Converting VB.Net to CSharp

It has been so long I can’t remember why I started the project off in VB.Net to begin with. I have had my fill and converted the Common.Tasks project from CI Factory to C#. One of the reasons that I felt I could do this with out too much difficulty was the project NRefactory from #develop. I was introduced to NRefactory from the Checkin Policy project located at CodePlex. It is a code parser and generator. Something that Microsoft should have released with the first version of .Net. I have never understood why they haven’t rectified this egregious omission.

It took very little work to create a Filter for NAnt to convert from one language to the other. Here is the script that I ended up with:

<target name=“ConvertVBToCSharp“>
  <copy todir=“C:Temp“ overwrite=“true“ newext=“.cs“>
    <fileset basedir=“C:ProjectsCI FactoryCurrentProductProductionNant“>
      <include name=“Common.Tasks***.vb“/>
    </fileset>
    <filterchain>
      <codeconvert to=“CSharp“ from=“VBNet“ />
    </filterchain>
  </copy>
</target>

The source for the Filter is here. The gist of it is:

public string Convert()
{
    TextReader Reader = this.GetReader();
    IParser Parser = ParserFactory.CreateParser(this.From, Reader);
    Parser.Parse();
    if (Parser.Errors.Count > 0)
    {
        Log(Level.Error, Parser.Errors.ErrorOutput);
        throw new BuildException(“Errors parsing code.”, this.Location);
    }
    CompilationUnit Tree = Parser.CompilationUnit;

    IOutputAstVisitor OutputVisitor = null;
    switch (this.To)
    {
        case SupportedLanguage.CSharp:
            OutputVisitor = new CSharpOutputVisitor();
            break;
        case SupportedLanguage.VBNet:
            OutputVisitor = new VBNetOutputVisitor();
            break;
    }
    Tree.AcceptVisitor(OutputVisitor, null);

    return OutputVisitor.Text;
}

The NRefactory lib is very easy to use. I learned how from this video.

You might have some trouble with Creating a new NAnt Filter as the visibility of some the necessary parts of what comes with a Filter in NAnt.Core exclude it from being extended in external assemblies. I corrected these visibility issues and recompiled NAnt on my own machine to overcome this issue.

It was not a flawless conversion from VB.Net to C#. There were several minor issue that I cleared up in five minutes to so.

VB.Net:

If Not Something = SomethingElse Then

Converted to:

If (!Something == SomethingElse)

Should have been:

If (Something != SomethingElse)

VB.Net:

var = hashtable(”key”)

Converted to:

var = hashtable(”key”);

Should have been:

var = hashtable[”key”];

VB.Net

reference.methodcall

Converted to:

reference.methodcall;

Should have been:

reference.methodcall();

There were a few more, you get the picture.

Converting VB.Net to CSharp#

Converting VB.Net to CSharp