Vnum

• Inspired by https://lostechies.com/jimmybogard/2008/08/12/enumeration-classes

Installation

Package Manager

Install-Package Skywithin.VnumEnumeration

.NET CLI

dotnet add package Skywithin.VnumEnumeration

PackageReference

<PackageReference Include="Skywithin.VnumEnumeration" Version="1.0.0" />

Overview

VnumEnumeration provides a base class (Vnum) for creating strongly-typed, enumeration-like constructs in C#. It enables you to define types that behave like enums but support additional metadata, such as display codes, and offer advanced lookup and parsing capabilities.

This library supports .NET 10.0+ and leverages modern C# features for performance and type safety.

Purpose

• Strongly-Typed Enumerations: Define custom types that encapsulate a long integer value and a string code, similar to enums but with extensibility.
• Reflection-Based Discovery: Retrieve all instances of a Vnum type using reflection, with thread-safe caching for performance.
• Flexible Lookup: Find Vnum instances by value, code, or enum, with both strict and try-based methods.
• Type Safety: Generic support for enum-backed Vnum types via Vnum<TEnum>.
• Universal Enum Support: Supports all enum underlying types (byte, sbyte, short, ushort, int, uint, long, ulong).
• JSON Serialization: Built-in support for JSON serialization with System.Text.Json.

Key Features

• Value and Code: Each Vnum instance has an integer value and a string code.
• Static Lookup Methods:
  • GetAll<T>(): Get all instances of a Vnum type.
  • FromValue<T>(long value): Get instance by value.
  • FromCode<T>(string code): Get instance by code.
  • FromEnum<TVnum, TEnum>(TEnum value): Get instance by enum value.
  • TryFromValue, TryFromCode, TryFromEnum: Safe lookup variants.
• Equality and Hashing: Instances are compared by type and value.
• JSON Serialization: Automatic serialization to string codes and deserialization from codes or numeric values.

Usage Examples

Basic Vnum Definition

public sealed class OrderStatus : Vnum
{
    private OrderStatus(int value, string code) : base(value, code) { }

    public static readonly OrderStatus Pending = new(1, "PENDING");
    public static readonly OrderStatus Processing = new(2, "PROCESSING");
    public static readonly OrderStatus Shipped = new(3, "SHIPPED");
    public static readonly OrderStatus Delivered = new(4, "DELIVERED");
}

Enum-Backed Vnum

public enum StatusId
{
    Pending = 1,
    Processing = 2,
    Shipped = 3,
    Delivered = 4
}

public sealed class OrderStatus : Vnum<StatusId>
{
    private OrderStatus(StatusId value, string code) : base(value, code) { }

    public static readonly OrderStatus Pending = new(StatusId.Pending, "PENDING");
    public static readonly OrderStatus Processing = new(StatusId.Processing, "PROCESSING");
    public static readonly OrderStatus Shipped = new(StatusId.Shipped, "SHIPPED");
    public static readonly OrderStatus Delivered = new(StatusId.Delivered, "DELIVERED");
}

Lookup Operations

// Get all instances
var allStatuses = Vnum.GetAll<OrderStatus>();

// Find by value
var status = Vnum.FromValue<OrderStatus>(1);

// Find by code
var status = Vnum.FromCode<OrderStatus>("PENDING");

// Safe lookup
if (Vnum.TryFromValue<OrderStatus>(1, out var status))
{
    // Use status
}

// Enum conversion
var status = Vnum.FromEnum<OrderStatus, StatusId>(StatusId.Pending);

JSON Serialization

// Configure JSON serialization
var options = new JsonSerializerOptions();
options.Converters.Add(new VnumJsonConverterFactory());

// Serialization
var order = new { Id = 1, Status = OrderStatus.Pending };
var json = JsonSerializer.Serialize(order, options);
// Result: {"Id":1,"Status":"PENDING"}

// Deserialization (supports both string codes and numeric values)
var json = "{\"Id\":1,\"Status\":\"PENDING\"}";
var order = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Order>(json, options);

// Also works with numeric values for backward compatibility
var json = "{\"Id\":1,\"Status\":1}";
var order = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Order>(json, options);

Limitations

• ULong Overflow: ulong enum values exceeding long.MaxValue will throw OverflowException

Supported Frameworks

• .NET 10.0+