Generic filehandler method

[Ron]

I am trying to build a generic static method that will return a specified
type from a method. My problem is that I need to return say an image from
the method...and I'm having trouble understanding how to do this.

This is what I have so far...(The new Image is hardcoded right now...I would
like to abstract that out)

private T GetFileFromFile System<T>(strin g filePath, string
fileNameWithout Extension)
{
string tempExtension = "";

if (Directory.Exis ts(filePath))
{
if (Path.GetFileNa meWithoutExtens ion(filePath + "\\" +
imageNameWithou tExtension).ToS tring().Trim(). Length 0)
{
tempExtension = Path.GetExtensi on(filePath + "\\" +
imageNameWithou tExtension);
return (T)(Object)new Bitmap(filePath + "\\" +
imageNameWithou tExtension + "." + tempExtension);
}
else
{
return default(T);
}
}
}

Thanks for any help you might be able to provide,
Ron

[mrshrinkray@googlemail.com]

Re: Generic filehandler method

On 15 May, 14:23, "Ron" <rs_herh...@yah oo.comwrote:

I am trying to build a generic static method that will return a specified
type from a method. My problem is that I need to return say an image from
the method...and I'm having trouble understanding how to do this.
>
This is what I have so far...(The new Image is hardcoded right now...I would
like to abstract that out)
>
private T GetFileFromFile System<T>(strin g filePath, string
fileNameWithout Extension)
{
string tempExtension = "";
>
if (Directory.Exis ts(filePath))
{
if (Path.GetFileNa meWithoutExtens ion(filePath + "\\" +
imageNameWithou tExtension).ToS tring().Trim(). Length 0)
{
tempExtension = Path.GetExtensi on(filePath + "\\" +
imageNameWithou tExtension);
return (T)(Object)new Bitmap(filePath + "\\" +
imageNameWithou tExtension + "." + tempExtension);
}
else
{
return default(T);
}
}
}
>
Thanks for any help you might be able to provide,
Ron

What do you envisage T as being?

[Ron]

Re: Generic filehandler method

Thank you for the reply,

Text files, an image right now but I would like the flexibility for other
uses in the future.

Thanks,
Ron


<mrshrinkray@go oglemail.comwro te in message
news:48a9d390-8bf4-4728-b4aa-ba09e588bdb3@d7 7g2000hsb.googl egroups.com...

On 15 May, 14:23, "Ron" <rs_herh...@yah oo.comwrote:

>I am trying to build a generic static method that will return a specified
>type from a method. My problem is that I need to return say an image
>from
>the method...and I'm having trouble understanding how to do this.
>>
>This is what I have so far...(The new Image is hardcoded right now...I
>would
>like to abstract that out)
>>
> private T GetFileFromFile System<T>(strin g filePath, string
>fileNameWithou tExtension)
> {
> string tempExtension = "";
>>
> if (Directory.Exis ts(filePath))
> {
> if (Path.GetFileNa meWithoutExtens ion(filePath + "\\" +
>imageNameWitho utExtension).To String().Trim() .Length 0)
> {
> tempExtension = Path.GetExtensi on(filePath + "\\" +
>imageNameWitho utExtension);
> return (T)(Object)new Bitmap(filePath + "\\" +
>imageNameWitho utExtension + "." + tempExtension);
> }
> else
> {
> return default(T);
> }
> }
> }
>>
>Thanks for any help you might be able to provide,
>Ron

>
What do you envisage T as being?

[Peter Duniho]

Re: Generic filehandler method

On Thu, 15 May 2008 06:23:27 -0700, Ron <rs_herhuth@yah oo.comwrote:

I am trying to build a generic static method that will return a
specified type from a method. My problem is that I need to return say
an image from the method...and I'm having trouble understanding how to
do this.

It is not clear why you want this method to be generic. Whatever type you
supply for T, it _must_ be valid for the type of data you expect to
extract from the file. That means that in advance, you need to know what
type you expect. That means that there's no need for a generic method to
read the file. Just use existing type-specific i/o mechanisms.

Pete

[mrshrinkray@googlemail.com]

Re: Generic filehandler method

On 15 May, 16:15, "Peter Duniho" <NpOeStPe...@nn owslpianmk.comw rote:

On Thu, 15 May 2008 06:23:27 -0700, Ron <rs_herh...@yah oo.comwrote:

I am trying to build a generic static method that will return a
specified type from a method. My problem is that I need to return say
an image from the method...and I'm having trouble understanding how to
do this.

