Convert auto property to full property

Question

I often need to convert auto properties to full properties with a backing field so that I can implement INotifyPropertyChanged. It gets very tedious when a class has 50+ properties.

public string MyProperty { get; set;}

to

private string _myProperty;
public string MyProperty
{
    get
    {
        return _myProperty;
    }
    set
    {
        _myProperty = value;
        OnPropertyChanged("MyProperty");
    }
}

I was able to create a code snippet that creates a new property in the above format, but I don't know if it is possible to pull in an existing property's name and type and replace it.

I saw kindofmagic but I really don't want to use arcane magic in my project.

This question explains how to do it in Resharper, but I don't have Resharper. I even downloaded the trial and still couldn't figure out how to do it.

Is there some way to do this with code snippets, macros, or even a free extension? It seems like it should be fairly straightforward.

Answer 1

If you have notepad++, you could do it via RegEx (quite ugly, but works)

Find what: (public)\s+([a-zA-z0-9]+)\s+([a-zA-z0-9]+)\s*\{\s*+get;\s*set;\s*\}

Replace with: private \2 _\3\; \r\n \1 \2 \3 \r\n \{ \r\n get \{ return _\3\; \} \r\n set \{ _\3=value\; OnPropertyChanged\(\"\3\"\)\; \} \r\n \}

Make sure "Regular Expression" is checked

This is what the Find/Replace screen looks like:

And it goes from

To:

Edit: Thanks to Britton, here is the Visual Studio equivalent:

Find: public[^\S\r\n](.+)[^\S\r\n](\b(_\w+|[\w-[0-9_]]\w*)\b)[^\S\r\n]{[^\S\r\n]get;[‌​^\S\r\n]set;[^\S\r\n]}

Replace: private $1 _$2;\r\npublic $1 $2 {\r\nget\r\n{\r\nreturn _$2;\r\n}\r\nset\r\n{\r\n_$2 = value; OnPropertyChanged("$2");\r\n}\r\n}