using a Code Snippet for INotifyPropertyChanged

Question

I found this code snippet for INotifyPropertyChanged

But it shows the code like this :

I would have this :

1. for public : capital letter for the first letter + ...

2. for private : underscore + small letter for the first letter + ...

How can I achieve this ?

Edit : Without having to type the public and the private fields

<Snippet>
    <Declarations>
        <Literal>
            <ID>type</ID>
            <ToolTip>Property type</ToolTip>
            <Default>string</Default>
        </Literal>
        <Literal>
            <ID>property</ID>
            <ToolTip>Property name</ToolTip>
            <Default>MyProperty</Default>
        </Literal>
        <Literal>
            <ID>notifyMethod</ID>
            <ToolTip>name of method to raise PropertyChanged event</ToolTip>
            <Default>NotifyPropertyChanged</Default>
        </Literal>
    </Declarations>
    <Code Language="csharp">
        <![CDATA[private $type$ _$property$;
            public $type$ $property$
            {
                get { return _$property$;}
                set 
                { 
                    if (value != _$property$)
                    {
                        _$property$ = value;
                        $notifyMethod$("$property$");
                    }
                }
            }
        $end$]]>
    </Code>
</Snippet>

Answer 1

It's surprising to me that the following suggestion hasn't been made. I took your initial snippet (from the originating author's page) and made the following modifications. You should be able to copy-and-paste this into your own snippet file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<CodeSnippets  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet">
    <CodeSnippet Format="1.0.0">
        <Header>
            <Title>propn</Title>
            <Shortcut>propn</Shortcut>
            <Description>Code snippet for property and backing field in class implementing INotifyPropertyChanged</Description>
            <Author>Brian Schroer, Modified by RLH</Author>
            <SnippetTypes>
                <SnippetType>Expansion</SnippetType>
            </SnippetTypes>
        </Header>
        <Snippet>
            <Declarations>
                <Literal>
                    <ID>type</ID>
                    <ToolTip>Property Type</ToolTip>
                    <Default>int</Default>
                </Literal>
                <Literal>
                    <ID>variable</ID>
                    <ToolTip>Underlying Variable</ToolTip>
                    <Default>_myProperty</Default>
                </Literal>
                <Literal>
                    <ID>property</ID>
                    <ToolTip>Property name</ToolTip>
                    <Default>MyProperty</Default>
                </Literal>
        <Literal>
          <ID>notifyMethod</ID>
          <ToolTip>name of method to raise PropertyChanged event</ToolTip>
          <Default>NotifyPropertyChanged</Default>
        </Literal>
      </Declarations>
            <Code Language="csharp"><![CDATA[private $type$ $variable$;
    public $type$ $property$
    {
        get { return $variable$;}
        set 
    { 
        if (value != $variable$)
        {
            $variable$ = value;
            PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("$property$"));
        }
    }
    }
    $end$]]>
            </Code>
        </Snippet>
    </CodeSnippet>
</CodeSnippets>

What's Changed

First, I added a new literal variable. This creates a new, updatable item that you can tab from within the snippet. The variable name is defaulted to _propertyName which, as you can see, is a lowercase name. Note, unlike the original snippet, the underscore was being hardcoded before the PropertyName literal. In my code, I've split out the variable name from the property name.

I chose not to hardcode the underscore in my snippet so that if others use this code, they are at liberty to choose a different style of variable name. However, by way of the default, I am hinting at using the underscore.

If you want to force the underscore, then change the default variable value to propertyName. Then, everywhere variable is referenced, place the _ character before the reference.

Answer 2

snippets can be written in xml and can be made for any language in vs

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<CodeSnippet Format="1.0.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet">
  <Header>
    <Title>Notify Property Changed Method</Title>
    <Author>Akash</Author>
    <Shortcut>npcm</Shortcut>
    <Description>This method implements the OnPropertyChanged method and binds to the event handler</Description>
    <SnippetTypes>
      <SnippetType>SurroundsWith</SnippetType>
      <SnippetType>Expansion</SnippetType>
    </SnippetTypes>
  </Header>
  <Snippet>

    <Code Language="CSharp">
      <![CDATA[#region Notify Property Changed Members
  public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
        private void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
        {
            PropertyChangedEventHandler handler = PropertyChanged;
            if(handler!=null)
            {
                handler(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
            }
        }    
        #endregion]]>
    </Code>
  </Snippet>
</CodeSnippet>

this is the code to automatically generate the notify property changed method . all you need to do is to save this in a single file with the extension as snippet in your Documents/VisulaStudio(YourVersion)/Code Snippets/Visual C#/

that's it you are ready to use it ...

Now,observe the code snippet there is shortcut tag .. this tag references the tag that you should use in vs while writing to activate the snippet ..

here is the code for the property itself:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<CodeSnippet Format="1.0.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet">
  <Header>
    <Title>Notifiable Property</Title>
    <Author>Akash</Author>
    <Shortcut>nprop</Shortcut>
    <Description>Property With in Built Property Changed method implementation.</Description>
    <SnippetTypes>
      <SnippetType>SurroundsWith</SnippetType>
      <SnippetType>Expansion</SnippetType>
    </SnippetTypes>
  </Header>
  <Snippet>
    <Declarations>
      <Literal>
        <ID>Type</ID>
        <Default>string</Default>
      </Literal>
      <Literal>
        <ID>Property</ID>
        <Default>PlaceHolder</Default>
      </Literal>
    </Declarations>
    <Code Language="CSharp">
      <![CDATA[private $Type$ _$Property$;
        public $Type$ $Property$
        {
            get { return _$Property$; }
            set { 
               if(value!=null || value != _$Property$) _$Property$ = value;
               OnPropertyChanged("$Property$");
            }
        }]]>
    </Code>
  </Snippet>
</CodeSnippet>

in this particular snippet all you need to do is type nprop and press tab tab it generates the requied code .. you only need to enter the datatype and the name .. the rest is taken care of by the snippet itself ...

Though this i a better solution and greatly improves the coding speed, this is suitable for small projects only the viewmodelbase method is suitable for larger projects.

Answer 3

Unfortunately, this is not possible using code snippets.

What you require would have to transform $property$ or some other literal. Even if you split the property name into 2 parts (first letter and the rest), you would have to make the letter upper case (or the other way - lower case).

Snippets offer only very limited number of transformation functions - precisely 3 for C# and not one of them can give the required result. See Code Snippet Functions on MSDN. This is true for all versions of Visual Studio up to 2013.

Answer 4

I don't think this can be done with native code snippets feature provided by Visual Studio.

Personally I use Resharper which makes it possible. It can turn code I write like

public string Name { get; set; }

into

private string _name;
public string Name
{
    get { return _name; }
    set
    {
        if(value == _name)
            return;
        _name = value;
        OnPropertyChanged("Name");
    }
}

It even generates the OnPropertyChanged() method for you.