.NET Tips & Tricks Community

How to register a .NET Assembly without using gacutil

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 09:24:32 GMT

If the target machine does not have gacutil.exe (for example if SDK is not installed) doing a .NET script to do the same is very easy.

- Add reference to System.EnterpriseServices assembly and

using System.EnterpriseServices.Internal; 
... 
Publish p = new Publish(); 
// for GAC Installation 
p.GacInstall(file); // for gac installation 
... 
p.GacRemove(file); // for gac removing 
... 
p.RegisterAssembly(file); // for registering assembly for interop 
... 
p.UnRegisterAssembly(file); // to unregister assembly

Carefull thow on Vista you should probably try running the program as an Administrator

submitted by sharpoverride

Why DotNetTipOfTheDay can lick my balls (a memo):

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:13:05 GMT

I think it is safe to say this website sucks ass.

Practically two months without an update when people have been submitting things for you to post.

I am pretty lazy when it comes to a lot of things, and up until today have kept your shitty RSS feed in my reader in hopes that you would actully update the site some day.

But you suck and I hope your website bombs.

Burn in hell.

-thiswebsitesuck

submitted by thiswebsitesucks

Why DotNetTipOfTheDay can lick my balls (a memo):

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:12:44 GMT

I think it is safe to say this website sucks ass.

Practically two months without an update when people have been submitting things for you to post.

I am pretty lazy when it comes to a lot of things, and up until today have kept your shitty RSS feed in my reader in hopes that you would actully update the site some day.

But you suck and I hope your website bombs.

Burn in hell.

-thiswebsitesuck

submitted by thiswebsitesucks

Fill datset without open connection

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:09:21 GMT

There is no need

Connection.Open

Before calling Method

Adapter.Fill(Dataset)

public override DataSet getSMCommentedSubmission(string prodID, string salesID)
        {
            using (SqlConnection cn = new SqlConnection(this.ConnectionString))
            {

                SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("sp_WB_Submission", cn);
                SqlDataAdapter adp = new SqlDataAdapter(cmd);
                DataSet dset = new DataSet();
                cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;

                cmd.Parameters.Add("@SqType", SqlDbType.Int).Value = 48;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@PubPlanID", SqlDbType.Int).Value = null;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@TypeID", SqlDbType.Int).Value = null;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@Title", SqlDbType.VarChar).Value = null;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@CommentID", SqlDbType.Int).Value = null;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@ThemeText", SqlDbType.VarChar).Value = null;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@StorySynopsys", SqlDbType.VarChar).Value = null;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@Status", SqlDbType.VarChar).Value = null;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@Comments", SqlDbType.VarChar).Value = null;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@TimeStamp", SqlDbType.SmallDateTime).Value = null;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@PublisherID", SqlDbType.Int).Value = null;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@PermissionType", SqlDbType.VarChar).Value = null;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@Checked", SqlDbType.VarChar).Value = null;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@SMStatus", SqlDbType.VarChar).Value = null;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@PMStatus", SqlDbType.VarChar).Value = null;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@ProductionManagerID", SqlDbType.VarChar).Value = prodID;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@SalesManagerID", SqlDbType.VarChar).Value = salesID;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@StoryID", SqlDbType.Int).Value = null;
                cmd.Parameters.Add("@Review", SqlDbType.Int).Value = null;


                adp.Fill(dset);

                return dset;

            }
        }

submitted by Ajay

Never lock on a value type

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:01:26 GMT

When locking on a value type it gets boxed, meaning a new object instance is allocated and passed to the lock statement. Thus every time you lock on a value type, you're locking on a new object. Here is an example of bad code:

    private bool flag = false;
 
    public void Method1()
    {
        lock(flag)
        {
            ...
        }
    }

submitted by kostya.ly

need to use either “using” or explicitly close the connection if we use the datareader

Thu, 15 May 2008 16:49:14 GMT

We need to use either “using” or explicitly close the connection if we use the datareader.

