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~/The Greatest string.FormatWith() Extension Method Implementation In The World

06 April 2014

This is in fact the Greatest string.FormatWith() Extension Method Implementation In The World. I have taken it with me for a few projects now. I found it in Perth, probably thanks to my brother-in-code Rob Moore correction turns out credit is due to Matt Kocoj, and I brought it back along the breadth of our mighty continent. A ‘Journey to the West’, if you will. Less awesome implementations of FormatWith() are just simple inversions of string.Format():

public static string FormatWith(string s, params object[] args)
{
	return string.Format(s, args);
}

which you can use thusly:

"This is {0} the {1} {2} in the {3}".FormatWith(
	"not", "greatest", "string.FormatWith() implementation", "world")

Nice, but let’s be honest, pitiful. Feel the power of this implementation.

public static class StringExtensions
{
    public static string FormatWith(this string format, params object[] args)
    {
        args = args ?? new object[0];
        string result;
        var numberedTemplateCount = (from object match in new Regex(@"\{\d{1,2}\}").Matches(format) select match.ToString()).Distinct().Count();

        if (numberedTemplateCount != args.Length)
        {
            var argsDictionary = args[0].ToDictionary();

            if (!argsDictionary.Any())
            {
                throw new InvalidOperationException("Please supply enough args for the numbered templates or use an anonymous object to identify the templates by name.");
            }

            result = argsDictionary.Aggregate(format, (current, o) => current.Replace("{" + o.Key + "}", (o.Value ?? string.Empty).ToString()));
        }
        else
        {
            result = string.Format(format, args);
        }

        if (result == format)
        {
            throw new InvalidOperationException("You cannot mix template types. Use numbered templates or named ones with an anonymous object.");
        }

        return result;
    }
}

public static class ObjectExtensions
{ 
    public static IDictionary<string, object> ToDictionary(this object o)
    {
        if (o == null) return new Dictionary<string, object>();

        return TypeDescriptor
            .GetProperties(o).Cast<PropertyDescriptor>()
            .ToDictionary(x => x.Name, x => x.GetValue(o));
    }
}

This can be used in the same way as before:

"This is {0} the {1} {2} in the {3}".FormatWith(
	"definitely", "greatest", "string.FormatWith() implementation", "world, but why?")

Or it can go full super-saiyan:

"{who} is {what} who {action} with {target}!".FormatWith(new{
	who = "Hero",
	what = "he alone",
	action = "vies",
	target = "powers supreme"})

WARNING: Now this is probably not the most performant code. If you’re going to run this in a tight loop you may want to go with ye olde string.Format(). The other 99.99% of the time, go forth and be awesome.

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