Making Your .NET Strings More Groovy

2008-06-06 06:56:00

This is probably the first of a number of posts I'll be writing about uses for C#'s Extension Method capabilities.
The code below will add a Groovy-like execute() method to the String class of .NET.

// the container is a static class and the method uses the 'this' keyword within the first parameter.

// the additional method will be bolted on to the type listed in the first parameter after the 'this'.

public static class GroovyLike

{

    public static void Execute(this string s)

    {

        System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(s);

    }

}

//and then using it

public class Util

{

    public void LaunchExcel()

    {

        "excel.exe".Execute();  

    }

}

For more info see:
MSDN - Extension Methods (C# Programming Guide)
A Set of Useful Extension Methods for DateTime
Tip/Trick: Building a ToJSON() Extension Method using .NET 3.5
Turn DataTable object into a styled HTML table using extension methods in C#