Book Image

Metaprogramming in C#

By : Einar Ingebrigtsen
Book Image

Metaprogramming in C#

By: Einar Ingebrigtsen

Overview of this book

Metaprogramming is an advanced technique that helps developers to automate repetitive tasks, generate scalable code, and enhance productivity in software development. Metaprogramming in C# is a comprehensive guide that will help you reap the full potential of metaprogramming in .NET runtime. You’ll start by learning about the .NET runtime environment and how you can use it to become a more productive developer. You'll learn how to infer types using reflection, use attributes, and create dynamic proxies. You’ll also explore the use of expressions to create and execute code and how to take advantage of Dynamic Language Runtime. But that's not all! You’ll also learn to go beyond inheritance and use method signature conventions to create easily maintainable code. Finally, you’ll dive into the world of compiler magic with Roslyn, where you'll discover how to use Roslyn to generate code, perform static code analysis, and write your own compiler extensions. By the end of this book, you’ll have a deep understanding of metaprogramming concepts and how to apply them to your C# code. You’ll be able to think about types, use attributes and expressions to generate code, and apply crosscutting concerns to improve code quality.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
1
Part 1:Why Metaprogramming?
5
Part 2:Leveraging the Runtime
12
Part 3:Increasing Productivity, Consistency, and Quality
18
Part 4:Compiler Magic Using Roslyn

Convention over Configuration

Our programs need to be configured. Some of these configurations are things such as connection strings to a database or a URL for a REST API we are calling. These might change depending on the different environments our code is running in (e.g. development, testing, or production). On top of this, we often have to configure our code to be able to run as we expect. The type of configuration we do is often dictated by some third-party library or framework we’re using. In growing solutions, this type of configuration tends to also grow, and since configuration is often done at a specific point during the startup of the program, it’s not uncommon to end up with large files acting as dumping grounds for this type of thing.

In this chapter, we will look into how we can leverage the power of the metadata we already have in running code to make code automatically configure itself and become more consistent as a result.

We will cover the following...