Static Field Analyzer for C# / .NET

^Devnote

Roslyn-based analyzer to provide diagnostics of static fields and properties initialization and more.

• Wrong order of static field and property declaration
• Partial type member reference across files
• Cross-Referencing Problem of static field across type
• Enum type analysis to prevent user-level value conversion & more
• struct parameter-less constructor misuse analysis
• Disposable analyzer to detect missing using statement
• TSelf generic type argument & type constraint analysis
• Annotating and underlining field, property or etc with custom message
• Find out all diagnostic rules: RULES.md

Static Field Analysis

Enum Type Analysis

Restrict both cast from/to integer number! Disallow user-level enum value conversion completely!!

TSelf Type Argument Analysis

Analyze TSelf type argument mismatch and where clause mismatch.

Annotation for Type, Field and Property 💯

There is fancy extra feature to take your attention while coding in Visual Studio. No more need to use Obsolete attribute in case of annotating types, methods, fields and properties.

See the following section for details.

Installation

• NuGet
  • https://www.nuget.org/packages/SatorImaging.StaticMemberAnalyzer

  • PM> Install-Package SatorImaging.StaticMemberAnalyzer
    

Visual Studio 2019 or Earlier

Analyzer is tested on Visual Studio 2022.

You could use this analyzer on older versions of Visual Studio. To do so, update Vsix project file by following instructions written in memo and build project.

Unity Integration

This analyzer can be used with Unity 2020.2 or above. See the following page for detail.

SatorImaging.StaticMemberAnalyzer.Unity/

Cross-Referencing Problem

It is a design bug makes all things complex. Not only that but also it causes initialization error only when meet a specific condition.

So it must be fixed even if app works correctly at a moment, to prevent simple but complicated potential bug which is hard to find in large code base by hand. As you know static fields will never report error when initialization failed!!

class A {
    public static int Value = B.Other;
    public static int Other = 310;
}

class B {
    public static int Other = 620;
    public static int Value = A.Other;  // will be '0' not '310'
}

public static class Test
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        System.Console.WriteLine(A.Value);  // 620
        System.Console.WriteLine(A.Other);  // 310
        System.Console.WriteLine(B.Value);  // 0   👈👈👈
        System.Console.WriteLine(B.Other);  // 620

        // when changing class member access order, it works correctly 🤣
        // see the following section for detailed explanation
        //System.Console.WriteLine(B.Value);  // 310  👈 correct!!
        //System.Console.WriteLine(B.Other);  // 620
        //System.Console.WriteLine(A.Value);  // 620
        //System.Console.WriteLine(A.Other);  // 310
    }
}

C# Compiler Initialization Sequence

• A.Value = B.Other;
  • // 'B' initialization is started by member access
  • B.Other = 620;
  • B.Value = A.Other; // BUG: B.Value will be 0 because reading uninitialized A.Other
  • // then, assign B.Other value (620) to A.Value
• A.Other = 310; // initialized here!! this value is not assigned to B.Value

When reading B value first, initialization order is changed and resulting value is also changed accordingly:

• B.Other = 620;
• B.Value = A.Other;
  • // 'A' initialization is started by member access
  • A.Value = B.Other; // correct: B.Other is initialized before reading value
  • A.Other = 310;

Enum Analyzer and Code Fix Provider

Enum type handling is really headaching. To make enum operation under control, good to avoid user-level enum handling such as converting to integer or string, parse from string and etc.

This analyzer will help centerizing and encapsulating enum handling in app's central enum utility.

Excluding Enum Type from Obfuscation

Helpful annotation and code fix for enum types to prevent modification of string representation by obfuscation tool.

Note

Obfuscation attribute is from C# base library and it does NOT provide feature to obfuscate compiled assembly. It just provides configuration option to obfuscation tools which recognizing this attribute.

Kotlin-like Enum Pattern

Analysis to help implementing Kotlin-style enum class.

Enum-like type requirements:

• MyEnumLike[] or ReadOnlyMemory<MyEnumLike> field(s) exist
  • analyzer will check field initializer correctness if name is starting with Entries (case-sensitive) or ending with entries (case-insensitive)
• sealed modifier on type
• private constructor only
• public static member called Entries exists
• public bool Equals method should not be declared/overridden

public class EnumLike
//           ~~~~~~~~ WARN: no `sealed` modifier on type and public constructor exists
//                          * this warning appears only if type has member called 'Entries'
{
    public static readonly EnumLike A = new("A");
    public static readonly EnumLike B = new("B");

    public static ReadOnlySpan<EnumLike> Entries => EntriesAsMemory.Span;

    // 'Entries' must have all of 'public static readonly' fields in declared order
    static readonly EnumLike[] _entries = new[] { B, A };
    //                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ wrong order!!

    // 'ReadOnlyMemory<T>' can be used instead of array
    public static readonly ReadOnlyMemory<EnumLike> EntriesAsMemory = new(new[] { A, B });


    /* ===  Kotlin style enum template  === */

    static int AUTO_INCREMENT = 0;  // iota

    public readonly int Ordinal;
    public readonly string Name;

    private EnumLike(string name) { Ordinal = AUTO_INCREMENT++; Name = name; }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        const string SEP = ": ";
        Span<char> span = stackalloc char[Name.Length + 32];

        Ordinal.TryFormat(span, out var written);
        SEP.AsSpan().CopyTo(span.Slice(written));
        written += SEP.Length;
        Name.AsSpan().CopyTo(span.Slice(written));
        written += Name.Length;

        return span.Slice(0, written).ToString();
    }
}

Benefits

Benefits

Kotlin-like enum (algebraic data type) can prevent invalid value creation.

var invalid = Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(EnumLike));

if (EnumLike.A == invalid || EnumLike.B == invalid)
{
    // this code path won't be reached
    // each enum like entry is a class instance and ReferenceEquals match required
}

Unfortunately, use in switch statement is a bit weird.

var val = EnumLike.A;

switch (val)
{
    // pattern matching with case guard...!!
    case EnumLike when val == EnumLike.A:
        System.Console.WriteLine(val);
        break;

    case EnumLike when val == EnumLike.B:
        System.Console.WriteLine(val);
        break;
}

// this pattern generates same AOT compiled code
switch (val)
{
    // typeless case guard
    case {} when val == EnumLike.A:
        System.Console.WriteLine(val);
        break;

    case {} when val == EnumLike.B:
        System.Console.WriteLine(val);
        break;
}

Disposable Analyzer

var d = new Disposable();
//      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ no `using` statement found

d = (new object()) as IDisposable;
//  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ cast from/to disposable

Analyzer won't show warning in the following condition:

• instance is created on return statement
  • return new Disposable();
• assign instance to field or property
  • m_field = new Disposable();
• cast between disposable types
  • var x = myDisposable as IDisposable;

Suppress Disposable Analysis

To suppress analysis for specified types, declare attribute named DisposableAnalyzer and add it to assembly.

[assembly: DisposableAnalyzer(typeof(Task), typeof(Task<>))]

[Conditional("DEBUG"), AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Assembly, AllowMultiple = true)]
class DisposableAnalyzer : Attribute
{
    public DisposableAnalyzer(params Type[] _) { }
}

Annotating / Underlining

There is optional feature to draw underline on selected types, fields, properties, generic type/method arguments and parameters of method, delegate and lambda function.

As of Visual Studio's UX design, Info severity diagnostic underlines are drawn only on a few leading chars, not drawn whole marked area. So for workaround, underline on keyword is dashed.

Tip

!-starting message will add warning annotation on keyword instead of info diagnostic annotation.

How to Use

To avoid dependency to this analyzer, required attribute for underlining is chosen from builtin System.ComponentModel assembly so that syntax is little bit weird.

Analyzer is checking identifier keyword in C# source code, not checking actual C# type. DescriptionAttribute in C# attribute syntax is the only keyword to draw underline. Omitting Attribute or adding namespace are not recognized.

Tip

CategoryAttribute can be used instead of DescriptionAttribute.

By contrast from Description, CategoryAttribute draws underline only on exact type reference and constructors including base(). Any inherited types, variables, fields and properties don't get underline.

using System.ComponentModel;

[DescriptionAttribute("Draw underline for IDE environment and show this message")]
//          ^^^^^^^^^ `Attribute` suffix is required to draw underline
public class WithUnderline
{
    [DescriptionAttribute]  // parameter-less will draw underline with default message
    public static void Method() { }
}

// C# language spec allows to omit `Attribute` suffix but when omitted, underline won't be drawn
// to avoid conflict with originally designed usage for VS form designer
[Description("No Underline")]
public class NoUnderline { }

// underline won't be drawn when namespace is specified
[System.ComponentModel.DescriptionAttribute("...")]
public static int Underline_Not_Drawn = 0;

// this code will draw underline. 'Trivia' is allowed to being added in attribute syntax
[ /**/  DescriptionAttribute   (   "Underline will be drawn" )   /* hello, world. */   ]
public static int Underline_Drawn = 310;

Verbosity Control

There are 4 types of underline, line head, line leading, line end and keyword.

By default, static field analyzer will draw most verbose underline. You can omit specific type of underline by using #pragma preprocessor directive or adding SuppressMessage attribute or etc.

Unity Tips

Underlining is achieved by using Description attribute designed for Visual Studio's visual designer, formerly known as form designer.

To remove unnecessary attribute from Unity build, add the following link.xml file in Unity project's Assets folder.

<linker>
    <assembly fullname="System.ComponentModel">
        <type fullname="System.ComponentModel.DescriptionAttribute" preserve="nothing"/>
    </assembly>
</linker>

 
 

Devnote

Steps to publish new version of nuget package

• update nuget package version in .props
• upload source code to github
• run build action for test
• merge pull request sent from build action
• create github release
• run nuget packaging action to push new version

TODO

Optimization

• Implement IViewTaggerProvider for underlining analyzer.