We Keep Coding

Function to return a function that returns a function, etc

Is it possible to define a function in a way that it basically returns itself as a delegate?
For example, if this was valid syntax:
public class Scrub
{
public NotNull NotNull<T>(T value, string name)
{
if (value == null) throw new ArgumentNullException(name);
return NotNull;
}
}
Then I could chain method calls together like this.
Scrub.NotNull(param1, nameof(param1))(param2, nameof(param2)(param3, nameof(param3));

Well yes, you can, with your own delegate declaration:
delegate SelfReturner<T> SelfReturner<T>(T value, string name);
static SelfReturner<T> NotNull<T>(T value, string name)
{
if (value == null) throw new ArgumentNullException(name);
return NotNull;
}
... but it doesn't seem useful to me. Any reason you really want to do this, rather than just making three separate calls? For example, I have a Preconditions.CheckNotNull which returns the non-null value - I find that a lot more useful than this looks, to be honest.
As noted in comments, the above only works if all the parameters are of the same type (or all implicitly convertible to the type of the first parameter). An alternative to allow chaining with a bit more work would be to use a singleton instance with a generic method:
public sealed class NullChecker
{
public static NullChecker Instance { get; } = new NullChecker();
private NullChecker() {}
public static NullChecker Scrub<T>(T value, string paramName) where T : class
{
if (value == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException(paramName);
}
return this;
}
}
Use as:
NullChecker.Instance.Scrub(param1, nameof(param1))
.Scrub(param2, nameof(param2))
.Scrub(param3, nameof(param3));
With two separate methods, one static and one not (but with different names) you could remove the Instance part. For example:
NullChecker.Scrub(param1, nameof(param1))
.And(param2, nameof(param2))
.And(param3, nameof(param3));

If you make it an extension method:
public static class Scrub
{
public static T NotNull<T, U>(this T value, U property, string name)
{
if (property == null) throw new ArgumentNullException(name);
return value;
}
}
You can do:
test.NotNull(test.A, nameof(testA.A).NotNull(test.B, nameof(testA.B)));
Not quite what you wanted.

Return instance using reflection in C#

A sample code I tried to return an instance of class is given below.
public object getConstructorclass(int i)
{
if(i==1)
{
Type type = Type.GetType("test1");
}else
{
Type type = Type.GetType("test2");
}
return Activator.CreateInstance(type);
}
var objcls = getConstructorclass(1);
objcls.callclass();//error occured
How can I mention the class type here since the type is not known at compile time but it will decided at runtime.In the above example i just pass a value 1 (it can be anything and that class will be called accordingly), and the class test1 called.
here I will get an error on the line objcls.callclass(), because objcls is an object instance that doesn't have a callclass()method.
How can I restructure this piece of code? My aim is if I mention a class in the getConstructorclass() method, an object should be returned so as to use it in the further code to invoke the members of that class.

If you know that your classes will have this method, you should use a common interface for them and implement it accordingly. Then you will work with classes that you have made sure it will work.
It would look like this
IMyInterface objcls = getconstrorclass() as IMyInterface;
if (objcls != null)
objcls.callclass();
else
// we failed miserably and should do something about it
I don't think you should use some generic object returning constructor based on an int variable, if your classes don't have anything in common. It's really weird to handle it like this and it may lead to various problems (some of which you're currently already experiencing). Generic class constructors make sense if the classes are somewhat related and you can predict the outcome, but to create a do-it-all method.. Not so sure about correctness of such approach.
Anyway, if you insist (not recommended, but as you wish), you can create some checks for a type like this:
var createdObject = getConstructorclass(1);
if (createdObject is MyClass1)
{
var specificObject = (MyClass1)createdObject;
specificObject.callMethod1();
}
else if (createdObject is MyClass2)
{
var specificObject = (MyClass2)createdObject;
specificObject.callSomeOtherMethod();
}
...
But it gets very error prone soon, refactoring will probably be a nightmare etc., but it's your call..
Or you maybe can use solution from pwas, but to me it seems unnecessarily complicated for such a basic task. Looks nice and all, but it still returns only the type "object", so it doesn't really solve your specific problem.
Also, to address one issue I'm not sure you understand - you've already created the instance, you just return type object. That is why you can't call any specific methods on this object, because first you have to cast it to something, that actually has that method and make sure the cast can be done (inheritance etc).

