ctorgen 0.1.0

ctorgen

CLI tool for generating ladder-style constructors for C# classes

ctorgen eliminates repetitive constructor boilerplate by generating a full chain of overloaded constructors where parameters are progressively replaced with their hash representations.

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📚 Table of Contents

• ✨ Features
• 📦 Installation
• 🚀 Quick Start
• 🖥 CLI Usage
• ⚙️ Configuration
• 🧬 Generated Output
• 🧠 How It Works
• 📊 Before / After
• 📋 Arguments
• 📁 Examples
• 📄 License
• 🤝 Contributing

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✨ Features

• Generates all constructor overloads automatically
• Implements ladder-style chaining via this(...)
• Seamlessly transitions from values → hashes
• Supports both CLI and JSON configuration
• Deterministic and consistent output
• Zero boilerplate for hash-driven models

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📦 Installation

Global tool

dotnet tool install --global ctorgen

Local build (run from src folder)

dotnet pack -c Release
dotnet tool install --global --add-source bin/Release ctorgen

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🚀 Quick Start

1. Create config

ctorgen init

Creates:

ctorgen.json

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2. Generate constructors

ctorgen --config=ctorgen.json

Output:

MyModelHash.Ctors.cs

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🖥 CLI Usage

ctorgen --name=MyModelHash --param="id:IGuid:new DeterminedHash(id)" --param="name:IString:new DeterminedHash(name)" --out=MyModelHash.Ctors.cs

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⚠️ Parameter Format

name:type:hashExpr

Example:

--param="id:IGuid:new DeterminedHash(id)"

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❗ Important: quoting

If your expression contains spaces, wrap it in quotes:

✅ Correct:

--param="id:IGuid:new DeterminedHash(id)"

❌ Incorrect:

--param=id:IGuid:new DeterminedHash(id)

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⚙️ Configuration

Example ctorgen.json:

{
  "ClassName": "MyModelHash",
  "Params": [
    {
      "Name": "id",
      "Type": "IGuid",
      "Hash": "new DeterminedHash(id)"
    },
    {
      "Name": "name",
      "Type": "IString",
      "Hash": "new DeterminedHash(name)"
    }
  ]
}

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🧬 Generated Output

Delegating constructor

public MyModelHash(
    IGuid id,
    IString name
)
    : this(
        new DeterminedHash(id),
        name
    )
{ }

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Final constructor

public MyModelHash(
    IDeterminedHash idHash,
    IDeterminedHash nameHash
)
{
    _idHash = idHash;
    _nameHash = nameHash;
}

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🧠 How It Works

For a model with N parameters, ctorgen:

1. Generates all combinations using a bitmask
2. Sorts them by number of hashed parameters
3. Builds a constructor chain
4. Each step converts one value → hash
5. Final constructor assigns fields

Result:

values → partial hashes → full hashes

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📊 Before / After

❌ Manual

• Dozens of constructor overloads
• Easy to make mistakes
• Hard to maintain

✅ ctorgen

ctorgen --config=ctorgen.json

• All combinations generated automatically
• Clean and consistent
• Minimal maintenance

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📋 Arguments

Argument	Description
--name	Target class name
--param	Parameter (name:type:hashExpr)
--config	JSON config path
--out	Output file (default {ClassName}.Ctors.cs)
init	Generate config template
--help	Show help

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📁 Examples

examples/
├── ctorgen.json
└── MyModelHash.Ctors.cs

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📄 License

MIT

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome.