How do I use the LINQPad Dump() extension method in Visual Studio? [closed]

Solution 1:

I wrote an extension method to Object that uses the Json.Net serializer with the pretty format option. JSON is easy enough to read when formatted like that. You miss type info, but I don't know that you need that, especially considering how easy this is. Hasn't failed me yet. I use Json.Net and not MS' because it has the capability of handling circular references in complex graphs, where MS' cannot, or didn't at the time I thought of it.

using Newtonsoft.Json;

public static class Dumper
{
    public static string ToPrettyString(this object value)
    {
         return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(value, Formatting.Indented);
    }

    public static T Dump<T>(this T value)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(value.ToPrettyString());
        return value;
    }
}

Solution 2:

Look here (your path may vary):

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Samples\1033\CSharpSamples.zip\LinqSamples\ObjectDumper

Solution 3:

diceguyd30's answer is sourced from a discussion (especially Pat Kujawa's & anunay's comments) and describes how to call the LINQPad dump implementation from both C# and VB.NET:

public static string DumpToHtmlString<T>(this T objectToSerialize)
{
    string strHTML = "";
    try
    {
        var writer = LINQPad.Util.CreateXhtmlWriter(true);
        writer.Write(objectToSerialize);
        strHTML = writer.ToString();
    }
    catch (Exception exc)
    {
        Debug.Assert(false, "Investigate why ?" + exc);
    }
    return strHTML;
}

Solution 4:

There's also a class library named ObjectDumper available as a NuGet package.