Productivity Tips: Write It Once

Over the years I have built up a very large list of templates, snippets, and extensions for the sole purpose of quickly building out code in a quality way. I find that targeted usage of code generation makes me far more productive because I am able to express intended code very quickly and with fewer typographical errors. All of this relies on learning patterns and then leveraging them — much like CodeRush Templates or ReSharper Mnemonics.

Try This Exercise

Create a Person class with an integer Id, a first name, a last name, and a method that returns the full name by combining the first and last with a space. Simple, right? How long would it take you?

Target output:

public class Person
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }

    public string FullName()
    {
        return string.Format("{0} {1}", FirstName, LastName);
    }
}

For me, generating this code took 19 seconds using the following keystrokes (no mouse):

• c<tab> — generates the class scaffold
• Person<enter> — names the class
• pi<tab>Id<enter> — creates and names the Id integer property
• ps<tab>FirstName<enter> — creates and names the first name string property
• ps<tab>LastName<enter> — creates and names the last name string property
• ms<tab>FullName<enter> — creates and names the FullName method
• return string.Format("{0} {1}", FirstName, LastName); — fills in the body

The Same Approach for Tests

Being a TDD guy, I also wrote the test using the same template system:

• ts<tab>FullNameShouldReturnFirstSpaceLast<enter> — generates the test body and names the test method
• Person<enter> — sets the type for the target
• FullName<enter> — sets the method under test
• Is.EqualTo("Devlin Liles") — sets the NUnit assertion
• Navigate up and fill in target.FirstName = "Devlin" and target.LastName = "Liles"

Target output:

[Test]
public void FullNameShouldReturnFirstSpaceLast()
{
    // Arrange
    var target = new Person();
    target.FirstName = "Devlin";
    target.LastName = "Liles";

    // Act
    var result = target.FullName();

    // Assert
    Assert.That(result, Is.EqualTo("Devlin Liles"));
}

The Bigger Picture

Make sure you are leveraging every ounce of productivity out of your tools so that slinging lots of high-quality code becomes second nature. The goal isn't typing speed — it's reducing friction between intent and implementation.