How to return a collection from a method. - C# Discussion Boards

Re: making auto serial number for each build of project

Tony Richards9-Jun-10 10:44

Tony Richards

9-Jun-10 10:44

Would a unique assembly version number do the job? You can get one using:

[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.2.*.*")]

See here for how the numbers are generated:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.reflection.assemblyversionattribute.assemblyversionattribute(v=VS.71).aspx[^]

How to build reportviewer using existing dynamic dataset without report wizard

roman_s9-Jun-10 8:24

roman_s

9-Jun-10 8:24

So lets say I have Form1

in Form1 I want to build a reportviewer1 linked to an reportex.rdlc.

I have designed the rdlc and when the code executes it creates the dataset that is returned as dsCount

DataSet dsCount = ConvertDownloadAuditToDataSet(daCountList);

I want reportviewer1 to bind this dsCount to the report.

I know how to build on creating a xsd dataset but when I have an embedded dataset Im not sure how to bind it

For Multilingual Application

Andy Rama9-Jun-10 7:59

Andy Rama

9-Jun-10 7:59

Hi to all,

I want to know,
How to convert => A string of "char" into Text or Bytes information coded using (ISO/IEC 8859-x) character sets according to language used for string of "char" ? Language can be any regional or international.

Thanks & Regards,
Aniket A. Salunkhe

Re: For Multilingual Application

Dimitri Witkowski9-Jun-10 8:50

Dimitri Witkowski

9-Jun-10 8:50

How about:
Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-1").GetBytes("your-string");

Die Energie der Welt ist konstant. Die Entropie der Welt strebt einem Maximum zu.

Re: For Multilingual Application

Andy Rama10-Jun-10 6:07

Andy Rama

10-Jun-10 6:07

Thank you very much for ur help.

I will try it.
I have to use character code tables ISO/IEC 8859-5 to ISO/IEC 8859-15 & few others (from Annex A.2 of 'Specification for Service Information (SI) in DVB systems' http://www.dvb.org/technology/standards/a038r6.tm1217r17.en300468v1.11.1.pdf[^].

Will it work with it?

Is there any way to identify character code table of a given string?

Thanks & Regards,
Aniket A. Salunkhe

Re: For Multilingual Application

Dimitri Witkowski10-Jun-10 6:16

Dimitri Witkowski

10-Jun-10 6:16

Have no idea, whether it work with DVB systems and don't want to read the specification :p
No, there's no built-in mechanism to identify the encoding.
But there are some open-source encoding detectors, here are some examples:
http://code.google.com/p/ude/[^]
http://www.conceptdevelopment.net/Localization/NCharDet/[^]

Die Energie der Welt ist konstant. Die Entropie der Welt strebt einem Maximum zu.

Re: For Multilingual Application

Andy Rama10-Jun-10 6:18

Andy Rama

10-Jun-10 6:18

Thanks again.

How to return a collection from a method.

Chiman19-Jun-10 6:28

Chiman1

9-Jun-10 6:28

public List<string> GetList()
        {
            List<string> list = new List<string>();
            return list;  
        }

But as per msdn we should not expose the generic list.
How to return a list from a method.

2)

Simillarly I have a method which has dictionary as a return type
How to return a dictionary from a method.

3) In my code I have craeted a dictionary as

Dictionary < int , Some Str>

.
Now I need a colletion of keys avaialble in the dictionary.
How to do this.??

Do I need to retrive one by on from dictionary. ??

Re: How to return a collection from a method.

Luc Pattyn9-Jun-10 6:50

Luc Pattyn

9-Jun-10 6:50

Hi,

1.
there is nothing that prevents you from returning a List (or any other collection) like that.
There may be "good practice" or "OO" reasons not to do so under certain circumstances, but it is perfect C#.

2.
see 1.

3.
if you look through the MSDN documentation, more particularly the properties of Dictionary<Tkey, Tvalue>, you will notice it is all there.

Smile | :)

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I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.

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Re: How to return a collection from a method.

Not Active9-Jun-10 6:57

Not Active

9-Jun-10 6:57

FxCop will recommend using ReadOnlyCollection[^]

I know the language. I've read a book. - _Madmatt

Re: How to return a collection from a method. [modified]

#realJSOP9-Jun-10 7:43

#realJSOP

9-Jun-10 7:43

That seems kind of inefficient. Does that mean there are now two copies of the same data in memory? (Actually, with their crappy sample, the array at the end of the Main() method makes a 3rd copy).

.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
-----
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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modified on Wednesday, June 9, 2010 1:50 PM

Re: How to return a collection from a method.

Not Active9-Jun-10 7:47

Not Active

9-Jun-10 7:47

You're not supposed to actually read or use the examples Poke tongue | ;-P

I know the language. I've read a book. - _Madmatt

Re: How to return a collection from a method.

Luc Pattyn9-Jun-10 8:28

Luc Pattyn

9-Jun-10 8:28

John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
Does that mean there are now two copies

No. The way I understand it the ReadOnlyThingy is just a wrapper; it holds a reference to the original collection (and that explains how it tracks the changes to the original collection, see the example), but offers fewer valid operations on that collection. So nothing gets copied.

I haven't used it ever yet, as I see not much point in making the collection read-only, while the items in the collection remain as they were, modifiable at will (except for the silly example that used strings of course).

Smile | :)

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]

I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.

I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).

Re: How to return a collection from a method.

DaveyM699-Jun-10 8:59

DaveyM69

9-Jun-10 8:59

I use them quite a lot. Many times I want a collection to be exposed but not have add and remove methods etc as I don't want the collection itself to be modified. I find it very useful!

Dave

If this helped, please vote & accept answer!

Binging is like googling, it just feels dirtier. (Pete O'Hanlon)

BTW, in software, hope and pray is not a viable strategy. (Luc Pattyn)

Re: How to return a collection from a method.

Luc Pattyn9-Jun-10 9:05

Luc Pattyn

9-Jun-10 9:05

You're probably right, I still have to get used to them...

Smile | :)

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]

I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.

I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).

Re: How to return a collection from a method.

carbon_golem9-Jun-10 7:30

carbon_golem

9-Jun-10 7:30

Try using a custom iterator. Passing back a generic list is wasteful in some cases anyway.

public IEnumerable<String> GetStrings(){
     foreach(var str in stringList){
         yield return str;
     }
}

"Simplicity carried to the extreme becomes elegance."
-Jon Franklin

Re: How to return a collection from a method.

#realJSOP9-Jun-10 7:47

#realJSOP

9-Jun-10 7:47

You can do it that way (and IMHO, if the compiler lets you do it, nobody else has the right to complain, coding style guidelines in force not withstanding), but to ease typing, I create a class derived from the desired collection type:

public class ListOfThings : List<Thing>{}

That way, I can pass/return a ListOfThings object instead of having to type all that crap over and over again.

public ListOfThings GetListOfThings() { get; set; }

I can also add custom methods to the class that perform Thing-specific functionality.

Re: How to return a collection from a method.

Andrew Rissing9-Jun-10 7:55

Andrew Rissing

9-Jun-10 7:55

John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
You can do it that way ...

But you end up actually typing MORE 'things':

ListOfThings
List<thing>

Re: How to return a collection from a method.

#realJSOP9-Jun-10 8:26

#realJSOP

9-Jun-10 8:26

List<thing> - a little shorter
ListOfThings - a little eaiser to read
ThingsList - even shorter and still easier to read - WINNER!

Re: How to return a collection from a method.

dan!sh 9-Jun-10 7:54

dan!sh

9-Jun-10 7:54

It is code analysis that tells to return collections in stead of List. You can make use of a global suppression file in your code to get rid of it.

For dictionary, it would be suggesting a read only collection. Suppress that too if you do not want another object to be returned.

It is up to you to decide till when you are going to follow MS code analysis. I personally follow everything it tells.

Re: How to return a collection from a method.

srng.net9-Jun-10 20:04

srng.net

9-Jun-10 20:04

Regarding Geneneric list as return type :

If you send/return the generic list outside, your collection can be very easily changed
from outside of your class without your permission and you lose total control on the same.
that is why , one should not expose or return generic list and use ReadOnlyCollection instead.

