Tips

Finds of the Week – March 2, 2008

Programming

C#.NET

.NET Tips & Tricks

  • Did you know you can give threads any names you want (MSDN)? The names are extremely useful when it comes to debugging time:

    Thread names and debugging

  • System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory will create all directories and subdirectories as specified by the path parameter. No need to write code to create each directory in the chain. Just do this:
    Directory.CreateDirectory(@"c:\MyApp\Env\Dev");
  • System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName returns the directory name from a fully qualified file name.

Powershell

  • Round-robin game scheduling algorithm in Powershell. By Scott Hanselman. Check out my C# 2.0 algorithm in the comments section.
  • Mitch Denny wrote How To: Host the PowerShell Runtime.
  • Use Powershell array expression syntax @(…) allows you to force a scalar return value to be wrapped in a array, if it’s not already in an array. I learned about this the hard way while trying to figure out while Get-Childitem sometimes returns an array and sometimes a scalar. Bruce Payette wrote more about it here.

Windows Mobile / Pocket PC

  • I needed a way to stream music and other media to my Windows Mobile phone (Samsung SCH-i760) and all the PCs around the house. Orb seems to be the answer. I’ve only had it running for a few days but it seems to be working great. I can stream music and photos (have not tested videos yet) to any PC in the house or anywhere on the net. I can also listen to my entire music library on my i760 phone anytime, anywhere through Verizon Wireless’s unlimited (with a catch… not to exceed 5GB) EDVO connection.

    Orb Mycast

  • I am a Google Mobile guy, but Yahoo! Go for Windows Mobile also looks very cool. I downloaded it to my Samsung SCH-i760 a few days ago. I am still checking it out but here are a few things I like:
    • Nice and responsive interface.
    • Built-in RSS Reader.
    • Street and satellite maps.

      Here are a few screenshots:

      Yahoo! Go

      Yahoo! Go

      Yahoo! Go Weather 

Software and Tools

  • You can configure Notepad++ to always use spaces for tabs/indentation. The option is a little hidden. It’s in Settings/Preferences/MISC, under Tab Setting:

    Notepad++ tab to spaces setting

Something a Little Different

Put GetOrdinal Method to Good Use

How often do you see DataReader code that looks like this?

using (IDataReader dr = cmd.ExecuteNonQuery())
{
    while (dr.Read())
    {
        int orderId = dr.GetInt32(0);
        string customerId = dr.GetString(1);
        int employeeId = dr.GetInt32(2);
        DateTime orderDate = dr.GetDateTime(3);
        double freight = dr.GetDouble(4);

        // do stuff
    }

    dr.Close();
}

If that looks like your code, you are not alone :-). Try searching codesearch.google.com for the following:

lang:c# (reader|dr)\.GetInt32\(

codesearch google

With the above code, anytime the order of columns in the SQL statement or stored procedure changes, the code is broken. And if you have lots of columns to read from, it’s a real nightmare to maintain the indexes.

The next time you write another DataReader loop, consider doing it this way instead:

using (IDataReader dr = cmd.ExecuteNonQuery())
{
    int ORDER_ID = dr.GetOrdinal("OrderID");
    int CUSTOMER_ID = dr.GetOrdinal("CustomerID");
    int EMPLOYEE_ID = dr.GetOrdinal("EmployeeID");
    int ORDER_DATE = dr.GetOrdinal("OrderDate");
    int FREIGHT = dr.GetDecimal("Freight");

    while (dr.Read())
    {
        int orderId = dr.GetInt32(ORDER_ID);
        string customerId = dr.GetString(CUSTOMER_ID);
        int employeeId = dr.GetInt32(EMPLOYEE_ID);
        DateTime orderDate = dr.GetDateTime(ORDER_DATE);
        double freight = dr.GetDouble(FREIGHT);

        // do stuff
    }

    dr.Close();
}

Using GetOrdinal makes the code much more readable and maintainable. You are calling GetOrdinal just once for each column, any performance penalty is insignificant compared to the benefits. Be careful not to put the GetOrdinal code inside the while block as that will unnecessarily slow you down (about 3% according to this article).

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How to Open Containing Explorer Folder in Visual Studio

I think this is useful and not well known enough to warrant its own blog post.

Did you know that there is a Visual Studio command called File.OpenContainingFolder? Asmita A Wankhede wrote about it, but he left a few important details out.

By default, this command does not have a shortcut, so you would have to assign one to it (try CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+O). Also, the "item" that this command works on is the currently opened item in the editor, not the selected item in the Solution Explorer. See my Visual Studio tips article for instructions on how to create new shortcuts (section 3 – Make New Shortcuts).

File.OpenContainingFolder

This works with both Visual Studio 2005 and 2008.

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Finds of the Week – January 6, 2008

It’s 2008. Happy New Year!

Tips and Tricks

  • I can’t believe I didn’t know about this Visual Studio command before: File.OpenContainingFolder. Asmita A Wankhede mentioned it, but he left a few important details out. By default, this command does not have a shortcut, so you would have to assign one to it (try CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+O). Also, the "item" that this command works on is the currently opened item in the editor, not the selected item in the Solution Explorer. See my Visual Studio tips article for instructions on how to create new shortcuts (section 3 – Make New Shortcuts).
    File.OpenContainingFolder shortcut 
  • Aaron Lerch shared a tip on how to use Powershell to perform search-and-replace on an entire folder hierarchy.

.NET, C#, Programming

Software And Tools

  • Did you know that something called Robocopy (short for Robust File Copy, not Robot Copy), is the new XCOPY? It’s a standard tool in Windows Vista and is also available as part of the Windows Resource Kit. Via Don Box’s Spoutlet on Pluralsight.

    robocopy

  • I recently tried and liked GhostDoc very much. It’s a free Visual Studio add-in to help write XML documentation comments. Roland Weigelt wrote a nice intro article on GhostDoc on DotnetSlackers here.
  • SyncBackSE is a great folder synchronization utility. It has tons of features… maybe even a little bit on the bloated side. It costs $30 for a single license. If you just want something simple, Microsoft’s free SyncToy may do the trick for you.

    SyncBackSE 

Gadgets

  • From CES, it looks like Blu-ray will be the winner of the HD format war. No, the war is not completely over, but this was the landing at Normandy… so to speak. The loss is just too great for the HD-DVD camp to recover.

And Now, Something Different

Type Ahead in Microsoft Outlook

Did you know Microsoft Outlook has supported type-ahead since Outlook 2003?

I didn’t. I upgrade my home PC to Outlook 2007 a few days ago and was pleasantly surprised to find type-ahead working. I fired up the old copy of Outlook 2003 and type-ahead worked in that version too. I am pretty sure it didn’t work in versions prior to 2003.

Type-ahead is great for using with the Move to Folder or Copy to Folder features. If you use Outlook to get your Gmail via IMAP, you’ll appreciate the type-ahead feature since you need to move messages a lot.

To see type-ahead working, in the Move Items dialog box (with a message selected, press CTRL+SHIFT+V), type the first few letters of any folder name. The current folder selection will move to the folder that matches what you type.

outlook-type-ahead-move-items

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