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

What are expressions?

C# 3.0 was introduced in late 2007, and its killer feature was something called Language-Integrated Query (LINQ). With the underlying API model and combination of new capabilities in C#, it introduced a programming paradigm that bridges into the more functional programming space. The fluent interfaces and its use of lambdas can feel foreign if you’re used to more object-oriented approaches.

What it brought to the table was a way of expressing queries for data in a more natural native C# way. Not only does it do this for your in-memory collections, but also for any other data source, such as a database. It basically gave developers a uniform way of expressing queries, filters, and projections.

It did this by recognizing that a query operation consists of the following three distinct parts:

  • The data source
  • The query expression
  • Executing the query

Let’s look at an example without LINQ and compare it to how you could do the...