C# code builder/formatter

Question

Does anyone know of a library which helps with generating C# code? For example, if I need to generate a *.cs file containing the definition of a class, I'd like to be able to specify the class and method bodies using an object tree (similar to expression trees) and then tell the library to give me well the formatted C# code as a string.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I'm rather fond of Terance Parr's StringTemplate. It's at the core of the compiler building tool ANTLR — StringTemplate is responsible for for code generation, allowing ANTLR to target just about any language for its compilers.

You can download the latest C#/.Net port from http://www.stringtemplate.org/download.html

You can read about string template in these papers by Dr. Parr:

• [DRAFT] A Functional Language For Generating Structured Text
• Enforcing Strict Model-View Separation in Template Engines
• More at http://www.stringtemplate.org/article/list

CodeProject has an article on code generation with StringTemplate as well: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/codegen/DotNetCodeGeneration.aspx

Answer 2

There are many tools for code generation and they are listed below:

Code Smith codesmithtools dot com

codegeneratorpro dot com

etc

Code generators may sound like saving a lot of time, in reality it depends on the kind of project your working on.

Look into System.CodeDom and CSharpCodeProvider.

Answer 3

Have you looked at Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider?

Provides access to instances of the C# code generator and code compiler.