Macros in VS.NET

I have to admit I
haven't taken advantage of enough of VS.NET's capabilities... the ability to
write macros alone should have resulted in a ton of useful little routines, but
I have only written a few. One of the ones I use most often converts between a
list of my internal member variables in a class...

 
    Dim m_fred As String
    Dim m_counter As Integer

to the bare-bones properties

 
    Public Property fred() As String
        Get
            Return m_fred
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As String)
            m_fred = Value
        End Set
    End Property

    Public Property counter() As Integer
        Get
            Return m_counter
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As Integer)
            m_counter = Value
        End Set
    End Property

It is dependent on my particular hungarian-ish (m_) naming
style for internal variables and it doesn't deal well with arrays or
variables that get instantiated in their declarations... but I find
it a real timesaver to spit out that initial pass at the
properties before I go in and add any validation or whatever else
I was going to do... On the off chance that you might find it useful as
well, or that you want to "finish it up", here is the source of the
macro:

 

Sub ConvertProperties()
    DTE.UndoContext.Open("ConvertProperties")
    Try
        Dim txt As TextSelection
        txt = DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection

        Dim line, originalCode As String
        originalCode = txt.Text

        Dim lines() As String
        lines = Split(originalCode, vbLf)
        Dim variableName As String
        Dim publicName As String
        Dim dataType As String
        Dim propertyProcedure As String

        Dim r As Regex
        r = New Regex( _
        "(Dim|Private)\s*(?<varname>\S*)\s*As\s*(?<typename>\S*)", _
        RegexOptions.IgnoreCase Or RegexOptions.ExplicitCapture)

        For Each line In lines
            line = line.Trim
            If Not line = "" Then
                Dim mtch As Match
                mtch = r.Match(line)
                If mtch.Success Then
                    variableName = mtch.Groups("varname").Value.Trim
                    dataType = mtch.Groups("typename").Value.Trim
                    publicName = variableName.Substring(2)

                    propertyProcedure = _
                        String.Format("{0}Public Property {1} As {2}{0}" _
                            & "    Get{0}" _
                            & "        Return {3}{0}" _
                            & "    End Get{0}" _
                            & "    Set(ByVal Value As {2}){0}" _
                            & "        {3} = Value{0}" _
                            & "    End Set{0}" _
                            & "End Property", vbCrLf, publicName, _
                            dataType, variableName)

                    txt.Insert(vbCrLf & propertyProcedure, _
                        vsInsertFlags.vsInsertFlagsInsertAtEnd)
                End If

            End If
        Next
        txt.SmartFormat()
    Catch
        'don't do anything
        'but I don't want to see an error!
    End Try
    DTE.UndoContext.Close()
End Sub

Anyone have some real cool/useful VS.NET macros?

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 21, 2003
  VB.NET Property code generation macro in VS.NET. : Jan Tielens' Bloggings
• Anonymous
  March 22, 2003
  Duncan, have you looked at QuickCode .NET? I use this instead of VS.NET macros. There are several "expansions" defined, including one for properties as you describe above.
• Anonymous
  March 22, 2003
  ooh, QuickCode.NET looks pretty neat. I'll have to try it!
• Anonymous
  May 05, 2003
  Chad, wow that is cool! Thanks!
• Anonymous
  April 13, 2004
  The 2 below let you quickly comment out and uncomment (VB.NET) all of the Response.Writes in a file. Great for debugging ASP.NET pages.
  
  Sub CommentResponseDotWrites()
  Dim selection As TextSelection = DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection()
  Dim start As EditPoint = selection.TopPoint.CreateEditPoint()
  Dim endpt As TextPoint = selection.BottomPoint
  Dim commentStart As String = "' "
  Dim txtSel As TextSelection
  
  DTE.UndoContext.Open("Comment Region")
  Try
  Do While (start.LessThan(endpt))
  
  If InStr(start.GetText(start.LineLength).ToLower, "response.write") Then
  start.Unindent()
  start.Insert(commentStart)
  End If
  start.LineDown()
  start.StartOfLine()
  Loop
  Finally
  'If an error occured, then need to make sure that the undo context is cleaned up.
  'Otherwise, the editor can be left in a perpetual undo context
  DTE.UndoContext.Close()
  End Try
  End Sub
  Sub UnCommentResponseDotWrites()
  Dim selection As TextSelection = DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection()
  Dim start As EditPoint = selection.TopPoint.CreateEditPoint()
  Dim endpt As TextPoint = selection.BottomPoint
  Dim commentStart As String = "' "
  
  DTE.UndoContext.Open("Comment Region")
  Try
  Do While (start.LessThan(endpt))
  Dim intComment As Integer
  intComment = InStr(start.GetText(start.LineLength).ToLower, "' response.write")
  If intComment <> 0 Then
  'start.ReplaceText(intComment, "", 0)
  start.Delete(intComment)
  End If
  start.LineDown()
  start.StartOfLine()
  Loop
  Finally
  'If an error occured, then need to make sure that the undo context is cleaned up.
  'Otherwise, the editor can be left in a perpetual undo context
  DTE.UndoContext.Close()
  End Try
  End Sub