print_r implementation for .NET

[Mike Borozdin]

//Copyright 2005 Mike Borozdin
 
class Utils
 {
  public static string printR(int[] intArray)
  {
   string result = "int[]\n{";
   for (int i = 0; i < intArray.Length; i++) {
			 result += "\t[" + i + "] = " + intArray[i] + "\n";
   }
   result += "}";
   return result;  
  }
  public static string printR(string[] stringArray)
  {
   string result = "string[]\n{";
   for (int i = 0; i < stringArray.Length; i++) {
			 result += "\t[" + i + "] = \"" + stringArray[i] + "\"\n";
   }
   result += "}";
   return result;  
  }
  public static string printR(object[] objArray)
  {
   string result = "object[]\n{";
   for (int i = 0; i < objArray.Length; i++) {
			 result += "\t[" + i + "] = " + objArray[i] + "\n";
   }
   result += "}";
   return result;  
  }
  public static string printR(ICollection ic)
  {
   string result = "Collection\n{";
   int i = 0;
   foreach (object obj in ic)  {
	result += "\t[" + i + "] = " + obj + "\n";
	i++;
   }
   result += "}";
   return result;
  }
  public static string printR(IDictionary ic)
  {
   string result = "IDictionary\n{";
   IDictionaryEnumerator ide = ic.GetEnumerator();
   while (ide.MoveNext()) {
	result += "\t[\"" + ide.Key + "\"] = " + ide.Value + "\n";
   }
   result += "}";
   return result;
  }
 }

[M. Johansson]

Sweeet.

[freddydoesphp]

wht not start the debugger, set a breakpoint, and use quick watch?

[Mike Borozdin]

Hmmm.... that's an idea, but I noticed people were missing this function and it's not so hard to implement.

[siteartwork]

I'm curious: What's the magic behind this? (I'm not a .NET Developer...)

[vgarcia]

I'm curious: What's the magic behind this? (I'm not a .NET Developer...)

It spits out name=value pairs in an array or collection I believe.

[siteartwork]

It spits out name=value pairs in an array or collection I believe.

ah...figured it out...guess the substitute would be

var_dump() 

in PHP

Didn't know that .NET devs need to implement such a thing in userland, that's why I was irritated at first

[wwb_99]

One need not implement it if you have VS.NET setup since you can watch/trace things. I will admit I have occasionally missed trusty old print_r().

Only thing I would add is that a neater implementation woudl be using recursion & reflection to drill down into complex types, but that could be a real bear.

[M. Johansson]

wht not start the debugger, set a breakpoint, and use quick watch?

The reason would moste likely be for instances where you cannot use that, such as when you have unhandled exceptions emailed to you from a live application. In such an event, it might be a good idea to collect as much data as possible.

[Quaint]

ah...figured it out...guess the substitute would be

var_dump() 

in PHP

Lol, no actually the substitute is print_r(), much like the title of the thread suggests