If interface solution (see other answers) is enough, don't look at this answer. When you can't use common base class / interface and you still want call members, you can use solution with is keyword (and check types). Instead of writing many ifs for each case, you can use fluent API:
object obj = this.getConstructorclass();
obj.StronglyInvoke()
.When<int>(value => Console.WriteLine("Got {0} as int", value))
.When<string>(value => Console.WriteLine("Got {0} as string", value))
.OnFail(() => Debug.Write("No handle."))
.Invoke();
Solution:
public class GenericCaller
{
private IList<GenericInvoker> invokers = new List<GenericInvoker>();
private readonly object target;
private Action failAction;
public GenericCaller(object target)
{
if (target == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("target");
}
this.target = target;
}
public GenericCaller OnFail(Action fail)
{
this.failAction = fail;
return this;
}
public GenericCaller When<T>(Action<T> then)
{
if (then == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("then");
}
var invoker = new GenericInvoker<T>(this.target, then);
this.invokers.Add(invoker);
return this;
}
public void Invoke()
{
if (this.invokers.Any(invoker => invoker.Invoke()))
{
return;
}
if (this.failAction == null)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("Handler not found");
}
this.failAction();
}
public abstract class GenericInvoker
{
protected readonly object target;
protected GenericInvoker(object target)
{
this.target = target;
}
public abstract bool Invoke();
}
public class GenericInvoker<T> : GenericInvoker
{
private readonly Action<T> then;
public GenericInvoker(object target, Action<T> then)
: base(target)
{
this.then = then;
}
public override bool Invoke()
{
if (this.target.GetType() == typeof(T))
{
this.then((T)this.target);
return true;
}
return false;
}
}
}
public static class Extensions
{
public static GenericCaller StronglyInvoke(this object o)
{
return new GenericCaller(o);
}
}
Remeber - it would be more elegant to use common interface (as other answers say) - my is only alternative way.

Declare your variable as dynamic
dynamic objcls = getconstrorclass();
Using this the will be determined at run-time, whatever the getconstrorclass method returns. You can access any member of the type and you won't get any error at compile-time. But if you try to access a member which doesn't exists you will get a RuntimeBinderException at runtime.

I would recommend using an interface and restricting the classes that you can instantiate this way to only those that implement the interface.
public interface IMyInterface
{
void callclass();
}
public <T> getConstructorClass()
{
T instance;
Type type = Type.GetType("test1");
// instance will be null if the object cannot be cast to type T.
instance = Activator.CreateInstance(type) as T;
return T;
}
IMyInterface objcls = getConstructorClass<IMyInterface>();
if(null != objcls)
{
objcls.callclass();
}

not sure what you want to achieve in the end, but this looks like a job for "Dependency Injection" - here is a nice sample using autofac

How to promise the compiler that the generic type will have a certain property?

I'd like to use a certain operation for multiple variable types (both native and objects) so I'm using the generic return type as follows.
private Generic Field<Generic>(String field)
{
if (BagOfJunk.Properties.Contains(field))
return (Generic)BagOfJunk[field];
return default(Generic);
}
This works well (and BagOfJunk is just a property of this from which I'm pulling out Object typed values). Now, during run-time, when a field isn't contained in the bag, I get the default value to be null. Hence, in the code, I need to perform a check as follows.
NumericType protoNumber = Field<NumericType>("beep");
int number = protoNumber != null ? protoNumber.Value : -1;
DateType protoDate = Field<DateType>("boop");
DateTime date = protoDate != null ? protoDate.Value : null;
I'd like to make the code more compact, so I tried to design a method that does the above four lines in one swoop, for a generic type. The result is below but, of course, it doesn't compile, because the type GenericIn isn't specific enough to have a property Value.
private GenericOut Field<GenericIn, GenericOut>(String field)
{
GenericIn input = Field<GenericIn>(field);
if (input != null)
return (GenericOut)input.Value;
return default(GenericOut);
}
How can I ensure the computer that my GenericIn isn't general - by promising that whatever stuff I'll shove into it, it'll always have the property Value in it?
Edit
It should be emphasized that the type of Value needs to be generic ( equivalent to GenericOut). I noticed that I didn't stress that strongly enough. So the interface that can be used need to declare a property of general type like the following.
interface ObjectWithValue { public Generic Value { get; } }

