YellowCounter.Nails

A few Ruby and Rails-like extension methods for .NET

I always found it odd that when I wanted to know if a value was entered, by the user, I had to ask if it wasn't entered. Not only that, I had to ask if wasn't null and wasn't empty. All I want to know is if the user provided a value! I'm sure there were similar reasons for why Ruby and Ruby on Rails felt then need to include these methods in their frameworks.

This library replicate 4 simple methods with simple abstractions. As such, this library is very small and simple, but, IMO, the value lies in its simplicity.

IsNull()

Determines whether the instance is null.

object value = null;
int? number = null;

Console.WriteLine(value == null);  // true 
Console.WriteLine(value.IsNull()); // true 

Console.WriteLine(number == null);  // true 
Console.WriteLine(number.IsNull()); // true 

IsEmpty()

Determines whether the collection or string is empty. This is equivalent to testing the length of the collection or string for a value of zero.

int[] array = new int[0];
string str = string.Empty;

Console.WriteLine(array.Length == 0); // true 
Console.WriteLine(array.IsEmpty());   // true 

Console.WriteLine(str.Length == 0); // true 
Console.WriteLine(str.IsEmpty());   // true 

IsBlank()

Determines whether the instance is null, empty, whitespace or false.

• On a collection, this is equivalent to IsEmpty().
• On a string, this is equivalent to string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace().
• On a bool, this is equivalent to comparing to false
• On any other object, this is equivalent to IsNull

IsPresent()

Determines whether the instance is present. This is the opposite of IsBlank()