>
It is not clear why you want this method to be generic. Whatever type you
supply for T, it _must_ be valid for the type of data you expect to
extract from the file. That means that in advance, you need to know what
type you expect. That means that there's no need for a generic method to
read the file. Just use existing type-specific i/o mechanisms.
>
Pete

You would need to create your own wrapper classes around each type of
file (ImageLoader,Te xtFileLoader,Bi naryFileLoad) which as pete said
you might as well just make a class with 4 methods to handle each one,
Image and FileStream have nothing in common besides Object so there's
no way of calling a Load method generically

[Ron]

Re: Generic filehandler method

The subtlety is that using this method the filetype is specified by the
programmer that is coding the caller operation, and I would imagine there is
some way to open a file as a type...is that not the case?

Thanks,
Ron



<mrshrinkray@go oglemail.comwro te in message
news:46c02ac3-6e52-4d91-ad4b-02477383d635@b6 4g2000hsa.googl egroups.com...

On 15 May, 16:15, "Peter Duniho" <NpOeStPe...@nn owslpianmk.comw rote:

>On Thu, 15 May 2008 06:23:27 -0700, Ron <rs_herh...@yah oo.comwrote:

I am trying to build a generic static method that will return a
specified type from a method. My problem is that I need to return say
an image from the method...and I'm having trouble understanding how to
do this.

>>
>It is not clear why you want this method to be generic. Whatever type
>you
>supply for T, it _must_ be valid for the type of data you expect to
>extract from the file. That means that in advance, you need to know what
>type you expect. That means that there's no need for a generic method to
>read the file. Just use existing type-specific i/o mechanisms.
>>
>Pete

>
You would need to create your own wrapper classes around each type of
file (ImageLoader,Te xtFileLoader,Bi naryFileLoad) which as pete said
you might as well just make a class with 4 methods to handle each one,
Image and FileStream have nothing in common besides Object so there's
no way of calling a Load method generically

[mrshrinkray@googlemail.com]

Re: Generic filehandler method

On 15 May, 16:32, "Ron" <rs_herh...@yah oo.comwrote:

The subtlety is that using this method the filetype is specified by the
programmer that is coding the caller operation, and I would imagine there is
some way to open a file as a type...is that not the case?
>
Thanks,
Ron

But how would your static method know which method to call on the
object to Load the file? And when you get T back, what common way
would you use a Bitmap or a string?

[Ron]

Re: Generic filehandler method

Something like this:

<psuedo code>

Image img = GetFileFromFile System<Image>(" C:\\Images\\"," Background.bmp" );

- or -

String str= GetFileFromFile System<String>( "C:\\Images\\", "DisplayText.tx t");






<mrshrinkray@go oglemail.comwro te in message
news:b54d2e51-4574-4246-9675-82c9741bb917@x4 1g2000hsb.googl egroups.com...

On 15 May, 16:32, "Ron" <rs_herh...@yah oo.comwrote:

>The subtlety is that using this method the filetype is specified by the
>programmer that is coding the caller operation, and I would imagine there
>is
>some way to open a file as a type...is that not the case?
>>
>Thanks,
>Ron

>
But how would your static method know which method to call on the
object to Load the file? And when you get T back, what common way
would you use a Bitmap or a string?

[Paul E Collins]

Re: Generic filehandler method

"Ron" <rs_herhuth@yah oo.comwrote:

The subtlety is that using this method the filetype is specified by
the programmer that is coding the caller operation, and I would
imagine there is some way to open a file as a type...is that not the
case?

That's not the case at all.

Eq.

[Peter Duniho]

Re: Generic filehandler method

On Thu, 15 May 2008 09:35:18 -0700, Ron <rs_herhuth@yah oo.comwrote:

Something like this:
>
<psuedo code>
>
Image img =
GetFileFromFile System<Image>(" C:\\Images\\"," Background.bmp" );
>
- or -
>
String str=
GetFileFromFile System<String>( "C:\\Images\\", "DisplayText.tx t");

But Image and String share absolutely nothing in common with respect to
how they might obtain an instance of said type from a file.

