Request for Tips on Handling Measurements and Units Listing, and Transforming Between Strings and Objects without Reflection

[CPMOliveira]

Hello,

I’ve recently started using the EngineeringUnits library and have been impressed with its capabilities. However, I’m facing a couple of challenges and would appreciate some guidance:

1. Listing Available Measurements and Units: Is there a recommended approach or built-in method for easily listing all the available measurements and their corresponding units? I would like to create a comprehensive list for a user interface, but I’m not sure of the most efficient way to achieve this.
2. Transforming Between Strings and Objects Without Using Reflection: I need to transform strings (representing measurement names or unit symbols) into the corresponding objects in EngineeringUnits, but I’d like to avoid using reflection for performance reasons. Do you have any suggestions or best practices for achieving this transformation efficiently?

Any advice or examples would be highly appreciated.

[MadsKirkFoged]

Hi CPMOliveira,

We have a list on the frontpage:
https://github.com/MadsKirkFoged/EngineeringUnits?tab=readme-ov-file#what-units-are-included

This list is generated using this code:
https://github.com/MadsKirkFoged/EngineeringUnits/blob/master/CodeGen/Code/UnitListGenerator.cs

The closest we have right now is this:

//Got from database (Stored in two different cells)
double? value = 10;
string unit = "Meter";

//Put it back together
Length temp = value.AddUnit<LengthUnit>(unit); 

However we dont (yet) have a way to turn fx "10 m/s" in a Speed-object.

If you could come with some examples/User stories of the behavior you want, it might not be that difficult to create

[DevTKSS]

@MadsKirkFoged dont know for sure if thats same need case, but do you implemented a function, that would take a string like "mm" and another string like "cm" or different way around? I love the fluent chaining possibility you seem to enable, but I am getting from an external Mechanical Engineering API (Autodesk Inventor if you know it maybe) with net8.0 only a string representing the Unit I have to convert. Some of them my switch expression has so far already:

• mm (from and to cm)
• kV (from and to V)
• grd
• drg
• m^2

I could good imagine could take great improvements in using a specialized already exsting code like yours. So far I am using the INumber Interface for my converting method to ensure its only used for Number input.

for example, this is my current function:

    public static TTarget ConvertValueToInventor<TSource,TTarget>(TSource paraValue, string paraUnit)
        where TSource : INumber<TSource>
        where TTarget : INumber<TTarget>
    {
        TSource result = paraUnit switch
        {
            "mm" => paraValue / TSource.CreateChecked(10),
            "kV" => paraValue * TSource.CreateChecked(10000000),
            "grd" or "deg" => paraValue / TSource.CreateChecked(180) * TSource.CreateChecked(Math.PI),
            "m^2" => paraValue * TSource.CreateChecked(10000),
            _ => paraValue
        };
        return TTarget.CreateChecked(result);
    }