Otherwise, it will lead to Connection Pool error. See the underlined text below:

However, there are other cases where it is unclear when to close the connection. An example is the ExecuteReader method. This method returns an object that implements the IDataReader interface. The Database base class has a default implementation that returns a DbDataReader object. DbDataReader objects are designed to read specific portions of the data as needed, which requires an open connection. In other words, it is unknown when the application no longer needs the DbDataReader. If the Data Access Application Block methods close the connection before returning the DbDataReader, the DbDataReader becomes useless to the client code. Instead, the DbDataReader methods indicate to the underlying ADO.NET call to automatically close the connection when the DbDataReader is finished. In this situation, it is considered a best practice for the application to ensure that the DbDataReader is closed in a timely fashion, either by explicitly closing the reader with the DbDataReader.close method or by forcing the disposal of the DbDataReader, which results in the Close method being called.

The following code demonstrates a call to the ExecuteReader method. The using statement (Using in Visual Basic) ensures that the DbDataReader object is disposed, which closes the DbDataReader object.

[C#]

Database db = DatabaseFactory.CreateDatabase();

DbCommand dbCommand = db.GetSqlStringCommand("Select Name, Address From Customers");

using (IDataReader dataReader = db.ExecuteReader(dbCommand))

{

// Process results

}

submitted by saisuchir

BrowsableAttribute

Tue, 13 May 2008 15:43:13 GMT

when u are creating a control, and u decides that a property or a event should not be displayed in property window.

System.ComponentModel.BrowsableAttribute is there for you, to do the above.

Eg:

private string text;

[Browsable(false)]        // True is default
public string Text
      {
         get
         {
            return text;
         }
         set
         {
            text = value;
         }
}

submitted by dhanaid

Get rid of unused usings

Mon, 12 May 2008 20:05:08 GMT

In a Visual Studio 2008 source window, right-click and select Organize Usings | Remove Unused Usings. Visual Studio 2005 users may use ReSharper for this.

P.S. interesting, does this optimization gives you any benefits other than cleaner code?

submitted by kostya.ly

Capitalization of ID and OK abbreviations used in identifiers

Wed, 07 May 2008 01:59:56 GMT

I was wondering how to capitalize properties which have either ID or OK abbreviation in its name. For example, is it TipID or TipId? I have found the answer in Design Guidelines for Developing Class Libraries:

In Pascal-cased identifiers (all identifiers except parameter names) they should appear as Id, and Ok. If used as the first word in a camel-cased identifier, they should appear as id and ok, respectively.

P.S. And of course .NET Framework doesn't fulfil this rule :) For example, Control.ClientID property.

submitted by kostya.ly

How to loop through all rows of the DataTable?

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:35:54 GMT

foreach (DataRow row in dTable.Rows)
{
yourvariable = row["ColumnName"].ToString();
}
 
//OR 
for (int j = 0; j< dTable.Rows.Count; j++)
{
yourvariable = dTable.Rows[j]["ColumnName"].ToString()l
}
 

submitted by Raja

To avoid line by line debug using F11

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:58:47 GMT

Use DebuggerStepThroughAttribute

[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThrough()]

public void sample()

{

// ....

}

submitted by dhanaid

Bind a TreeView to a DataSet or an ObjectDataSource with one line of code

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:19:16 GMT

This post has a class that allows you to bind your TreeView to a dataSet very easily.

http://www.varjabedian.net/archive/2008/04/22/binding-asp.net-treeview-to-a-dataset-or-an-objectdatasource.aspx

submitted by Ralph Varjabedian

Usuful VS Shortcuts

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:23:07 GMT

F7 Jump to Code Behind

Ctrl+F6 Navigate between various opened panes

Ctrl+Shift+V Cycle through the clipboard ring

CTRL+K+K Create or delete Bookmark

Ctrl+K+D Auto-format whole page

Ctrl+K+F Auto-format selection

Ctrl+U Convert to lower case

Ctrl+Shift+U Convert to upper case

Ctrl+M+M Fold/Unfold the current code block

Ctrl+M+L Unfold all

Block Selection Press and hold Alt and then select the area you want with your mouse.

