C# Lazy Loaded Automatic Properties

Question

In C#,

Is there a way to turn an automatic property into a lazy loaded automatic property with a specified default value?

Essentially, I am trying to turn th

Answer 1

https://github.com/bcuff/AutoLazy uses Fody to give you something like this

public class MyClass
{
    // This would work as a method, e.g. GetSettings(), as well.
    [Lazy]
    public static Settings Settings
    {
        get
        {
            using (var fs = File.Open("settings.xml", FileMode.Open))
            {
                var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Settings));
                return (Settings)serializer.Deserialize(fs);
            }
        }
    }

    [Lazy]
    public static Settings GetSettingsFile(string fileName)
    {
        using (var fs = File.Open(fileName, FileMode.Open))
        {
            var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Settings));
            return (Settings)serializer.Deserialize(fs);
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

Probably the most concise you can get is to use the null-coalescing operator:

get { return _SomeVariable ?? (_SomeVariable = SomeClass.IOnlyWantToCallYouOnce()); }

Answer 3

I don't think this is possible with pure C#. But you could do it using an IL rewriter like PostSharp. For example it allows you to add handlers before and after functions depending on attributes.

Answer 4

There is a new feature in C#6 called Expression Bodied Auto-Properties, which allows you to write it a bit cleaner:

public class SomeClass
{ 
   private Lazy<string> _someVariable = new Lazy<string>(SomeClass.IOnlyWantToCallYouOnce);

   public string SomeVariable 
   {
      get { return _someVariable.Value; }
   }
}

Can now be written as:

public class SomeClass
{
   private Lazy<string> _someVariable = new Lazy<string>(SomeClass.IOnlyWantToCallYouOnce);

   public string SomeVariable => _someVariable.Value;
}

Answer 5

I did it like this:

public static class LazyCachableGetter
{
    private static ConditionalWeakTable<object, IDictionary<string, object>> Instances = new ConditionalWeakTable<object, IDictionary<string, object>>();
    public static R LazyValue<T, R>(this T obj, Func<R> factory, [CallerMemberName] string prop = "")
    {
        R result = default(R);
        if (!ReferenceEquals(obj, null))
        {
            if (!Instances.TryGetValue(obj, out var cache))
            {
                cache = new ConcurrentDictionary<string, object>();
                Instances.Add(obj, cache);

            }


            if (!cache.TryGetValue(prop, out var cached))
            {
                cache[prop] = (result = factory());
            }
            else
            {
                result = (R)cached;
            }

        }
        return result;
    }
}

and later you can use it like

       public virtual bool SomeProperty => this.LazyValue(() =>
    {
        return true; 
    });

Answer 6

I'm a big fan of this idea, and would like to offer up the following C# snippet which I called proplazy.snippet.(you can either import this or paste it into the standard folder which you can get from the Snippet Manager)

Here's a sample of its output:

private Lazy<int> myProperty = new Lazy<int>(()=>1);
public int MyProperty { get { return myProperty.Value; } }

Here's the snippet file contents: (save as proplazy.snippet)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<CodeSnippets  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet">
    <CodeSnippet Format="1.0.0">
        <Header>
            <Title>proplazy</Title>
            <Shortcut>proplazy</Shortcut>
            <Description>Code snippet for property and backing field</Description>
            <Author>Microsoft Corporation</Author>
            <SnippetTypes>
                <SnippetType>Expansion</SnippetType>
            </SnippetTypes>
        </Header>
        <Snippet>
            <Declarations>
                <Literal>
                    <ID>type</ID>
                    <ToolTip>Property type</ToolTip>
                    <Default>int</Default>
                </Literal>
                <Literal>
                    <ID>field</ID>
                    <ToolTip>The variable backing this property</ToolTip>
                    <Default>myVar</Default>
                </Literal>
                <Literal>
                    <ID>func</ID>
                    <ToolTip>The function providing the lazy value</ToolTip>
                </Literal>
                <Literal>
                    <ID>property</ID>
                    <ToolTip>Property name</ToolTip>
                    <Default>MyProperty</Default>
                </Literal>

            </Declarations>
            <Code Language="csharp"><![CDATA[private Lazy<$type$> $field$ = new Lazy<$type$>($func$);
            public $type$ $property$ { get{ return $field$.Value; } }
            $end$]]>
            </Code>
        </Snippet>
    </CodeSnippet>
</CodeSnippets>