blast2857 Posts - Answer Overflow

blast2857

•Created by blast2857 on 4/7/2024 in #help

Static helper class/method design question

Hello, I have a design question. I'm writing a helper class where the purpose is solely to find types on the assembly (via reflection and making use of certain patterns) for a certain path. Since I may need to get the path multiple times for multiple files I thought that caching it would be the proper way to approach this. But I have a few concerns, I always hear that having state in a static class, in this case the cache is not a good idea. But I also don't really need an instance of the class since all it really is it's a helper so I'm not sure how would I go for designing this in a different way. Likewise, I'm not a fan of the methods existing there but never being "normally" called (only via reflection after being grabbed via the attribute)

internal class FinderAttribute : Attribute {
    public string Path { get; init; }
    public string Note { get; init; }
}

internal static class FinderHelper {
    private static Dictionary<string, Type> _pathCache = new();

    public static void FillCache() {
        var finders = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetTypes().SelectMany(t => t.GetMethods(BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.NonPublic)).Where(m => m.GetCustomAttribute<FinderAttribute>() != null);
        foreach (var finder in finders) {
            var attr = finder.GetCustomAttribute<FinderAttribute>();
            _pathCache[attr.Path] = (Type)finder.Invoke(null, []);
        }
    }

    public static Type FindTypeForPath(string path) => ...;

    [FinderAttribute(Path = "Path1/Path2/", Note = "...")]
    private static Type Find1() {
        // do logic to find the Type for path 1 in the assembly...
    }

    [FinderAttribute(Path = "Path1/Path3/", Note = "...")]
    private static Type Find2() {
        // do logic to find the Type for path 2 in the assembly...
    }
}

internal class FinderAttribute : Attribute {
    public string Path { get; init; }
    public string Note { get; init; }
}

internal static class FinderHelper {
    private static Dictionary<string, Type> _pathCache = new();

    public static void FillCache() {
        var finders = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetTypes().SelectMany(t => t.GetMethods(BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.NonPublic)).Where(m => m.GetCustomAttribute<FinderAttribute>() != null);
        foreach (var finder in finders) {
            var attr = finder.GetCustomAttribute<FinderAttribute>();
            _pathCache[attr.Path] = (Type)finder.Invoke(null, []);
        }
    }

    public static Type FindTypeForPath(string path) => ...;

    [FinderAttribute(Path = "Path1/Path2/", Note = "...")]
    private static Type Find1() {
        // do logic to find the Type for path 1 in the assembly...
    }

    [FinderAttribute(Path = "Path1/Path3/", Note = "...")]
    private static Type Find2() {
        // do logic to find the Type for path 2 in the assembly...
    }
}

Is this a good design or where could I improve / change it?

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