submitted by eswarp

Useful VS Shortcuts

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:20:45 GMT

F7 Jump to Code Behind

Ctrl+F6 Navigate between various opened panes

Ctrl+Shift+V Cycle through the clipboard ring

CTRL+K+K Create or delete Bookmark

Ctrl+K+D Auto-format whole page

Ctrl+K+F Auto-format selection

Ctrl+U Convert to lower case

Ctrl+Shift+U Convert to upper case

Ctrl+M+M Fold/Unfold the current code block

Ctrl+M+L Unfold all

Block Selection Press and hold Alt and then select the area you want with your mouse.

submitted by Eswar

Summary Tag in visual studio 2008 IDE

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 01:00:59 GMT

want to XML comment ur code ??

just type /// (three slashes) on top of any class or method and the vs 2008 ide will automaticaly generate summary tag which will also give you out of the box functionality of intellisense when you use the particualar method with summary tag here is an example

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/tour/vs2005_guided_tour/VS2005pro/Library/XMLComments.2.jpg

submitted by l33tc0der

Can you store multiple data types in System.Array?

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 21:03:45 GMT

If you search the answer for this questions, you will find most websites just copy the answer "No", but actualy the correct answer should be Yes, because the code below proves it: C# System.Object[] test_array = new System.Object[6]; test_array[0]="123go!"; test_array[1]=2007.7; test_array[2]=true;

submitted by Kailash Dhondiyal

Parse vs TryParse in conversion from string

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:51:25 GMT

Consider using TryParse and TryParseExact when converting from string to int, long, DateTime, etc. TryParse functions return true if conversion was successful and resulted value returned in out parameter. They do not throw an exception, which is a lot faster than Parse functions.

string ageStr = "35";
string invalidAgeStr = "TestAge 35";
int age = 0;
 
if (int.TryParse(ageStr, out age))
{
    MessageBox.Show("Age: " + age);
}
if (!int.TryParse(invalidAgeStr, out age))
{
    MessageBox.Show("Invalid Age: " + invalidAgeStr);
}

submitted by Vlad

Opening file in Windows Explorer - Faster

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:57:32 GMT

Using this tip to add the Windows Explorer to the tools list http://dotnettipoftheday.org/tips/explorer-in-tools-menu.aspx. You can assign a keyboard shortcut to it.

Open the tools menu to identify which external command the Windows Explorer is set as, then select Tools -> Customize and choose Keyboard. Enter "External Command" in the search box. Select the command number based on what was displayed in the tools menu and assign a keyboard shortcut.

submitted by MADCookie

Use "it's" and "its" Correctly

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:52:11 GMT

"it's" is the contraction of "it is" "its" is possessive If you can re-word your "its" as "it is" then you're not using it correctly.

submitted by Rich Wilson

Get UserId from User Name in ASP.NET

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:07:13 GMT

MembershipUser myUser = Membership.GetUser();
string userID = myUser.ProviderUserKey.ToString()

MembershipUser myUser = Membership.GetUser(My.User.Name);
string userID = myUser.ProviderUserKey.ToString()

Links

Membership.GetUser Method
Gets the information for a membership user from the data source.

submitted by Jose A. Fernandez

Reading Eventlog of a Remote Machine

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:41:49 GMT

Reading Eventlog of a Remote Machine

Include System.Diagnostics
Getting the eventlogs of a remote machine say MachineName

EventLog[] eLogs = EventLog.GetEventLogs(MachineName); //Can also use IPAddress of the machine as EventLog.GetEventLogs(IPAddress)

The name of the ith eventlog can be obtained from the eLogs[i].LogDisplayName property of the eventlog object.
Suppose we want to get the object for the eventlog named MyEventLog in machine MachineName. We can get that as:

