Use razor to generate code? [closed]

Question

Before I invest a lot of time researching Razor and its applicability, I would like to ask you Razor gurus if one could use Razor to generate C# code? Any issues that you can think of right away?

Answer 1

My first try with razor.dll version 2.1.4039.23635 was much easier than i expected

Here is a small working demo

The codegenerator

using System.Diagnostics;
using RazorEngine;

namespace CodeGen3b
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string template = ... see below;
            try
            {
                string generatedCode = Razor.Parse(template, 
                                    new { UserNamespace = "MyOwnNamespace" });
                Debug.WriteLine(generatedCode);

            }
            catch (System.Exception ex)
            {
                Debug.WriteLine(ex.Message);
                Debug.WriteLine(ex.StackTrace);
            }
        }
    }
}

The template looks like this

using System;
namespace @Model.UserNamespace
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
              @for(int i = 0; i < 3; i++){
                <text>Debug.WriteLine("hello @i " + @Model.UserNamespace);
</text>}
        }
    }
}

Note the <text> element that prevents razor from interpreting the Debug.WriteLine

The output is

using System;
namespace MyOwnNamespace
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
                Debug.WriteLine("hello 0 " + MyOwnNamespace);
                Debug.WriteLine("hello 1 " + MyOwnNamespace);
                Debug.WriteLine("hello 2 " + MyOwnNamespace);
        }
    }
}

It would be nice if Razor would implement @"..."@ or @'...'@ as alias for <text>...</text> . I added this razorengine.codeplex-Issue as a request to improve. If you plan to use razor as codegenerator please upvote it at razorengine.codeplex-Issue

Edit: as @Epitka suggested, we can use @: in place of a single line text tag:

using System;
namespace @Model.UserNamespace
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
              @for(int i = 0; i < 3; i++){
                @:Debug.WriteLine("hello @i " + @Model.UserNamespace);
              }
        }
    }
}