Automatically create an Enum based on values in a

Question

How do I automatically create an enum and subsequently use its values in C# based on values in a database lookup table (using enterprise library data layer)?

For example, If I add a new lookup value in the database, I don't want to have to manually add the extra static enum value declaration in code - I'd like to keep the enum in sync with the database.

Is there such a thing as this?

---

I don't want to create a code generated static enum (as per The Code Project article Enum Code Generator - Generating enum code automatically from database look up tables) and would prefer it to be completely automatic.

Answer 1

I've done this with a T4 template. It is fairly trivial to drop a .tt file into your project, and set up Visual Studio to run the T4 template as a pre-build step.

The T4 generates a .cs file, which means you can have it just query the database and build an enum in a .cs file from the result. Wired up as a pre-build task, it would re-create your enum on every build, or you can run the T4 manually as needed instead.

Answer 2

I always like to write my own "custom enum". Than I have one class that is a little bit more complex, but I can reuse it:

public abstract class CustomEnum
{
    private readonly string _name;
    private readonly object _id;

    protected CustomEnum( string name, object id )
    {
        _name = name;
        _id = id;
    }

    public string Name
    {
        get { return _name; }
    }

    public object Id
    {
        get { return _id; }
    }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return _name;
    }
}

public abstract class CustomEnum<TEnumType, TIdType> : CustomEnum
    where TEnumType : CustomEnum<TEnumType, TIdType>
{
    protected CustomEnum( string name, TIdType id )
        : base( name, id )
    { }

    public new TIdType Id
    {
        get { return (TIdType)base.Id; }
    }

    public static TEnumType FromName( string name )
    {
        try
        {
            return FromDelegate( entry => entry.Name.Equals( name ) );
        }
        catch (ArgumentException ae)
        {
            throw new ArgumentException( "Illegal name for custom enum '" + typeof( TEnumType ).Name + "'", ae );
        }
    }

    public static TEnumType FromId( TIdType id )
    {
        try
        {
            return FromDelegate( entry => entry.Id.Equals( id ) );
        }
        catch (ArgumentException ae)
        {
            throw new ArgumentException( "Illegal id for custom enum '" + typeof( TEnumType ).Name + "'", ae );
        }
    }

    public static IEnumerable<TEnumType> GetAll()
    {
        var elements = new Collection<TEnumType>();
        var infoArray = typeof( TEnumType ).GetFields( BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Static );

        foreach (var info in infoArray)
        {
            var type = info.GetValue( null ) as TEnumType;
            elements.Add( type );
        }

        return elements;
    }

    protected static TEnumType FromDelegate( Predicate<TEnumType> predicate )
    {
        if(predicate == null)
            throw new ArgumentNullException( "predicate" );

        foreach (var entry in GetAll())
        {
            if (predicate( entry ))
                return entry;
        }

        throw new ArgumentException( "Element not found while using predicate" );
    }
}

Now I just need to create my enum I want to use:

 public sealed class SampleEnum : CustomEnum<SampleEnum, int>
    {
        public static readonly SampleEnum Element1 = new SampleEnum( "Element1", 1, "foo" );
        public static readonly SampleEnum Element2 = new SampleEnum( "Element2", 2, "bar" );

        private SampleEnum( string name, int id, string additionalText )
            : base( name, id )
        {
            AdditionalText = additionalText;
        }

        public string AdditionalText { get; private set; }
    }

At last I can use it like I want:

 static void Main( string[] args )
        {
            foreach (var element in SampleEnum.GetAll())
            {
                Console.WriteLine( "{0}: {1}", element, element.AdditionalText );
                Console.WriteLine( "Is 'Element2': {0}", element == SampleEnum.Element2 );
                Console.WriteLine();
            }

            Console.ReadKey();
        }

And my output would be:

Element1: foo
Is 'Element2': False

Element2: bar
Is 'Element2': True    

Answer 3

Enums must be specified at compile time, you can't dynamically add enums during run-time - and why would you, there would be no use/reference to them in the code?