EventLog elog = new EventLog(MyEventLog , MachineName);
To access the different entries in the eventlog we can use the array eLog.Entries
For ith entry, the different properties we can get are:

elog.Entries[i].EntryType

elog.Entries[i].TimeGenerated

elog.Entries[i].Source

elog.Entries[i].Category

elog.Entries[i].InstanceId

elog.Entries[i].UserName

elog.Entries[i].Message

elog.Entries[i].MachineName

submitted by Saurav Kumar Jaiswal

Add Windows Explorer to your Visual Studio tools menu

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 05:57:40 GMT

I often need to open Windows Explorer and browse to the current file, folder, or project that I am working on in Visual Studio. This tip allows you to achieve this by clicking "Windows Explorer" in the Tools menu, and is one of the most simple-yet-useful tips I know of.

To set it up, click "Tools", then "External Tools...", then click "Add". Now enter the following data:
Title: Windows Explorer
Command: explorer.exe
Arguments: /select,"$(ItemPath)"

Leave "Initial directoy" blank, and click "OK". Now when you click "Tools", "Windows Explorer", Windows Explorer will open with the current file you are editing selected.

submitted by Daniel Flower

Toggle intelisense transperancy on the fly

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:32:55 GMT

When typing in VS2008 and intellisense blocks the view of the lines of code underneath. You can hold down the Ctrl key to toggle the opacity of the intelisense box so that you can see the code under it.

submitted by Kalle Hoppe

WPF Textbox memory leak

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:27:39 GMT

While running around in the WPF forums, I found this very interesting post (http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2823829&SiteID=1)… It seems that the WPF TextBox can be dangerous :) - if you do not use it carefully :)

Basically the TextBox by default stores all text changes in an Undo Stack… This implies that every time that you change the Text of the TextBox more memory is consumed by the TextBox.

In order to fix this you have to set the UndoLimit property to 0. This would disable the Undo feature for the TextBox and thus NO MORE MEMORY CONSUMPTION …

Have a nice day

submitted by Marlon Grech

Format your code

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:51:30 GMT

You can format your code by selecting the code you want to format and pressing ctl + K +F. This shortcut can also be applied to html.

submitted by Bilal Shouman

Adding required field validator to DropDownList

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:32:17 GMT

You can set a required field validator to a drop down list as follows

<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlItems" runat="server">
    <asp:ListItem Text="<--Select Item-->" Value=""></asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem Text="Item 1" Value="1"></asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem Text="Item 2" Value="2"></asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem Text="Item 3" Value="3"></asp:ListItem>
</asp:DropDownList>

<asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator1" ControlToValidate="ddlItems" runat="server" ErrorMessage="Please select an item" Text="Pelase select an Item"></asp:RequiredFieldValidator>

submitted by Bilal Shouman

Show/Hide ASP.NET Non-visual controls in the designer

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:19:51 GMT

Sometimes it is useful to show/hide ASP.NET Non-visual controls in the designer. For this:

Swith to Design view
From the View menu, click Visual Aids and select/unselect ASP.NET Non-visual Control option or just press CTRL+SHIFT+N.

Enjoy! :)

submitted by Sergey P.

Chaining the C# ?? Operator

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:33:18 GMT

In C# you can shortcut this special null comparison case with the new ??:

string result = value1 ?? value2;

which is a little easier to write. This is probably not news to you, but what's really useful is that you can chain these operators together so you can do a whole bunch of null comparisons in a single stroke. For example, I frequently look for a few different querystring variables in a page:

string partner = Request.QueryString["GoogleId"] ??
    Request.QueryString["PartnerId"] ??
    Request.QueryString["UserKey"] ??
    string.Empty;

which still yields a valid result for the first non-null querystring or if nothing is found returning "".

