I like some of the new C# 3.0 features. Extension methods are fun to play around with. Isn't this ridiculous:
(4).Square().ToString().Print(); // Prints 16
No performance drawbacks, and so much fun!
On a more useful note, I've written some extension methods that have been serving me well. (We've just upgraded to Orcas at work.)
internal static class StringExtensions
{
public static void Print(this string str)
{
Console.WriteLine(str);
}
public static void Trace(this string str)
{
System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine(str);
}
public static string Multiply(this string str, int n)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
sb.Append(str);
return sb.ToString();
}
public static string[] SimpleSplit(this string str, string strDelim)
{
return str.Split(new string[] { strDelim }, StringSplitOptions.None);
}
public static string SimpleJoin(this string[] astr, string strDelim)
{
return String.Join(strDelim, astr);
}
public static Boolean IsNullOrEmpty(this string str)
{
return String.IsNullOrEmpty(str);
}
public static int ToInt(this string str)
{
return int.Parse(str);
}
public static Boolean Contains<T>(this T[] a, T val)
{
return a.IndexOf<T>(val) != -1;
}
public static int IndexOf<T>(this T[] a, T val)
{
for (int i = 0; i < a.Length; i++)
if (a[i].Equals(val))
return i;
return -1;
}
// Just like Python!
public static TValue Get<TKey, TValue>(this Dictionary<TKey, TValue> dict, TKey keyTry, TValue defaultVal)
{
TValue ret;
return dict.TryGetValue(keyTry, out ret) ? ret : defaultVal;
}
}
I wish you could overload operators - I wanted to see "ab" * 3 (ababab) and "word"++ (WORD).
C#3 also has introduced object initializers, which are nice. Still no dictionary initializers, though - I'm disappointed. (See also the BidirectionalDictionary). Here's a workaround - I wish I could have used generics.
Dictionary<int, string> d = new Dictionary<int, string>();
d.AddMany( new object[] {4, "a", 5, "e", 6, "f"} );
public static void AddMany<TKey, TValue>(this Dictionary<TKey, TValue> dict, object[] aIn)
{
if (aIn.Length % 2 != 0) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException();
for (int i=0; i<aIn.Length; i+=2)
dict[(TKey) aIn[i]] = (TValue) aIn[i + 1];
}