Getting started

Install the package

Add the Meziantou.Framework package to a project:

dotnet package add Meziantou.Framework

The examples of this documentation omit the using directives. Most of them need using Meziantou.Framework;, and the collections need using Meziantou.Framework.Collections;.

Compare and clean strings

The string extensions make the comparison explicit, and handle null:

// Ordinal comparisons, with or without case
Assert.True("Content-Type".EqualsIgnoreCase("content-type"));
Assert.False("Content-Type".EqualsOrdinal("content-type"));
Assert.True("Content-Type: text/html".ContainsIgnoreCase("TEXT/HTML"));

// EqualsIgnoreCase and EqualsOrdinal accept null values
string? missing = null;
Assert.False(missing.EqualsIgnoreCase("value"));
Assert.True(missing.EqualsOrdinal(null));

See Strings for the other string helpers.

Format values for machines

ToStringInvariant formats numbers and dates with the invariant culture, for file names, logs, protocols and anything that must not depend on the culture of the user:

// Numbers, dates and any IFormattable, formatted with the invariant culture
Assert.Equal("1234.5", 1234.5.ToStringInvariant());
Assert.Equal("1,234.50", 1234.5m.ToStringInvariant("N2"));
Assert.Equal("2024-03-15", new DateOnly(2024, 3, 15).ToStringInvariant("yyyy-MM-dd"));
Assert.Equal("00:30:00", TimeSpan.FromMinutes(30).ToStringInvariant());

See Formatting and cultures.

Work with sequences

string?[] values = ["a", null, "", " ", "b"];

// Remove null values, and get a sequence of non-nullable items
IEnumerable<string> notNull = values.WhereNotNull();
Assert.Equal(["a", "", " ", "b"], notNull);
Assert.Equal(["a", " ", "b"], values.WhereNotNullOrEmpty());
Assert.Equal(["a", "b"], values.WhereNotNullOrWhiteSpace());

// Treat a null sequence as an empty one
IEnumerable<int>? missing = null;
Assert.Empty(missing.EmptyIfNull());

See Sequences.

Keep the last items

CircularBuffer<T> keeps a fixed number of items, and can overwrite the oldest one when it is full:

var buffer = new CircularBuffer<int>(3) { AllowOverwrite = true };
buffer.AddLast(1);
buffer.AddLast(2);
buffer.AddLast(3);
Assert.Equal([1, 2, 3], buffer);

buffer.AddLast(4); // overwrites 1
Assert.Equal([2, 3, 4], buffer);

See Collections for the other collections.

Next steps

Browse the topics of the introduction: each page stands on its own.