More found here: http://www.west-wind.com/weblog/posts/236298.aspx

submitted by Jacob Cook

How to enable Text Editor Guide Lines in Visual Studio

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:29:05 GMT

A not well known feature of Visual Studio (2002/3/5/8) is the ability to add a Guide Line to the text editor, which would show a visible line indicating a specific column. This feature of Visual Studio lets you display a vertical line at the column of your choosing to help visually see when a line is getting too long. This helps you to define a maximum acceptable column, where code should have a line break to look clear and sharp on all monitor resolutions.

Please beware that registry manipulation is needed, so DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Open a command prompt and run the following command:

REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\[Version]\Text Editor" /v Guides /d "RGB([R],[G],[B]) [COL1], [COL2]"

You should replace:

[Version]- the Visual Studio Version (Please note: 2005 = 8.0 ; 2008 = 9.0)
[R] = RGB Red value (0-255) of the line
[G] = RGB Green value (0-255) of the line
[B] = RGB Blue value (0-255) of the line
[COL1] [COL2] = The column number where to show the line. You can have at most 13 lines.

As an example, you can run the following command:

REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Text Editor" /v Guides /d "RGB(128,0,0) 80, 120

Which would add two columns (column 80 and column 120).

Voilá! Now you know when lines are to large...

submitted by Hugo Batista

Disable Theming and StyleSheet theme for one specific page in Asp.Net

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:05:38 GMT

The theming features of asp.net works by just putting one line inside the Web.Config file, this to enable a theme and change the look of the complete website. But what to do when you want to disable everything for one specific page?

There are 2 page directives, Theme and StyleSheetTheme that help setting the themes.

<%@ Page Language=”C#” Theme=”OrangeTheme” StyleSheetTheme=”GreenTheme” %>

But to disable them the documentation will only provide following answer.

<%@ Page Language=”C#” EnableTheming=”false” %>

But the EnableTheming will only effect the choosen theme and will not effect the StyleSheet theme!!!
So to disable both these features just use following code:

<%@ Page Language=”C#” Theme="" StyleSheetTheme="" %>

Took me a while to figure this one out :)

submitted by Glenn Versweyveld

Clear "Recent Projects" list from Start page in Visual Studio .NET

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:35:08 GMT

Here is a nice tips to clear the Recent project list or File list from "Start page" of Visual Studio.Net

Go to Start -> Run -> RegEdit

and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\\ProjectMRUList delete unnecessary list.

Similarly for FileMRuList.

Make sure not disturb other key from the registry.

submitted by Kaushal

Automatic Properties

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:06:11 GMT

In the latest release of Orcas, one of the new features provided is "Automatic Properties" which allows developers to use a shorthand like the following:

public class Person {
 
    public string FirstName {
        get; set;
    }
 
    public string LastName {
        get; set;
    }
 
    public int Age {
        get; set;
    }
}

and the compiler knows to interpret this as

public class Person {
 
    private string _firstName;
    private string _lastName;
    private int _age;
 
    public string FirstName {
        get {
            return _firstName;
        }
        set {
            _firstName = value;
        }
    }
 
    public string LastName {
        get {
            return _lastName;
        }
        set {
            _lastName = value;
        }
    }
 
    public int Age {
        get {
            return _age;
        }
        set {
            _age = value;
        }
    }
}

submitted by Joe

prop Code Snippet in VS 2005

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:04:42 GMT

You can use the "prop" code snippet in VS 2005 to easily create properties inside a class. So, if you type prop inside a class in VS 2005, you will get something like:

private int myVar;
 
public int myProperty
{
    get {return myVar;}
    set {myVar = Value;}
}

As you can see, it defaults to an int, but simply type string on line 1 and it will change both "int" fields to strings. Likewise, changing myVar will not only change it on the first line, but also in both locations within the get/set accessors (line 5 and 6).

submitted by Joe

Easily Creating Properties in VS 2005 (C#)

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:05:48 GMT

You can use the "prop" attribute to easily create properties in vs 2005 (C#).

submitted by Joe

Automatic Source Code Formatting

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:47:21 GMT

You can use ctrl k + d to automatically format your html of server code in VS 2005.

submitted by Joe