From Professional C# 2008:

The real power of enums in C# is that behind the scenes they are instantiated as structs derived from the base class, System.Enum . This means it is possible to call methods against them to perform some useful tasks. Note that because of the way the .NET Framework is implemented there is no performance loss associated with treating the enums syntactically as structs. In practice, once your code is compiled, enums will exist as primitive types, just like int and float .

So, I'm not sure you can use Enums the way you want to.

Answer 4

Let's say you have the following in your DB:

table enums
-----------------
| id | name     |
-----------------
| 0  | MyEnum   |
| 1  | YourEnum |
-----------------

table enum_values
----------------------------------
| id | enums_id | value | key    |
----------------------------------
| 0  | 0        | 0     | Apple  |
| 1  | 0        | 1     | Banana |
| 2  | 0        | 2     | Pear   |
| 3  | 0        | 3     | Cherry |
| 4  | 1        | 0     | Red    |
| 5  | 1        | 1     | Green  |
| 6  | 1        | 2     | Yellow |
----------------------------------

Construct a select to get the values you need:

select * from enums e inner join enum_values ev on ev.enums_id=e.id where e.id=0

Construct the source code for the enum and you'll get something like:

String enumSourceCode = "enum " + enumName + "{" + enumKey1 + "=" enumValue1 + "," + enumKey2 + ... + "}";

(obviously this is constructed in a loop of some kind.)

Then comes the fun part, Compiling your enum and using it:

CodeDomProvider provider = CodeDomProvider.CreateProvider("CSharp");
CompilerParameters cs = new CompilerParameters();
cp.GenerateInMemory = True;

CompilerResult result = provider.CompileAssemblyFromSource(cp, enumSourceCode);

Type enumType = result.CompiledAssembly.GetType(enumName);

Now you have the type compiled and ready for use.
To get a enum value stored in the DB you can use:

[Enum].Parse(enumType, value);

where value can be either the integer value (0, 1, etc.) or the enum text/key (Apple, Banana, etc.)

Answer 5

Just showing the answer of Pandincus with "of the shelf" code and some explanation: You need two solutions for this example ( I know it could be done via one also ; ), let the advanced students present it ...

So here is the DDL SQL for the table :

USE [ocms_dev]
    GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Role](
    [RoleId] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [RoleName] [varchar](50) NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]

So here is the console program producing the dll:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Reflection.Emit;
using System.Data.Common;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;

namespace DynamicEnums
{
    class EnumCreator
    {
        // after running for first time rename this method to Main1
        static void Main ()
        {
            string strAssemblyName = "MyEnums";
            bool flagFileExists = System.IO.File.Exists (
                   AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ApplicationBase + 
                   strAssemblyName + ".dll"
            );

            // Get the current application domain for the current thread
            AppDomain currentDomain = AppDomain.CurrentDomain;

            // Create a dynamic assembly in the current application domain,
            // and allow it to be executed and saved to disk.
            AssemblyName name = new AssemblyName ( strAssemblyName );
            AssemblyBuilder assemblyBuilder = 
                    currentDomain.DefineDynamicAssembly ( name,
                            AssemblyBuilderAccess.RunAndSave );

            // Define a dynamic module in "MyEnums" assembly.
            // For a single-module assembly, the module has the same name as
            // the assembly.
            ModuleBuilder moduleBuilder = assemblyBuilder.DefineDynamicModule (
                    name.Name, name.Name + ".dll" );

            // Define a public enumeration with the name "MyEnum" and
            // an underlying type of Integer.
            EnumBuilder myEnum = moduleBuilder.DefineEnum (
                    "EnumeratedTypes.MyEnum",
                    TypeAttributes.Public,
                    typeof ( int )
            );

            #region GetTheDataFromTheDatabase
            DataTable tableData = new DataTable ( "enumSourceDataTable" );

            string connectionString = "Integrated Security=SSPI;Persist " +
                    "Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=ocms_dev;Data " +
                    "Source=ysg";

            using (SqlConnection connection = 
                    new SqlConnection ( connectionString ))
            {