The point of generics is to allow you to write generic code that takes
advantage of commonalities in the type parameter, so that you don't have
to basically write the same code multiple times just to use it with
multiple types. But you're going to have very little code in your generic
method that is shared between the different types it will support, and
there's _no_ general-purpose way to turn an arbitrary file into a specific
type (other than serialization, which isn't what you're doing here), so
your "generic" method will necessarily have to contain special-case code
for every anticipated type parameter (and fail gracefully when used witha
type parameter that wasn't anticipated).

For Image, we already have Image.FromFile( ). For String, we already have
StreamReader(st ring) (constructing a StreamReader for a specific file) and
StreamReader.Re adToEnd() (returns a string that represents the contents of
the file). You can easily wrap the StreamReader functionality in an
extension method you name FromFile() if you like, and likewise any other
specific type you anticipate needing to deal with.

I really just don't see how a generic method is helping you here.

Pete

[Ron]

Re: Generic filehandler method

Okay waht about returning a File object from the method? So I can do all my
file exists logic and if it exists then return a file and let the calling
code do the processing?


"Paul E Collins" <find_my_real_a ddress@CL4.orgw rote in message
news:2_KdndPaur 699LHVRVnyjQA@b t.com...

"Ron" <rs_herhuth@yah oo.comwrote:
>

>The subtlety is that using this method the filetype is specified by the
>programmer that is coding the caller operation, and I would imagine there
>is some way to open a file as a type...is that not the case?

>
That's not the case at all.
>
Eq.
>
>

[Peter Duniho]

Re: Generic filehandler method

On Thu, 15 May 2008 10:03:46 -0700, Ron <rs_herhuth@yah oo.comwrote:

Okay waht about returning a File object from the method? So I can do
all my file exists logic and if it exists then return a file and let the
calling code do the processing?

All what "file exists logic"? What is there other than to call
File.Exists()?

Note: there's no such thing as a File object. That class is static. You
could return a FileInfo object, which would be useful if you expect to
perform multiple operations from that class using the same file. But
there's nothing about what you've written that suggests that might be the
case. All you really need is a filename, to use a file.

Pete

[Paul E Collins]

Re: Generic filehandler method

"Ron" <rs_herhuth@yah oo.comwrote:

Okay waht about returning a File object from the method? So I can do
all my file exists logic and if it exists then return a file and let
the calling code do the processing?

I think, rather than generics, inheritance might be a decent approach
here (because, as others have said, the different objects have nothing
in common and no direct mapping to a file type either).

You could have e.g. an abstract FileOpener base class (including the
common bits of logic, like checking for a file's existence) and then
override some method: object OpenFile(string path) so that the derived
classes can offer their own implementation (which might be
Image.FromFile, or File.ReadAllTex t, or whatever).

The main problem with this idea is that you have to return 'object', so
the caller has to cast the returned object to something useful (Image,
string, etc.). There are various tolerable workarounds, though.

Eq.

[mrshrinkray@googlemail.com]

Re: Generic filehandler method

On May 15, 5:35 pm, "Ron" <rs_herh...@yah oo.comwrote:

Something like this:
>
<psuedo code>
>
Image img = GetFileFromFile System<Image>(" C:\\Images\\"," Background.bmp" );
>
- or -
>
String str= GetFileFromFile System<String>( "C:\\Images\\", "DisplayText.tx t");
>

or

Image img = Image.LoadFromF ile(...);
string str = File.OpenText(. .)

[Ron]

Re: Generic filehandler method

Peter,

Thanks. I implemented your suggestion and that will work just fine.


"Peter Duniho" <NpOeStPeAdM@nn owslpianmk.comw rote in message
news:op.ua7hgyy e8jd0ej@petes-computer.local. ..

On Thu, 15 May 2008 10:03:46 -0700, Ron <rs_herhuth@yah oo.comwrote:
>

>Okay waht about returning a File object from the method? So I can do
>all my file exists logic and if it exists then return a file and let the
>calling code do the processing?

>
All what "file exists logic"? What is there other than to call
File.Exists()?
>
Note: there's no such thing as a File object. That class is static. You
could return a FileInfo object, which would be useful if you expect to
perform multiple operations from that class using the same file. But
there's nothing about what you've written that suggests that might be the
case. All you really need is a filename, to use a file.
>
Pete