Shadow.Quack 2.0.4

Shadow Quack

This package allows the easy population of values directly from an existing object or dynamic to a dynamically implemented immutable interface it also allow the merge of several objects or dynamic retuning a new object.

Though it is possible to use interfaces with both getters and setters the intent is for use with interfaces with get-only properties making the contract immutable.

The combination of these two functions makes an interface the only required data contract. The merge functionality allows for functional operations to return an new object with the values from one or more source. The use of a dynamic in this context allows for the simple overriding of one or more properties. The resulting new object has the new property values set with the remaining properties carrying the values through from the source.

There are also many abstraction applications where being able to Duck Type data to an interface from an object outside of your control turns out to be very useful.

Duck.Implement<T>()

 public interface IData
 {
    int Property1 { get; }
    string Property2 { get; }
 }

 var data = Duck.Implement<IData>(new
 {
     Property1 = 100,
     Property2 = "This"
 });        

Duck.Merge<T>()

 var data = Duck.Implement<IData>(new
 {
     Property1 = 100,
     Property2 = "This"
 });

 var merged = Duck.Merge<IData>(data, new {Property2 = "That"});

This results in Property1 = 100, and Property2 = "That", this is useful if you want to take an existing object and just update one property, this creates a new object keeping the immutability of the original source. You can merge several objects on a last one wins basis.

 var data = Duck.Implement<IData>(new
 {
     Property1 = 100,
     Property2 = "This"
 });

 var merged = Duck.Merge<IData>(data, 
     new { Property2 = "That" }, 
     new { Property1 = 35 }, 
     new { Property2 = "Other" });

This results in Property1 = 35, and Property2 = "Other"

Cast Extensions

The following extensions are exposed for general use.

.CastStringTo<T>([T default])

Allows casting of a string value to the below set of native types, with an optional default value

• string
• char or char?
• long or long?
• int or int?
• byte or byte?
• short or short?
• bool or bool?
• DateTime or DateTime?
• decimal or decimal?
• float or float?
• double or double?

 var stringValue = "123";
 var intValue = stringValue.CastStringTo<int>, -1);

intValue will be 123, passing an empty or null string would return -1.

.CastStringToEnum<T>()

The cast is case insensitive and will interpret a space " " as an underscore "_" e.g. My Enum Value = My_Enum_Value

 public enum MyEnum
 {
    TypeOne = 1,
    TypeThree = 3,
    Type_Four = 4
 }
 ...
 var stringValue = "type four";
 var intValue = stringValue.CastStringToEnum<MyEnum>();

This will cast it to MyEnum.Type_Four.

Merge Extensions

The following extensions give a cleaner usage of the Merge/<T/>() function

 var config = Duck.Implement<IConfig>(new
 {
    Int64Value = "12345",
    NumericValue = "123"
 });

 var result = config.MergeWithTo<IMergedConfig>(new { NumericValue = "456" });

 var config = Duck.Implement<IConfig>(new
    {
        Int64Value = "12345",
        NumericValue = "123"
    });

 config = config.MergeWith(new { NumericValue = "456" });

Notes

If <T> is not an interface, with the exceprion of the cast extensions, an InterfaceExpectedException will be thrown.

IProxy

Shadow Quack also allows extension via Proxy types, this is done via an IProxy interface and a custom Type and Property classes.

The extensions written already, provided in separate packages, include;

• Shadow Quack JSON
• Shadow Quack CSV
• Shadow Quack XML
• Shadow Quack Args

There is also a further extension of this ecosystem in Quack API which includes custom implementation of JsonConverter and JsonConvertorFactory, that wrap the JSON proxy, to allow the use of Interfaces as return and parameter types in ASP .Net API calls.