NetworkInspector.Values 0.17.0

NetworkInspector.Values

Small, fast value types for network identifiers and time: MacAddress, IPv4Address, IPv6Address, Eui64, Uuid, and Timestamp. They are the value types of the whole NetworkInspector stack and work just as well on their own.

Highlights

• Value semantics. Every type is a readonly record struct: no allocation, equality and ordering built in (IEquatable<T>, IComparable<T>, <, >, <=, >=).
• Allocation-free formatting and parsing. ISpanFormattable, IUtf8SpanFormattable, and ISpanParsable<T> let you format into and parse from spans without strings.
• Stable text forms for logs and exports: RFC 5952 IPv6, colon-separated MAC, ISO-8601 timestamps with nanoseconds.
• Address classification: broadcast, multicast, private, loopback, link-local, IPv4-mapped, and more.
• Nanosecond timestamps with TimeSpan arithmetic.
• Standalone. No dependency on the rest of NetworkInspector.

Install

dotnet add package NetworkInspector.Values

Quick Start

using NetworkInspector.Values;

MacAddress mac = MacAddress.FromBytes([0x00, 0x1A, 0x2B, 0x3C, 0x4D, 0x5E]);
IPv4Address ip4 = IPv4Address.FromBytes([192, 168, 1, 10]);
if (!IPv6Address.TryParse("2001:db8::1", out IPv6Address ip6))
{
    throw new FormatException("Invalid IPv6 address.");
}

Timestamp ts = Timestamp.FromSecs(1_700_000_000);

Console.WriteLine(mac); // 00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E
Console.WriteLine(ip4); // 192.168.1.10
Console.WriteLine(ip6); // 2001:DB8::1
Console.WriteLine(ts);  // 2023-11-14T22:13:20.000000000Z

Types

Text output uses uppercase hex; TryParse accepts either case. Parse is available through the generic IParsable<T> / ISpanParsable<T> interfaces; call TryParse directly for untrusted text.

Common Tasks

Classify Addresses

if (ip4.IsPrivate || ip4.IsLoopback)
{
    Console.WriteLine("internal traffic");
}

Format Without Allocating

Span<char> buffer = stackalloc char[64];
if (ip6.TryFormat(buffer, out int written, default, null))
{
    Console.Out.Write(buffer[..written]);
}

Use As Keys

The types are equatable and comparable values, so they work as dictionary keys, in sorted sets, and in ORDER BY-style reports without custom comparers.

Limits And Thread-Safety Notes

• Immutable values: safe to share across threads.
• Timestamp.FromSecs and the other factories throw OverflowException outside the representable range.
• Validate external text with TryParse instead of catching exceptions.

Learn More

• Core · FrameBuilder · Root overview
• GitHub repository · Issue tracker

License

MIT License