Dot net does not force you to do so but generally its not good programming practice!

Regarding point 2 :

Here also, A ReadOnlyCollection is recommanded.

Regarding point 3 :

You can create your customDictionary in which you can maintain and return the colelction of keys and/or
collection of values as per request.

Remoting with XMLSerializable objects

andyknapp9-Jun-10 4:34

andyknapp

9-Jun-10 4:34

Hi,

I have a web app that talks to a web service using binary remoting. I've been asked to change the solution so that the objects are transported in XML format to allow the data to be audited more easily and to prevent firewall problems.

I have read this article .NET Remoting with an easy example[^] which is great but I'm not clear on how to change my current binary implementation which use TcpClientChannels to a XML Marshal by Value solution.

Is this simple? If so, I would appreciate a work example if possible. Also is it going to provide the customer with what they want? How would you trace the XML objects while the application is running

Many Thanks for your time,

Andy

Re: Remoting with XMLSerializable objects

mud779-Jun-10 9:43

mud77

9-Jun-10 9:43

Hi,
You should be using an IChannel, rendering the channel type meaningless (use the HttpChannel instead of a TcpChannel).

Note!
The xml serializer is different than the binary one and it blindly places values for all public members and properties.

One more thing that may be causing you problems is that there are no back channel tricks like in tcp for passing events or data back to the client.

I am the developer of a bingo card software named The Bingo Maker

I have been developing in .NET since 2003

Error casting delegate in non-generic class

Kalvin @ Work9-Jun-10 4:19

Kalvin @ Work

9-Jun-10 4:19

I started with a generic class which has a delegate. The consumer of this class could set a method callback which requires invoking but they may not also. To address this I check if the callback is ISyncronizeInvoke, if it is then I will call BeginInvoke. This works great as long as the class is a generic class:

public class TestClassGeneric<T>
  {
    public delegate void GetMe();
    private GetMe _call;

    public TestClassGeneric(GetMe theCall)
    {
      _call = theCall;

      System.ComponentModel.ISynchronizeInvoke si =
        _call as System.ComponentModel.ISynchronizeInvoke;
    }
 }

Since I don't need the class to be generic I want to make it just a standard class:

public class TestClassGeneric
  {
    public delegate void GetMe();
    private GetMe _call;

    public TestClassGeneric(GetMe theCall)
    {
      _call = theCall;

      System.ComponentModel.ISynchronizeInvoke si =
        _call as System.ComponentModel.ISynchronizeInvoke;
    }
  }

But then I get a compile error:
"Cannot convert type 'PureLibrary.TestClassGeneric.GetMe' to 'System.ComponentModel.ISynchronizeInvoke' via a reference conversion, boxing conversion, unboxing conversion, wrapping conversion, or null type conversion"

Could someone please help me understand why this makes such a difference? Since the delegate signature didn't change it seems the casting would be the same.

Thank you.

- Kalvin

Re: Error casting delegate in non-generic class [modified]

Dimitri Witkowski9-Jun-10 8:05

Dimitri Witkowski

9-Jun-10 8:05

Very interesting question.
I have an idea why this might happen.

1. Generic class: TestClassGeneric<T>.
GetMe is unknown during the compile-time, because it's defined inside a generic class and the typeparam T may vary at run-time (actually, GetMe in this case will be TestClassGeneric<T>.GetMe).

2. Non-ceneric class: TestClassGeneric.
GetMe is non-generic too, and the compiler may "guess" that the conversion will fail.

Some facts:

System.Action is built-in delegate, it's defined as
public delegate void Action()
If you replace GetMe with Action, you will get an error in two cases.
At the run-time, the conversion will fail, and si will be null.
If you replace
si = _call as System.ComponentModel.ISynchronizeInvoke;
with
si = (System.ComponentModel.ISynchronizeInvoke)_call;,
both generic and non-generic will fail.

Thanks! I'll remember this - it's a very good task and needs understanding of generics in .NET Framework Thumbs Up | :thumbsup:

Die Energie der Welt ist konstant. Die Entropie der Welt strebt einem Maximum zu.
modified on Wednesday, June 9, 2010 2:13 PM

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