ListTableBridge 1.0.0

ListTableBridge

High-performance, strongly-typed DataTable ⇄ List<T> conversion for .NET.

ListTableBridge focuses on fast, attribute-aware mapping between DataTable and POCO models, with first-class support for XAF-style display attributes and rich numeric/nullable type handling.

Features

• Bidirectional conversion

  • List<T> → DataTable
  • DataTable → List<T>

• Attribute-based column mapping (property level)

  • Priority: XafDisplayName > DisplayName > Display > property name
  • Works with real DevExpress XAF attributes at runtime (no hard dependency in this package)

• Enum element attribute reading (optional)

  • Can emit enum display names (from XafDisplayName / DisplayName / Display) to string columns
  • Can parse string columns back to enum values by name or display name
  • Controlled by enableElementFeatureReading (default: false for backward compatibility)

• Rich type coverage

  • Primitive types: int, long, short, byte, float, double, decimal, bool, char, string, DateTime
  • Nullable counterparts: int?, double?, decimal?, etc.
  • Special types: Guid, DateTimeOffset, TimeSpan
  • Nullable handling and DBNull.Value mapping

• Performance-oriented design

  • Caches type metadata and compiled expression-based getters/setters
  • Avoids repeated reflection for large batch conversions

• Tested

  • xUnit test suite covering numeric subtypes, nullable combinations, enums, strings, and performance

Installation

Install from NuGet:

dotnet add package ListTableBridge

Supported target frameworks:

• .NET Framework 4.5+
• .NET Standard 2.0+

Quick Start

List<T> → DataTable

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using DevExpress.Persistent.Base; // in your XAF project
using ListTableBridge;

public class Customer
{
    [XafDisplayName("Customer Id")]
    public int Id { get; set; }

    [DisplayName("Customer Name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    [Display(Name = "Status")]
    public CustomerStatus Status { get; set; }
}

public enum CustomerStatus
{
    [XafDisplayName("Active")]
    Active = 1,

    [XafDisplayName("Inactive")]
    Inactive = 2
}

var customers = new List<Customer>
{
    new Customer { Id = 1, Name = "Alice", Status = CustomerStatus.Active },
    new Customer { Id = 2, Name = "Bob", Status = CustomerStatus.Inactive }
};

// Attribute-driven column names (XafDisplayName / DisplayName / Display / property name)
var table = ListTableBridge.ListTableBridge.ToDataTable(customers);

DataTable → List<T>

using System.Data;
using ListTableBridge;

DataTable table = /* from database or other source */;

// Column names can be XafDisplayName / DisplayName / Display / property name
var customers = ListTableBridge.ListTableBridge.ToList<Customer>(table);

Enum Element Attribute Reading

For enum-backed string columns, you can control whether to use enum element attributes as values.

// List<T> → DataTable: write enum display names into the column
var table = ListTableBridge.ListTableBridge.ToDataTable(
    customers,
    enableElementFeatureReading: true
);

// DataTable → List<T>: read from enum names or display names
var customersBack = ListTableBridge.ListTableBridge.ToList<Customer>(
    table,
    enableElementFeatureReading: true
);

Behavior:

• When enableElementFeatureReading == true:

  • Writing: prefers XafDisplayName / DisplayName / Display on enum fields
  • Reading: first tries enum name, then all candidate display names, then falls back to Enum.Parse

• When enableElementFeatureReading == false:

  • Uses only enum name / numeric value for parsing and formatting

Type Conversion and Null Handling

Conversion is centralized in TypeMappingConfig:

• DBNull.Value → null for reference and nullable types
• Non-nullable value types use their default value when given null/DBNull
• Enums:
  • string → Enum.Parse
  • numeric → converted to underlying enum type, then Enum.ToObject
• Special types:
  • Guid: supports Guid and string inputs
  • DateTimeOffset: supports DateTimeOffset, DateTime, and string
  • TimeSpan: supports TimeSpan and string

You can register custom converters:

TypeMappingConfig.Default.Register(
    typeof(MyCustomType),
    v => MyCustomType.Parse(v.ToString())
);

Testing

Run tests:

dotnet test .\ListTableBridge.sln

The test suite includes:

• Round-trip tests for numeric primitives and nullable combinations
• Enum mapping (names and display attributes)
• String edge cases (Unicode, long text)
• Performance sample for large collections

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

You are free to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the software, subject to the standard MIT terms.

See the full license text in the LICENSE file (or MIT template) in your distribution.