1);
As shown this will only work for boolean properties. To extend it to other types, we can make it generic in the property type. However, in this case we cannot use != to test for inequality because not all types define a != operator. Instead we can use the .Equals method and the ! operator:
public bool IsConsistent<T>(Func<Foo, T> property)
where T : struct
{
foreach (Foo tempFoo in allFoos)
{
if (!property(tempFoo).Equals(property(defaultFoo)))
return false;
}
return true;
}
The where T : struct clause restricts this to value types like int, bool and decimal. In particular it will not work on strings. Removing the where constraint allows it to work on strings and other reference types, but creates the possibility of property(tempFoo) being null, which would cause a NullReferenceException when we called .Equals on it. So if you remove the value types constraint then you will need to add error handling for this scenario.

Best way of protect a backing field from mistaken use in C#

I have a class (Foo) which lazy loads a property named (Bar). What is your preferred way to protect against mistaken use (due to intellisense or inexperienced staff) of the uninitialized backing field?
I can think of 3 options:
class Foo {
// option 1 - Easy to use this.bar by mistake.
string bar;
string Bar {
get {
// logic to lazy load bar
return bar;
}
}
// option 2 - Harder to use this._bar by mistake. It is more obscure.
string _bar2;
string Bar2 {
get {
// logic to lazy load bar2
return _bar2;
}
}
//option 3 - Very hard to use the backing field by mistake.
class BackingFields {
public string bar;
}
BackingFields fields = new BackingFields();
string Bar3 {
get {
// logic to lazy load bar
return fields.bar;
}
}
}
Keep in mind, the only place I want people mucking around with the backing field bar is in setter and getter of the property. Everywhere else in the class they should always use this.Bar
Update
I am currently using the following Lazy implementation (not for all properties with backing fields, but for select ones that require lazy loading, synchronization and notification). It could be extended to support futures as well (force evaluation in a separate thread in a later time)
Note My implementation locks on read, cause it supports an external set.
Also, I would like to mention that I think this is a language limitation which can be overcome in Ruby for example.
You can implement lazy in this way.
x = lazy do
puts "<<< Evaluating lazy value >>>"
"lazy value"
end
puts x
# <<< Evaluating lazy value >>>
# lazy value

How about use of ObsoleteAttribute and #pragma - hard to miss it then!
void Test1()
{
_prop = ""; // warning given
}
public string Prop
{
#pragma warning disable 0618
get { return _prop; }
set { _prop = value; }
#pragma warning restore 0618
}
[Obsolete("This is the backing field for lazy data; do not use!!")]
private string _prop;
void Test2()
{
_prop = ""; // warning given
}

Option 5
Lazy<T>
works quite nicely in several situations, though option 1 should really be just fine for most projects so long as the developers aren't idiots.
Adding [EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Never)] to the field won't help if it is private since this logic only kicks in for intellisense generated from metadata rather than the current code (current project and anything done via project references rather than dlls).
Note: Lazy<T> is not thread safe (this is good, there's no point locking if you don't need to) if you require thread safety either use one of the thread safe ones from Joe Duffy or the Parallel Exetensions CTP

I usually go for option 2, as it is easier to spot mistakes later on, although option 1 would pass a code review. Option 3 seems convoluted and whilst it may work, it's not going to be nice code to revisit 6 months down the line whilst trying to refactor/fix a bug/etc.

Option 1, coupled with some education.
Rationale: software is meant to be read more often than written, so optimize for the common case and keep it readable.

Code reviews will catch misuse so just go with the most readable. I dislike attempts to work around bad programmers in code, because 1) they don't work, 2) they make it harder for smart programmers to get their work done, and 3) it addresses the symptom rather than the cause of the problem.

I usually just go for option 1. Because it is a private field I don't think it really an issue, and using something like the wrapper class as in your option 3 only makes code difficult to read and understand.

I would just put a large comment block on the top of the class that would look like that:
/************************************************************
* Note: When updating this class, please take care of using *
* only the accessors to access member data because of *
* ... (state the reasons / your name, so they can ask *
* questions) *
*************************************************************/
Usually, just a note like that should be enough, but if this is the same for all the classes in the project, you might prefer to put it in a simple document that you give to programmers working on the project, and everytime you see code that isn't conform, you point them to the document.

Automatic properties:
public int PropertyName { get; set; }
will prevent access to the backing field. But if you want to put code in there (e.g. for lazy loading on first access) this clearly won't help.
The simplest route is likely to be a helper type which does the lazy loading, and have an private field of that type, with the public property calling to the correct property/method of the helper type.
E.g.
public class Foo {
private class LazyLoader {
private someType theValue;
public someType Value {
get {
// Do lazy load
return theValue;
}
}
}
private LazyLoader theValue;
public someType {
get { return theValue.Value; }
}
}
This has the advantage that the backing field is harder to use than the property.
(Another case of an extra level of indirection to solve problems.)

// option 4
class Foo
{
public int PublicProperty { get; set; }
public int PrivateSetter { get; private set; }
}
C# 3.0 feature, the compiler will generate anonymous private backing fields which can't be accessed by mistake, well unless you use reflection...
EDIT: Lazy instantiation
You can have laziness like this:
// I changed this with respect to ShuggyCoUk's answer (Kudos!)
class LazyEval<T>
{
T value;
Func<T> eval;
public LazyEval(Func<T> eval) { this.eval = eval; }
public T Eval()
{
if (eval == null)
return value;
value = eval();
eval = null;
return value;
}
public static implicit operator T(LazyEval<T> lazy) // maybe explicit
{
return lazy.Eval();
}
public static implicit operator LazyEval<T>(Func<T> eval)
{
return new LazyEval(eval);
}
}
Those implicit conversion make the syntax tidy...
// option 5
class Foo
{
public LazyEval<MyClass> LazyProperty { get; private set; }
public Foo()
{
LazyProperty = () => new MyClass();
}
}
And closures can be used to carry scope:
// option 5
class Foo
{
public int PublicProperty { get; private set; }
public LazyEval<int> LazyProperty { get; private set; }
public Foo()
{
LazyProperty = () => this.PublicProperty;
}
public void DoStuff()
{
var lazy = LazyProperty; // type is inferred as LazyEval`1, no eval
PublicProperty = 7;
int i = lazy; // same as lazy.Eval()
Console.WriteLine(i); // WriteLine(7)
}
}

Currently, I'm in a similar situation.
I have a field which should only be used by its property accessor.
I can't use automatic properties, since I need to perform additional logic when the property is set. (The property is not lazy loaded as well).
Wouldn't it be great if a next version of C# would allow something like this:
public class MyClass
{
public int MyProperty
{
int _backingField;
get
{
return _backingField;
}
set
{
if( _backingField != value )
{
_backingField = value;
// Additional logic
...
}
}
}
}
With such construct, the _backingField variable's scope is limited to the property.
I would like to see a similar language construction in a next version of C# :)
But, I'm afraid this feature will never be implemented:
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=381625

This might be overly simple, but why not abstract all the lazy to a base class
public class LazyFoo{
private string bar;
public string Bar{
get{
// lazy load and return
}
set {
// set
}
}
}
public class Foo : LazyFoo{
// only access the public properties here
}
I could see the argument that it is unnecessary abstraction, but it is the simplest way I can see to eliminate all access to backing fields.

This seems like trying to design-out mistakes that might not happen in the first place, and basically it's worrying about the wrong thing.
I would go with option 1 + comments:
///<summary>use Bar property instead</summary>
string bar;
///<summary>Lazy gets the value of Bar and stores it in bar</summary>
string Bar {
get {
// logic to lazy load bar
return bar;
}
}
If you do get a developer who keeps using the backing variable then I'd worry about their technical competence.
By all means design to make your code easier to maintain, but try to keep it simple - any rule that you make for yourself here is going to be more hassle than it's worth.
And if you're still really worried about it create an FxCop (or whatever you're using) rule to check for this sort of thing.

Option 6:
Makes it very dumb indeed if you use it.
string doNotUseThisBackingField_bar6;
string Bar6 {
get {
// logic to lazy load
return doNotUseThisBackingField_bar6;
}
}

Option 4 (a new solution):
See if the question is really about how to prevent people from using an uninitialized variable then init it with an KNOWN INVALID value.
I would say something like:
string str = "SOMETHING_WRONG_HERE";
Who ever is using 'str' will have some sort of warning.
Otherwise Option 3 if preventing users from using 'str' is more important than readability etc.