You can use an interface and apply a where constraint on the type to implement that interface, like below:
interface IHasPropertyValue<TValue> {
TValue Value { get; }
}
class MyType {
public TValue Method<T, TValue>(T obj) where T : IHasPropertyValue<TValue> {
return obj.Value;
}
}
EDIT: Modified the code above to make it more specific to the comment asked below.

put that property in an interface (or a class) and use the generic constraint "where":
public interface IMyInterface
{
public object Value { get; set; }
}
public class C<T> where T:IMyInterface

To build upon the answers so far, you need to create an interface that will be implemented by your GenericIn that will both guarantee that it has a property Value and that the property is of type GenericOut.
interface IHasValue<TOut>
{
TOut Value { get; }
}
private TOut Field<TIn, TOut>(string field) where TIn : IHasValue<TOut>
{
var input = Field<TIn>(field);
return input == null ? default(TOut) : input.Value;
}

Resolving a parameter name at runtime [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
Finding the Variable Name passed to a Function in C#
In C#, is there a way (terser the better) to resolve the name of a parameter at runtime?
For example, in the following method, if you renamed the method parameter, you'd also have to remember to update the string literal passed to ArgumentNullException.
public void Woof(object resource)
{
if (resource == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("resource");
}
// ..
}

One way:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine("Name is '{0}'", GetName(new {args}));
Console.ReadLine();
}
This code also requires a supporting function:
static string GetName<T>(T item) where T : class
{
var properties = typeof(T).GetProperties();
Enforce.That(properties.Length == 1);
return properties[0].Name;
}
Basically the code works by defining a new Anonymous Type with a single Property consisting of the parameter who's name you want. GetName() then uses reflection to extract the name of that Property.
There are more details here: http://abdullin.com/journal/2008/12/13/how-to-find-out-variable-or-parameter-name-in-c.html

Short answer: No, there isn't. (Is that terse enough? ;)
(EDIT: Justin's answer probably counts. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but it accomplishes the goal of "no need to put the parameter name into a string". I don't think I'd really count AOP though, as that's really changing to a completely different approach rather than answering the original question of getting a parameter name from within a method.)
Longer answer: There's a way to find out all the parameters of a method, but I don't think it's useful in this case.
Here's an example which displays the parameter names from a couple of methods:
using System;
using System.Reflection;
class Test
{
static void Main()
{
Foo(null);
Bar(null);
}
static void Foo(object resource)
{
PrintParameters(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod());
}
static void Bar(object other)
{
PrintParameters(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod());
}
static void PrintParameters(MethodBase method)
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}:", method.Name);
foreach (ParameterInfo parameter in method.GetParameters())
{
Console.WriteLine(" {0} {1}",
parameter.ParameterType,
parameter.Name);
}
}
}
So that does that, but if you have multiple parameters and you wanted to throw an appropriate exception, how would you know (in a safe way) which to use? Ideally you want something like:
public void Woof(object resource)
{
if (resource == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException(infoof(resource));
}
// ..
}
where the mythical infoof operator would return a ParameterInfo. Unfortunately this doesn't exist.

I dealt with this very same issue. There are a couple of ways of getting the parameter name but the most performant is to dip down into the IL. You can see an example of my implementation on my blog post on this very issue Taking the pain out of parameter validation.
The one caveat to this approach is you need to pass the parameter name in as a delegate but it is small price to pay for cleaner code:
public void SomeMethod(string value)
{
Validate.Argument(() => value).IsNotNull().IsNotEmpty();
}
Which is somewhat cleaner and clearer than:
public void SomeMethod(string value)
{
if (value == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("value");
}
if (value == string.Empty)
{
throw new ArgumentException("Value cannot be an empty string.", "value");
}
}
The static method approach has allowed me to chain a number of methods together in a fluent interface. Initially an Argument object is returned which only allows a basic null test which returns a ReferenceArgument object which can then have additional validation. If the object under test is a value type then different tests are available.
The API allows for a number of common tests but it would be hard to capture all the possible tests so to provide flexibility a generic test method allows an expression or function to be provided and in the case of the former the expression can actually be used as the error message.
My example only covers a few of the basics but you can easily expand the interface to check for ranges and throw ArgumentOutOfRangeExceptions or test objects inherit from a specific base class or implement an interface. There are some similar implementations but I have not as yet seen any that get the parameter name.

You can get this information using AOP. You can define an intercept that is invoked before method execution and throw the exception there. This also takes care of the problem that null checking is a cross-cutting concern.
PostSharp is a good simple implementation of AOP.
Here's what your code would look like (haven't tested, but it should get you very close)
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Parameter)]
public class CanBeNullAttribute : Attribute
{
private readonly bool canBeNull;
public CanBeNullAttribute()
: this(true)
{
}
public CanBeNullAttribute(bool canBeNull)
{
this.canBeNull = canBeNull;
}
public bool AllowNull
{
get { return canBeNull; }
}
}
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method, AllowMultiple = false, Inherited = true)]
public class EnforceNullConstraintAttribute : OnMethodInvocationAspect
{
public override void OnInvocation(MethodInvocationEventArgs eventArgs)
{
object[] arguments = eventArgs.GetArgumentArray();
ParameterInfo[] parameters = eventArgs.Delegate.Method.GetParameters();
for (int i = 0; i < arguments.Length; i++)
{
if (arguments[i] != null) continue;
foreach (CanBeNullAttribute attribute in parameters[i].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(CanBeNullAttribute), true))
{
if (!attribute.AllowNull) throw new ArgumentNullException(parameters[i].Name);
}
}
base.OnInvocation(eventArgs);
}
}
Now, you can modify your method:
[EnforceNullConstraint]
public void Woof([CanBeNull(false)] object resource)
{
// no need to check for null, PostSharp will weave it at compile time
// execute logic assured that "resource" is not null
}

You might want:
1)
public static void ThrowIfNull<T>(Expression<Func<T>> expr)
{
if (expr == null || expr.Compile()() != null) //the compile part is slow
return;
throw new ArgumentNullException(((MemberExpression)expr.Body).Member.Name);
}
or
2)
public static void ThrowIfNull<T>(Expression<Func<T>> expr)
{
if (expr == null)
return;
var param = (MemberExpression)expr.Body;
if (((FieldInfo)param.Member).GetValue(((ConstantExpression)param.Expression).Value) == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException(param.Member.Name);
}
And call it:
Class.ThrowIfNull(() => resource);
But that's not what you would want probably. Its also a lot slower 1) is abt 1000 times slower than 2). May be:
3)
public static void ThrowIfNull<T>(this T item) where T : class
{
if (item == null)
return;
var param = typeof(T).GetProperties()[0];
if (param.GetValue(item, null) == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException(param.Name);
}
And call it:
new { resource }.ThrowIfNull();
Cleaner, much faster than above 2! :)
You can also extend these methods for properties of objects. For eg.,
new { myClass.MyProperty1 }.ThrowIfNull();
You can cache property values to improve performance further as property names don't change during runtime. See related question Finding the variable name passed to a function