                SqlCommand command = connection.CreateCommand ();
                command.CommandText = string.Format ( "SELECT [RoleId], " + 
                        "[RoleName] FROM [ocms_dev].[dbo].[Role]" );

                Console.WriteLine ( "command.CommandText is " + 
                        command.CommandText );

                connection.Open ();
                tableData.Load ( command.ExecuteReader ( 
                        CommandBehavior.CloseConnection
                ) );
            } //eof using

            foreach (DataRow dr in tableData.Rows)
            {
                myEnum.DefineLiteral ( dr[1].ToString (),
                        Convert.ToInt32 ( dr[0].ToString () ) );
            }
            #endregion GetTheDataFromTheDatabase

            // Create the enum
            myEnum.CreateType ();

            // Finally, save the assembly
            assemblyBuilder.Save ( name.Name + ".dll" );
        } //eof Main 
    } //eof Program
} //eof namespace 

Here is the Console programming printing the output ( remember that it has to reference the dll ). Let the advance students present the solution for combining everything in one solution with dynamic loading and checking if there is already build dll.

// add the reference to the newly generated dll
use MyEnums ; 

class Program
{
    static void Main ()
    {
        Array values = Enum.GetValues ( typeof ( EnumeratedTypes.MyEnum ) );

        foreach (EnumeratedTypes.MyEnum val in values)
        {
            Console.WriteLine ( String.Format ( "{0}: {1}",
                    Enum.GetName ( typeof ( EnumeratedTypes.MyEnum ), val ),
                    val ) );
        }

        Console.WriteLine ( "Hit enter to exit " );
        Console.ReadLine ();
    } //eof Main 
} //eof Program

Answer 6

I'm doing this exact thing, but you need to do some kind of code generation for this to work.

In my solution, I added a project "EnumeratedTypes". This is a console application which gets all of the values from the database and constructs the enums from them. Then it saves all of the enums to an assembly.

The enum generation code is like this:

// Get the current application domain for the current thread
AppDomain currentDomain = AppDomain.CurrentDomain;

// Create a dynamic assembly in the current application domain,
// and allow it to be executed and saved to disk.
AssemblyName name = new AssemblyName("MyEnums");
AssemblyBuilder assemblyBuilder = currentDomain.DefineDynamicAssembly(name,
                                      AssemblyBuilderAccess.RunAndSave);

// Define a dynamic module in "MyEnums" assembly.
// For a single-module assembly, the module has the same name as the assembly.
ModuleBuilder moduleBuilder = assemblyBuilder.DefineDynamicModule(name.Name,
                                  name.Name + ".dll");

// Define a public enumeration with the name "MyEnum" and an underlying type of Integer.
EnumBuilder myEnum = moduleBuilder.DefineEnum("EnumeratedTypes.MyEnum",
                         TypeAttributes.Public, typeof(int));

// Get data from database
MyDataAdapter someAdapter = new MyDataAdapter();
MyDataSet.MyDataTable myData = myDataAdapter.GetMyData();

foreach (MyDataSet.MyDataRow row in myData.Rows)
{
    myEnum.DefineLiteral(row.Name, row.Key);
}

// Create the enum
myEnum.CreateType();

// Finally, save the assembly
assemblyBuilder.Save(name.Name + ".dll");

My other projects in the solution reference this generated assembly. As a result, I can then use the dynamic enums in code, complete with intellisense.

Then, I added a post-build event so that after this "EnumeratedTypes" project is built, it runs itself and generates the "MyEnums.dll" file.

By the way, it helps to change the build order of your project so that "EnumeratedTypes" is built first. Otherwise, once you start using your dynamically generated .dll, you won't be able to do a build if the .dll ever gets deleted. (Chicken and egg kind of problem -- your other projects in the solution need this .dll to build properly, and you can't create the .dll until you build your solution...)

I got most of the above code from this msdn article.

Hope this helps!