Generics in c# & accessing the static members of T

My question concerns c# and how to access Static members ... Well I don't really know how to explain it (which kind of is bad for a question isn't it?) I will just give you some sample code:
Class test<T>{
int method1(Obj Parameter1){
//in here I want to do something which I would explain as
T.TryParse(Parameter1);
//my problem is that it does not work ... I get an error.
//just to explain: if I declare test<int> (with type Integer)
//I want my sample code to call int.TryParse(). If it were String
//it should have been String.TryParse()
}
}
So thank you guys for your answers (By the way the question is: how would I solve this problem without getting an error). This probably quite an easy question for you!
Edit: Thank you all for your answers!
Though I think the try - catch phrase is the most elegant, I know from my experience with vb that it can really be a bummer. I used it once and it took about 30 minutes to run a program, which later on only took 2 minutes to compute just because I avoided try - catch.
This is why I chose the switch statement as the best answer. It makes the code more complicated but on the other hand I imagine it to be relatively fast and relatively easy to read. (Though I still think there should be a more elegant way ... maybe in the next language I learn)
Though if you have some other suggestion I am still waiting (and willing to participate)

The problem is that TryParse isn't defined on an interface or base class anywhere, so you can't make an assumption that the type passed into your class will have that function. Unless you can contrain T in some way, you'll run into this a lot.
Constraints on Type Parameters

Short answer, you can't.
Long answer, you can cheat:
public class Example
{
internal static class Support
{
private delegate bool GenericParser<T>(string s, out T o);
private static Dictionary<Type, object> parsers =
MakeStandardParsers();
private static Dictionary<Type, object> MakeStandardParsers()
{
Dictionary<Type, object> d = new Dictionary<Type, object>();
// You need to add an entry for every type you want to cope with.
d[typeof(int)] = new GenericParser<int>(int.TryParse);
d[typeof(long)] = new GenericParser<long>(long.TryParse);
d[typeof(float)] = new GenericParser<float>(float.TryParse);
return d;
}
public static bool TryParse<T>(string s, out T result)
{
return ((GenericParser<T>)parsers[typeof(T)])(s, out result);
}
}
public class Test<T>
{
public static T method1(string s)
{
T value;
bool success = Support.TryParse(s, out value);
return value;
}
}
public static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine(Test<int>.method1("23"));
Console.WriteLine(Test<float>.method1("23.4"));
Console.WriteLine(Test<long>.method1("99999999999999"));
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
I made a static dictionary holding a delegate for the TryParse method of every type I might want to use. I then wrote a generic method to look up the dictionary and pass on the call to the appropriate delegate. Since every delegate has a different type, I just store them as object references and cast them back to the appropriate generic type when I retrieve them. Note that for the sake of a simple example I have omitted error checking, such as to check whether we have an entry in the dictionary for the given type.

To access a member of a specific class or interface you need to use the Where keyword and specify the interface or base class that has the method.
In the above instance TryParse does not come from an interface or base class, so what you are trying to do above is not possible. Best just use Convert.ChangeType and a try/catch statement.
class test<T>
{
T Method(object P)
{
try {
return (T)Convert.ChangeType(P, typeof(T));
} catch(Exception e) {
return null;
}
}
}

One more way to do it, this time some reflection in the mix:
static class Parser
{
public static bool TryParse<TType>( string str, out TType x )
{
// Get the type on that TryParse shall be called
Type objType = typeof( TType );
// Enumerate the methods of TType
foreach( MethodInfo mi in objType.GetMethods() )
{
if( mi.Name == "TryParse" )
{
// We found a TryParse method, check for the 2-parameter-signature
ParameterInfo[] pi = mi.GetParameters();
if( pi.Length == 2 ) // Find TryParse( String, TType )
{
// Build a parameter list for the call
object[] paramList = new object[2] { str, default( TType ) };
// Invoke the static method
object ret = objType.InvokeMember( "TryParse", BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, null, paramList );
// Get the output value from the parameter list
x = (TType)paramList[1];
return (bool)ret;
}
}
}
// Maybe we should throw an exception here, because we were unable to find the TryParse
// method; this is not just a unable-to-parse error.
x = default( TType );
return false;
}
}
The next step would be trying to implement
public static TRet CallStaticMethod<TRet>( object obj, string methodName, params object[] args );
With full parameter type matching etc.

This isn't really a solution, but in certain scenarios it could be a good alternative: We can pass an additional delegate to the generic method.
To clarify what I mean, let's use an example. Let's say we have some generic factory method, that should create an instance of T, and we want it to then call another method, for notification or additional initialization.
Consider the following simple class:
public class Example
{
// ...
public static void PostInitCallback(Example example)
{
// Do something with the object...
}
}
And the following static method:
public static T CreateAndInit<T>() where T : new()
{
var t = new T();
// Some initialization code...
return t;
}
So right now we would have to do:
var example = CreateAndInit<Example>();
Example.PostInitCallback(example);
However, we could change our method to take an additional delegate:
public delegate void PostInitCallback<T>(T t);
public static T CreateAndInit<T>(PostInitCallback<T> callback) where T : new()
{
var t = new T();
// Some initialization code...
callback(t);
return t;
}
And now we can change the call to:
var example = CreateAndInit<Example>(Example.PostInitCallback);
Obviously this is only useful in very specific scenarios. But this is the cleanest solution in the sense that we get compile time safety, there is no "hacking" involved, and the code is dead simple.

Do you mean to do something like this:
Class test<T>
{
T method1(object Parameter1){
if( Parameter1 is T )
{
T value = (T) Parameter1;
//do something with value
return value;
}
else
{
//Parameter1 is not a T
return default(T); //or throw exception
}
}
}
Unfortunately you can't check for the TryParse pattern as it is static - which unfortunately means that it isn't particularly well suited to generics.

The only way to do exactly what you're looking for would be to use reflection to check if the method exists for T.
Another option is to ensure that the object you send in is a convertible object by restraining the type to IConvertible (all primitive types implement IConvertible). This would allow you to convert your parameter to the given type very flexibly.
Class test<T>
{
int method1(IConvertible Parameter1){
IFormatProvider provider = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.GetFormat(typeof(T));
T temp = Parameter1.ToType(typeof(T), provider);
}
}
You could also do a variation on this by using an 'object' type instead like you had originally.
Class test<T>
{
int method1(object Parameter1){
if(Parameter1 is IConvertible) {
IFormatProvider provider = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.GetFormat(typeof(T));
T temp = Parameter1.ToType(typeof(T), provider);
} else {
// Do something else
}
}
}

Ok guys: Thanks for all the fish. Now with your answers and my research (especially the article on limiting generic types to primitives) I will present you my solution.
Class a<T>{
private void checkWetherTypeIsOK()
{
if (T is int || T is float //|| ... any other types you want to be allowed){
return true;
}
else {
throw new exception();
}
}
public static a(){
ccheckWetherTypeIsOK();
}
}

You probably cant do it.
First of all if it should be possible you would need a tighter bound on T so the typechecker could be sure that all possible substitutions for T actually had a static method called TryParse.

You may want to read my previous post on limiting generic types to primitives. This may give you some pointers in limiting the type that can be passed to the generic (since TypeParse is obviously only available to a set number of primitives ( string.TryParse obviously being the exception, which doesn't make sense).
Once you have more of a handle on the type, you can then work on trying to parse it. You may need a bit of an ugly switch in there (to call the correct TryParse ) but I think you can achieve the desired functionality.
If you need me to explain any of the above further, then please ask :)

Best code: restrict T to ValueType this way:
class test1<T> where T: struct
A "struct" here means a value type.
String is a class, not a value type.
int, float, Enums are all value types.
btw the compiler does not accept to call static methods or access static members on 'type parameters' like in the following example which will not compile :(
class MyStatic { public static int MyValue=0; }
class Test<T> where T: MyStatic
{
public void TheTest() { T.MyValue++; }
}
=> Error 1 'T' is a 'type parameter', which is not valid in the given context
SL.

That is not how statics work. You have to think of statics as sort of in a Global class even if they are are spread across a whole bunch of types. My recommendation is to make it a property inside the T instance that can access the necessary static method.
Also T is an actual instance of something, and just like any other instance you are not able to access the statics for that type, through the instantiated value. Here is an example of what to do:
class a {
static StaticMethod1 ()
virtual Method1 ()
}
class b : a {
override Method1 () return StaticMethod1()
}
class c : a {
override Method1 () return "XYZ"
}
class generic<T>
where T : a {
void DoSomething () T.Method1()
}